Teagasc Hedgerow Week - Tuesday

8 December 2020 8 December 2020 Teagasc Hedgerow Week 2020 will feature all aspects of hedges including their history and current extent. Their value for ecosystem services values ranging from biodiversity, carbon and water quality to food for foraging. Management practices of planting, cutting and rejuvenation will also feature

The theme for Tuesday is the birds and the bees! The wonderful biodiversity in our hedges will feature. The Countryside Bird Survey in Ireland during the breeding season regularly records 110 species of birds. Half of these species of birds use hedges and of these, 35 bird species nest in them. Hedges also provide food, shelter, song posts, perching posts and corridors for movement for birds. Niall Hatch from BirdWatch Ireland will tell us more.

In Ireland there are 77 solitary bees, 21 bumble bees and one honey bee species. One third of our bee species are under threat of extinction. Hedges provide food and nest sites for bees. Stephanie Maher from Trinity College Dublin will have more information.

Tina Aughney Bat Conservation Ireland dispels the myth that bats are blind. We have nine resident bat species in Ireland and all use hedges. The network of hedges in the Irish countryside provide corridors of movement as well as habitat for feeding and roosting bats.

John Feehan, retired lecturer in the faculty of agriculture in UCDwill tell us there are about one hundred plant species in hedges including shrubs, climbers and ground flora. Tim Ashmore principal in Teagasc Kildalton College describes the birds and bats recorded in surveys on the college farm.

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