Go and take a walk on the wild side

IN the comics we read as kids, nutty-looking English uncles with round glasses and straw hats followed by rosy-cheeked Enid Blyton or Famous Five children, all with butterfly nets, were figures of fun for us Irish boys.

They were sissies while we were hardened hedge-hunters! We could catch butterflies – if we bothered – by throwing our coats over them, poor things. We caught baby rabbits similarly, chasing them around the field until we got close enough to launch the jacket, like an airborne manta ray, and then throwing ourselves prostrate to pin down the warm, furry bundle struggling underneath. We didn’t harm the bunnies but bringing them home to “tame” them certainly threatened their lives. Their only salvation lay in our parents ordering us to let them go.

Now, in my maturity (or, some might say, post-maturity) I can get quite excited about butterflies myself, which may seem passing strange coming from a guy who plays hard-nosed Texas Hold ’Em poker with a crowd of amiable chancers until all hours one night a week. But butterflies can, indeed, be exciting especially when you find relatively rare ones or a thriving population of a threatened species as did myself and a group of sociable bird watchers last weekend near a lake on the Mizen Head peninsula in west Cork. After a long and enjoyable trek through breathtaking scenery in picture-perfect weather – full sun with a cooling breeze – we repaired to a marsh near Barley Cove. There, we ambled about looking for orchids, butterflies and dragonflies.