As part of Heritage Week Ballincollig 2022 an Open Day will be held at the Allotment on Saturday morning from 11.30 to 12.30.  
It will give people the chance to see what goes on behind the scenes and to see the various projects in relation to biodiversity and sustainability.
Some Ballincollig Tidy Towns Volunteers will be on hand to show people around and to explain the work we do weekly in our quest to make a difference.
Our water harvesting and compost bays will be on view and people will be able to see the importance of Recycling and Reusing for themselves.
We look forward to seeing everyone this coming Saturday.

 

 

LITTER PICK
Sunday morning in the beautiful sunshine 18 Volunteers gathered for the weekly litter pick. Three Volunteers worked at the Allotment. The remaining Volunteers covered a large area litter picking.
As is usual several of our Volunteers carried out litter picks during the week.
When all the litter collected was combined it yielded 1 bag of Plastic, I bag of Glass and 2 bags of Cans.
Green waste was also collected.

 

 

ALLOTMENT
The Allotment is the place Ballincollig Tidy Towns Volunteers carry out an enormous amount of their work. Almost every plant there has been recycled.
Earlier this year we transplanted a buddleia bush to an area in the Allotment. On Sunday morning this was alive with several butterflies and bees. An amazing sight.

 

WATERING
Tony and Adrian filled up the reservoirs of the planters at Eastgate and the tiered towers on Main Street. With the extremely high temperatures of late all the plants have been in constant need of water.

 

THURSDAY WORK NIGHT
Last Thursday’s Work Night at Sunningdale, cleaning kerbs and cutting back briars on the natural stone wall has made a substantial difference to users’ safety. This has been noticed by many people using the footpaths.
This week’s Thursday Work Night concentrated on the Allotment in advance of Saturday’s Open Day for Heritage Week. The installation of new steps at the Green Waste Skip was one project we wanted to complete. Up until this point we had been using recycled materials to form the steps. These we put into storage for later use somewhere else.
While the main group worked here others were weeding kerbs and litter picking was done in the town centre.

 

 

TUESDAY WORK NIGHT
Tuesday’s work night concentrated on the Traffic Islands.
As 12 Volunteers turned up to help, they divided up and managed to clean several of these. All Traffic Islands had been cleaned earlier in the year but several weeds had since regrown.
Now that Ballincollig is ‘Spray Free’, removing the weeds may mean a little extra work but it’s definitely worth it
The area around the ‘Welcome to Ballincollig’ sign on the northern side of the Inniscarra Bridge had somehow been overlooked by us but on Tuesday evening this was rectified. One of our Volunteers cleaned up the entire area.

 

 

BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY
In order to record distinctive species commonly found in gardens, the National Biodiversity Data Centre is running the ‘Backyard Biodiversity’ project This project hopes to obtain sightings of 20 recognisable species that can be found in urban and rural gardens. It is focused on people new to biodiversity recording.
The project launched at the start of Heritage Week (13/08/2022). Why not get involved and see if any of the 20 chosen species are in your garden or back yard. The list of species can be found on the project webpage https://biodiversityireland.ie/backyard-biodiversity-species/ along with all other information about the project –  https://biodiversityireland.ie/surveys/backyard-biodiversity/
The project’s aim is to get people to investigate the biodiversity in their own gardens and to encourage people to connect with nature and get involved with biological recording. No previous experience to start recording is needed. Biodiversity Ireland has resources for learning, including spotter sheets in Irish and English and will also be posting other identification tips regularly throughout the week.
A mix of vertebrates and invertebrates, from different taxonomic groups are among the chosen species. Each species can be relatively easily identified, provided that key identification features are carefully noted. All records can be submitted through the dedicated online recording form: Backyard Biodiversity Recording Form
Why not see how many of the 20 backyard biodiversity species are in your garden or area and use Backyard Biodiversity on social media.

 

 

 

images from the week: