Ron’s rapping at the window, summer must be here

IT’S SUMMER again, whatever Met Éireann may say about it beginning in June. 

The calendar of events in the natural history of west Cork indicates a sudden surge, lift or flight into summer on the first days of May.

The heron which adopted us as a result of us adopting him when he fell from a nest 70 feet above the forest floor as a child, is knocking at my window four times a day for food. In winter, he can be absent for days at a time, but now there’s a family to feed, and he is voracious.