Bio diversity
Team Millstreet Clean Up
Calling all clubs, shops, businesses, neighbours, cousins, aunties, uncles, grannies, granddads, mammy’s and daddy’s, come one, come all. Spring has sprung and it’s that time of year again folks. Based on the hugely successful campaign that we ran last year, Millstreet Tidy Town Association in association with Cork County Council are having a Team Millstreet Clean Up day again this year. Saturday, 22nd of April. Grab your brooms, bags, gloves, coats, hats, sunglasses (it was fab last year) and we will give our lovely town a well deserved spring clean. The more the merrier. We will even provide you with a marvellous cup of tea and an even fancier biscuit for your hard work. Meeting point and times to follow during the week. Anyone interested please send us an email @ millstreettidytown@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/Millstreet-Tidy-Town-821640024577249/
Millstreet Community School
Once again this year our resident Wildlife Biologist Tony Keneally is continuing his Bio Diversity work with the Transition Years of Millstreet Community School. We are very lucky to have Tony to help us in this regard. Not only is very beneficial to us in our National Tidy Town campaign each year, the students are benefitting from Tony’s knowledge and expertise. They are continuing work that was started years previous on habitats surrounding the school and also this year there will be a Bio Diversity Information night held by the Transition Year Students in the Millstreet Secondary school on 30th March. Details of this are to follow at a later date. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Tony and Derry Morley and all the staff at Millstreet Community School with whom this project could not continue.
Bronze Medal Returns
Great news came from The Helix this afternoon. Not only did Millstreet earn an extra 6 points this year in the National Tidy Town Competition but we are to see the return of a Bronze Medal. This is an amazing result for the town. The report has been loaded up on the website and full comments and p
oints can be seen from this page. http://millstreettidytown.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2016-County-Cork_North-Millstreet-480.pdf. Millstreet Tidy Town Association would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved. Without a strong community spirit and a stalwart of volunteers this result would not be possible. Tidy Town is just one simple way that we can showcase how wonderful a place Millstreet is. We can hold our heads high safe in the knowledge that all the hard work that people are putting into to keeping this town a beautiful place to live is paying off. So hats off and big congratulations to all. Pat and Noreen were in attendance representing the Millstreet Tidy Town Association this afternoon and I will post pictures of this fantastic afternoons result when I receive them.
Wild Flower Area Update
Millstreet Tidy Town Association are delighted to update you on the beautiful Wildflower Area in the Town Park. Planting is complete is these areas and hopefully soon they will bursting with amazing wildflowers over the coming weeks. Thank you very much to Denis for the picture’s and to his team for all their hard work to make these bio diversity areas possible.
New Wildflower Area in Millstreet Park
Millstreet Tidy Town are delighted to announce that Denis and all his hard workers at FÁS have completed all the Wild Flower Areas in the Town Park. All 3 beds have been sprayed in preparation for planting in April/May. This is an ongoing project as part of our work with Wildlife Biologist, Tony Keneally. The Wild Flower Areas will be a beautiful addition to the Town Park. Our greatest thanks to Denis and the lads and all their tireless work.
Garden Bird Nest Box
Would you like a Free garden bird nest box?
Millstreet Tidy Towns is actively involved in conserving and enhancing wildlife in the Millstreet area and we have recently had a Biodiversity Action Plan produced for Millstreet. As part of this plan we have made 20 garden bird nest boxes and we are now looking for suitable homes within Millstreet for each box. The nest boxes were made by Millstreet Mens Shed and they are of a very high quality.
The boxes are suitable for Blue Tit and Great Tit which readily use nest boxes. The boxes can be placed on the wall of a building or on the trunk of a tree. Suitable homes would include houses that have a garden with some amount of cover including shrubs, hedging and trees. Houses with cats as pets are not suitable. Boxes will be fitted by Millstreet Tidy Towns/Mens Shed.
By taking a box you are providing a safe and secure nest site for our garden birds and helping in their conservation, as well as enjoying watching the birds use your nest box.In return,we would ask that you complete a once yearly survey detailing the type and number of birds using the birdbox.
