One of my passions is getting clear photos of curlews in flight. I see that splendid plumage and the elegant, elephant like beak, and the camera is at the ready. Sometimes it’s nice and clear like the one you see here, and sometimes it’s a blurry mess. And hearing them sing, that takes me straight to heaven, even though I’m non-religious. Here’s a recording of a curlew singing
https://xeno-canto.org/1032536
The sight of this curlew in flight, and the sound of the curlew singing, both absolute treasures, were both encountered along the Courtmacsherry Estuary. I spent most of the month of August on holidays near Courtmacsherry, and was able to visit the estuary on a regular basis, which is my idea of paradise, despite the problems of road noise that plague this haven for birds.
I try to get out to the estuary in August, and if I’m lucky, I get out there around Christmas time too. But something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is, how long has the estuary been an important place for birds to find food, and sometimes seemingly, just relax? Did the ancestors of this lapwing wander the estuary looking for food while the Mongols created the largest contiguous empire in history?
Was the ancestor of this shellduck dining on estuary food while Rome massacred Carthage?
Or what about the black tailed godwit? Did their ancestor stroll merrily through the estuary while the homo sapiens, allegedly, genocided the neanderthals?
The answer to all of this is, almost certainly not. The Courtmacsherry Estuary may not have been a place where birds of all species indulged in gourmet meals during the last days of the Neanderthals. But sure, that was tens of thousands of years ago. Birds didn’t relax after a hard day of looking for food on the estuary, during the genocide of Carthage, but sure, that was over two thousand years ago. But birds, or at least far fewer of them, didn’t even hang out on the estuary during the founding of the Mongol Empire.
Hang on a second, that was in the 13th century. While a massive span of time for us humans, it’s nothing but the blink of an eye in terms of geologic time. If geology was a person, this barely counts as one extra grey hair for, geology, if it was a person.
It almost seems as if, you could look over the estuary, and see very few birds, and then, the next day, gaze upon an estuary filled with all kinds of magnificent bird life.
Funnily enough, I’m only being slightly hyperbolic.
So, what exactly happened?
To answer this, let’s talk about the village of Courtmacsherry. If you had asked me a few weeks ago, how old is Courtmacsherry, I would have answered without hesitation, “Over a thousand years old.” I have no idea where I got this number from, but if anyone asked me, I would have said without even entertaining the idea that I was wrong, that Courtmacsherry was more than a millennium old. But Courtmacsherry is much younger than that. And it too, wasn’t around during the Mongol Empire.
Courtmacsherry was founded in 1755, because of a very specific catastrophe that shocked Europe. That horrible tragedy, was the Lisbon Earthquake. Which killed over 60,000 people, and that was just in Lisbon.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Lisbon-earthquake-of-1755
You might be thinking, Lisbon is like, a trillion miles away or something from Courtmacsherry. What the devil has it got to with West Cork? Well, if that’s what you’re thinking, you’re underestimating how big the Lisbon Earthquake was. Imagine a really big earthquake, the biggest earthquake you can imagine. The Lisbon Earthquake was even bigger.
A few miles north west of Courtmacsherry is Timoleague, also located on the estuary, so you’ll also encounter delightful bird characters up there.
So, what was Timoleague like before 1755? Well, I’ve been visiting Timoleague Abbey since I was a child, so I inferred that Timoleague was an important religious sight, but what I learned about Timoleague recently, blew my mind, it seemed like such a bizarre fact considering the Timoleague I know today.
Timoleague used to be the head of navigation. It had wharfs! I cannot imagine Timoleague with wharfs anymore than I can imagine Cork City without broken glass everywhere!
So, before 1755, Timoleague was a thriving maritime village, and Courtmacsherry didn’t exist. So what happened next?
Remember I told you to imagine the biggest earthquake you can imagine, and then told you the Lisbon Earthquake was still even bigger?
Yup, you better believe that that earthquake was so, metal, as the kids like to say, that it did a number on the landscape around Timoleague, and where Courtmacsherry would be built, even though Ireland is trillions of miles away or something from Portugal.
https://explorewestcork.ie/villages/timoleague
Ships used to be able to go up as far as Timoleague, meaning this village was once, as already described, an important center for maritime trade. But the the earthquake altered the estuary so much that it was no longer possible to send a ship into the estuary without it getting beached. The deep waters of the Courtmacsherry Estuary had been replaced with quite shallow waters. And overnight, Timoleague was no longer an important center for trade with overseas ships.
The only solution to this was to build a new settlement further east that ships would be able to successfully reach, and that is why the village of Courtmacsherry was founded.
This is a picture of Courtmacsherry Estuary, with the tide very far in.
Black Headed Gulls are a favourite of mine, here’s their delightful, slightly mad sounding call, I love it!
https://xeno-canto.org/1034944
So, a lot of black headed gulls when the tide is in. But that’s just one species. This is some examples of the dizzying array of birds you’re likely to see when the tide is out.
So, what’s my point? The image you see of the tide in, where there are only black headed gulls, is similar to how I imagine the Courtmacsherry Estuary would have looked like all the time regardless of tides, before the earthquake. Remember, it was deep enough that ships could go up and down the estuary back then. It’s only when the tide goes out, that you get curlews, whimbrels, oystercatchers, common ringed plovers, black tailed godwits, and a whole host of other bird species. These birds have no interest in an estuary deep enough to fit a ship through. Where they thrive is in an estuary with shallow waters, so that when the tide goes out, they can land on the estuary and feast on the gourmet meals that lie within the muddy sand.
And that’s the fascinating story of how many hours of joy were spent on the Courtmacsherry Estuary. The amazing sights I’ve seen, the beautiful sounds I’ve heard there, would not have been possibly without a horrific tragedy, who’s effects were so far reaching that they turned a shipping lane into a bird sanctuary.
The power of nature created a beautiful place for birdlife to live, and to thrive. Of course the “thriving” part, is currently being hampered by human activities, but I hope more people will learn to recognize the birds as our fellow sentient creatures, and will learn to protect and treasure them.
I’ll leave you with some bird recordings I took of the Courtmacsherry Estuary over my recent stay. The sounds that replaced the noise of ships sailing up and down the estuary, all those years ago.
Common Redshank
https://xeno-canto.org/1035733
Oystercatcher
https://xeno-canto.org/1029940
Curlew (I have over sixty recordings of curlews!)
https://xeno-canto.org/1035738
Heron (These birds are mostly silent, so getting a recording of one is always a blessing!)
Ponderings Of An Autist 