Damien Enright: How herons hunt and why invasive garlic should be controlled

Herons do not mate for life: they are monogamous and stay together only for the breeding season

A grey heron with the catch of the day on the shore at Loughbeg, Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork. Picture: David Creedon

On Wednesday last, that day of glorious sunshine, we sat in a friend's house overlooking the Sovereign Islands and the mouth of the wide inlet between Newfoundland Bay to the east and Kinsale Harbour to the west. A lone raven sat on a solitary post on the cliff below us, and our hosts remarked that they thought it was one of the same ravens that nested lower down on the cliff every year. As always, after fledglings had departed, the pair were alone, if together; ravens pair for life. The talk turned to the dispersal of ravens: where did the young go?

They "disperse" is the term used by ornithologists. This year, the pair that nest on the cliff wall overlooking at Coomalacha, southeast of Courtmacsherry, as they do every year, also had a successful rearing and the young had also "dispersed" when I went to see the nest in early April. Happily, there are numerous coves along the nearby coast where nesting sites can be found. Just as well! Incumbents guard their territory jealously, and woe betide usurpers.