If you are interested in taking a box please contact us here and leave your name, address and contact number and we will be in touch with you. Deadline for applications is Thursday, 24th of March. All applications will be vetted for suitability of location by Tony Keneally our Wildlife Biologist.
List of ways to contact us: www.millstreettidytown.ie
www.facebook.com/millstreettidytown
Millstreet BNS visit from Wildlife Biologist
Millstreet Tidy Town Association are delighted to be working with Wildlife Biologist, Tony Keneally this year. Last week he paid a visit to 3rd Class of Millstreet Boys National SChool. Here is how they got on:
“The children were taking part in the Winter Garden Bird Survey run by Birdwatch Ireland. A feeding station with 2 peanut feeders was placed in the lawn outside the window of 3rd class. The kids have to record the different species of birds they see on or around the feeder. At the end of the week they fill in a form recording the highest number of each species seen during the week.
The survey runs from December – February and is a great way of raising awareness of the different species of garden birds, as well as being a valuable source of information for Birdwatch Ireland who can monitor the trends in bird numbers based on results submitted by schools and individuals.
I visited the school twice, once to give them posters and identification tips on the birds they were likely to see. My second visit was to check the progress and see how the kids were getting on.
At the start the kids knew 1 or 2 species whereas on my second visit they can identify at least 6 different species of bird and know about another 8 species. So overall it has suceeded in raising awareness and the kids have learnt to recognise different species.
Welcome to 2016
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Happy New Year to Everybody. Apologies for the lack of communication for last number of weeks. This is now to end. Back to regular updates and posts. I can here all the shouts of joy from here. So what better way to start a New Year than to reflect on the achievements of the previous year. There is so much to choose from. Well we had a very successful Anti Litter Challenge campaign this last year. We have an eye on first place for 2016. Then there is also the various projects that Tony Keneally, Wildlife Biologist has been heavily involved in with both the National and Secondary Schools. Also brilliant results in the National Tidy Town for this past year, only narrowly missing out on a Bronze Medal. Millstreet won a Pride of Place award in October. New Water Butts were placed throughout the Town, as were hanging baskets and Nest boxes. Let’s not forget about the new Footpaths. These are only a few of the amazing accomplishments achieved by volunteers, FÁS workers, Council Workers and many more. All kindly giving up their time and energy to make our town a wonderful place to live. So what are the hopes for 2016. Well aim high is what I think. Anyone fancy volunteering email, tweet, Facebook, there no shortage of ways to communicate your interest to us. There is always plenty of work to be done. So as we begin to see a stretch starting to creep back into the evening and the rain has finally stopped, I found a nice little New Year’s quote that kind of sums up the feeling really.
“Be More Awesome Than Last Year”
Tidy Town Results
Millstreet Tidy Town are very proud to announce that this afternoon in The Helix in Dublin, it was announced that Millstreet received 302 points in the annual Tidy Town competition for 2015. This is an increase of 5 points on last years results. This is a huge achievement. So may thanks to all in all involved, big and small efforts made a lot of difference. Whilst we bask in the glow of this brilliant result, we must also bear in mind that we have plenty more work to do to prepare for next year. Only 20 points behind the overall winner Listowel, in our category. These points are precious and hard to achieve. Also we were only 1 point off receiving a bronze medal. So just think of what one small thing that you may have done that could have contributed to gaining that extra point. We are capable of most definitely achieving a Silver medal next year. So get the thinking caps on. New volunteers are always welcome, just send us an email, pm on Facebook or tweet if you like. Remember Tidy Town is all year, not just for the Summer. Congratulations to all involved. 2015 Adjudicator Results
Bio Diversity Project
Tony Keneally, Millstreet Tidy Town Association, Transition Year Students, Mr Derry Morley and Teachers
Bio Diversity Project
Mr Tony Keneally, Wildlife Biologist has kindly donated his time to the Transition Year Students of Millstreet Community School. They are currently undertaking a Bio Diversity plan for the woodland area at the back of the Community School. The students, led by Tony are to map the area and create a management plan for the area. The best Management Plan will be presented to the Millstreet Tidy Town association and will be used for out entry in the Tidy Town Compettion for 2015. We would like to take this oppurtunity to thank Tony Keneally, Mr Derry Morley and the teachers and students of Transition Year.