Bog Meadows

I stood beside the tall reeds by the pond, watching a heron watching me. I tried to emulate it by remaining as still as possible. Being so close I could clearly see its stout yellow bill and the beautifully marked black and white band down the centre of its neck. I could sense its nervousness at my intrusion into its personal space. We faced each other in a battle of wills until finally the heron clumsily took to the air, thumping down those huge rounded wings and almost touching the water with its hunched neck on takeoff. My encounter with this fantastic bird was brief but memorable. And perhaps most surprisingly, it occurred not in some remote wilderness, but right in the heart of Belfast. In the Bog Meadows.

Despite its boundaries being formed by the busy M1 motorway, St Louise’s College and housing, the Bog Meadows offers sanctuary to a rich variety of wildlife. It also provides ample opportunities for humans to see and interact with that wildlife. On a daily basis, school parties, casual walkers, members of the Friends of the Bog Meadows group and wildlife enthusiasts are treated to exceptional views of the local birds, animals and wild plants.

After the heron had flown, I continued around the main path. A sedge warbler was singing from clumps of trees nearby, its lengthy song a mixture of melodic and grating notes. Sand martins were all around me. These relatives of our swallows and house martins nest in burrows, often in a sandy bank. Some years ago a nearby colony was disturbed during construction work, and to help the homeless martins, the Ulster Wildlife Trust, which manages the Bog Meadows, constructed two artificial nesting banks. These are basically concrete facing walls into which three rows of holes have been drilled into the banks behind. The sand martins quickly took up residence, and seem quite contented with their new homes, especially those pairs that nest in the ‘penthouse’ burrows on the top row.

Sand martins and sedge warblers are summer visitors to this country, but there is much to see at Bog Meadows all year round. The swans, ducks and moorhens that frequent the ponds are resident, and kingfishers can appear at any time along the Ballymurphy Stream that crosses the reserve. In winter, the rough and wet meadows attract snipe and other waders. Those same meadows in spring and summer are dotted with ragged robin, lady’s smock, early purple orchid, marsh marigold, wild iris, brooklime and meadowsweet. Traveller’s-joy, the wild clematis, clambers over the chain link fencing beside the playing fields just near the main entrance, and its attractive seed heads last long into winter and look superb when frost-covered. The network of ponds, streams and drainage channels are ideal spawning grounds for frogs and newts, and are also home to the aggressive, carnivorous larvae that metamorphose into delicate damselflies and dragonflies. I spotted both common blue and blue-tailed damselflies hovering and darting, coming to rest every now and then on the leaves of aquatic plants.

I passed a party of children on a school trip; they were armed with nets and wellies and ready for some serious pond dipping. For generations children have collected tadpoles and ‘spricks’ (sticklebacks) in the Bog Meadows, which were at one time much more extensive than they are today. Formerly known as Falls Meadows, the area once comprised over 400 hectares of the Blackstaff flood plains. In the 19^th century, the lush farmland was used for grazing and hay making, and provided nesting sites for corncrake, snipe, curlew and other birds. When the ground flooded in winter, huge flocks of water birds such as golden plover, widgeon and teal crowded on to the wet fields. Early Belfast naturalists found the Bog Meadows fascinating, both for its birdlife and its plantlife. Locals went wildfowling and hunted there with greyhounds and terriers.

The expansion of Belfast from the mid 1800s onwards saw increasing encroachment on to the meadows by housing and development, whilst construction of the motorway in the 1960s and the culverting of the Blackstaff River reduced natural flooding and enabled large-scale infilling to take place. The local community campaigned for many years for the protection of the remaining meadows. A Friends of Bog Meadows group was formed, and teamed up with the Ulster Wildlife Trust to preserve and promote the site. In 2001 it was designated as a Local Nature Reserve, and three years later won UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Urban Wildlife Award for Excellence.

I continued my circuit of the reserve, walking into the southern end of the site. I was amazed at how well the tree planting there shields most of the urban buildings without spoiling the views of Divis and Black Mountain. It all creates the illusion of a more rural setting – although the constant traffic roar from the motorway does intrude. However, the wildlife generally does not seem perturbed by the noise; nor indeed by people constantly walking the site. Certainly the moorhens in the drainage channels, the wrens chatting from the low alders and the butterflies in the meadows took little notice of me.

The Bog Meadows is a marvellous advertisement for urban local nature reserves. I would guarantee that all who visit the site; who see something of the wildlife and hear the sound of birdsong; who watch the wind waving gently in the reeds and who enjoy the dramatic the views of Cave Hill over the meadows will leave feeling much invigorated. They will be revived by spending time within this green open space that offers a reprieve from the bustle of urban life.