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Walk
1
Cloghan Wetlands
A popular evening walk with local people, the path starts
from the car park at Loch an Clochan and proceeds along the
gravel path that skirts the fishing lake and then runs east
through naturally recolonising birch-willow woodland before
looping westwards and leading you back to your starting point.
Things
to look out for
Cloghan wetlands consist of a number of ponds and pools by
which, Ringed plover, Common sandpiper and snipe may be seen.
Listen out for Chiffchaff, Willow warbler, Black cap and Spotted
flycatcher as you pass through the open birch-willow woodland
in spring and summer. In winter Teal, Widgeon and Whooper
swans frequent the fishing lake and flooded wetland to the
north.
A pen
built by the Cloghan Community Development Association is
situated close to the path within the woods. This is used
to display pheasant at certain times of the year thus giving
the walker a chance to admire the plumage of the Cock pheasant
at close quarters and compare it with that of the much more
drab hen bird.
Damselflies
and dragonflies, including the Emerald damselfly, Common darter,
Brown hawker and Four-spotted chaser, may be spotted either
resting or hunting over the pools in summer.
In spring,
mosses and lichens standout on the bare peat before being
overlooked in favour of the more brightly coloured flowering
plants that follow. Dog violets flower alongside the path
in spring and Cuckoo flower, the food plant of the caterpillars
of the Orange-tip butterfly which may be seen flying over
them, are common. The white, feathery seed heads of Bog cotton
stand out against the black peat from May onwards and the
yellow, star-like spikes of Bog asphodel are common in the
wetter areas whilst several types of orchid may be seen next
to the track. Close to the car park there is an area of naturally
recolonising Scots pine..
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