Pied Wagtails Halt Lily Sales In Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Two Pied Wagtails, no doubt sick of the continuous long drawn out revitalisation of Liberty Square, in Thurles, moved home in late May of this year to take up residence amongst the sweet smelling Asian Lily collection in O’Driscoll’s Garden Centre, Mill Road, Thurles.

Their reason – to raise possibly their second family.

Choosing a central area to the Garden Centre’s large Lily collection, they located a flower pot which offered suitable central space, the female alone building the nursery for their anticipated brood, using dry grass, horsehair, wool and a few feathers set on a soft peat base.

Pied Wagtails like nesting in farms buildings and gardens and similar inhabited areas, often nesting on the ground and sometimes in old, previously abandoned nests.

Later, mother Wagtail laid five eggs, greyish to blue-white in colour, and some 14 days later five chicks were observed being tended by both the parents.

Lovers of nature and the environment, the O’Driscoll brothers immediately closed off the exhibit area for one month, displaying a sign (not in accordance with truth or fact) declaring their full Lily collection was ‘Previously Sold Out’. However, customer and lovers of garden Asian Lilies, should note their full Lily collection is now back on the market, and a crop of five baby Wagtails and their parents are most exceedingly grateful.

Contact O’Driscoll’s Garden Centre Tel: (0504) 21636.

In all, their nest sojourn lasted 29 days. Having left the nest, they remained in the general area for a further few days, before possibly returning to Liberty Square, where an now overcrowded colony of some 1,000 silent Wagtails currently roost.

Alas, already two large trees in Liberty Square; same previously used by the Wagtails to nightly roost, have been removed as part of the long drawn out Liberty Square revitalisation. So sadly, it is not just businesses that are rapidly leaving the Thurles town centre area; displaced Pied Wagtails are also migrating.