St. John’s River

St. John’s River: Source

We are walking along the St. John’s River out of town, into the reed wetland. All the pictures for these blogs were taken in late autumn and winter when the reeds are golden and the trees are bare. No butterflies and wildflowers, but some bird species arrive from as far as Russia.

Alder cones are a source of food for many bird species, including this female Lesser redpoll.

Goldcrest is a busy bird with a high-pitched thin call and an acrobatic manner of foraging. Weighing only 5 gm, Goldcrest is Ireland’s, and also Europe’s, smallest bird.

Most of my pictures are about the walkway, but let’s see what is going on in the river itself.

There is a Cormorant supervising this stretch of the river. He perches on a tall pole waiting until the water is deep enough for his liking. If you are lucky, you can see him land on the surface and dive.

The cormorant swims on the water between dives, and after he is done fishing, he runs on the surface flapping his wings and making terrible noise that can be heard from a distance.

Then he returns to his pole.

Common chiffchaff is another visitor who shows up in March to stay over summer.

In the picture below, Friends of St. John’s River on their weekend rubbish pick mission. From what I observe, the housing estate across the river is the main source of chemical pollution. When somebody is doing laundry, all the detergent-polluted water is going straight into the river. I have seen a rat frantically trying to swim away from the milk-white stream spreading from a pipe. Littering is another problem. People walk home from the supermarket across the road munching on a bun or crisps, and while crossing the pedestrian bridge simple drop the empty plastic or paper bag in the water. Sometimes this is where a used shopping trolley goes too. Even in this remote area of the river I have seen many kinds of litter. Obviously, St. John’s river doesn’t have enough friends, which is sad.

A group of birch trees provides the last canopy of green over the walkway.

On the other side of the river stretches a sea of reed sprinkled with the islands of willow trees bursting with bird songs – Kilbarry Bog. I am glad it hadn’t been drained in the 19th century when St. John’s river was straightened in order to make a canal that would reach the seaside resort of Tramore. Now the wetland is a protected natural ecosystem. In these blog posts I shared photographs of many bird species, but there could be more. The reed swamp is an important summer home for Reed warbler. I don’t have pictures of Reed warblers – something to look forward.

A wide strip of reed separates us from the busy Tramore road and continues on the other side. Here we can see an occasional Blue tit and Wren.

There is always a wren somewhere 🙂

The old railway left the wetland and crossed over the Tramore road at the Black Rock. Here is another video – a piece of first-hand history.

Black Rock, the end of the river walkway.

However, we can turn to the left and walk along the Tramore road to the Ballindud Roundabout – we will, in a minute 🙂

According to Google Maps, the source of St. John’s River is somewhere there in the reeds…

I don’t always trust Google Maps. We keep walking in the direction of the roundabout. The river, hidden in the reeds, flows through the bog parallel to our path. Suddenly it makes a 90º curve so that we can see it again, and then disappears beneath the road! The tiny stream that emerges on the other side doesn’t have a name… It meets with other unnamed streams… I guess we won’t be able to identify the source, but we have found the place from where the unnamed stream becomes the St. John’s River 🙂

Thank you for loving our river! After the long and eventful walk I want to share a beautiful song for all those who love and respect nature, for all the Friends of the rivers and oceans, mountains and meadows, deserts and rain forests of the world.

Robert Burns and Rioghnach Connolly – Now Westlin Winds 🙂

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https://inesemjphotography.com/2019/04/20/st-johns-river-sneaking-through-town/

https://inesemjphotography.com/2019/05/04/st-johns-river-straightening/

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www.inesemjphotography.com Have a wonderful weekend!

St. John’s River: Cherrymount

This is the part of the river you see from the Cherrymount foot bridge.

And this is the walkway.

You can hear birds sing on both sides of the river. I love taking photographs of birds simply to acknowledge their beautiful presence, but usually I make them a part of a composition. In these blog posts I share both kinds of pictures to showcase the diversity of bird species around the St. John’s River.

Magpies check the ground for crumbs and dog kibble.

Male Blackbird and female Chaffinches: size against the numbers 🙂

Male Blackbird stares disapprovingly, and continues his lunch. Blackbirds are sexually dimorphic species – males and females look very different.

This is a female Blackbird foraging in the undergrowth.

Beautiful Siskins more likely have traveled from Scandinavia or Russia. They arrived in flock, and I spotted them feeding in the Alder tree. In the photographs below: two males and a charming female Siskin.

Of course, there is always a curious Robin.

Male Chaffinch is singing his heart out.

The walkway is beautiful, with many species of trees and shrubs.

Golden willow on the other side of the river is a delightful sight in the grey of winter.

Daffodils planted by Friends are blooming from February.

There is a little pool I always worry about. Frogs are a rare sight, and each one is precious. Tadpoles stay in a tight group when the weather is cold. It takes one thirsty dog to gulp down a whole generation.

All four Tit species can be seen around St. John’s River.

This is a Great tit.

Who wouldn’t like this funny face 🙂

Blue tit is a stunningly colourful little bird. The hue of blue is the most vibrant in the winter months.

Coal tit has a distinctive white mark on the back of its head. Like the other tits, it is a busy and cheerful bird.

Tiny Long-tailed tit is another beauty in the family.

If Robin likes to watch you openly, from a close distance, Wren will stay behind the scenes. Don’t be fooled – Wren is always somewhere there 🙂

We will meet again in two weeks. Thank you for joining the walk!

https://inesemjphotography.com/2019/04/06/st-johns-river-confluence/

https://inesemjphotography.com/2019/04/20/st-johns-river-sneaking-through-town/

https://inesemjphotography.com/2019/05/04/st-johns-river-straightening/

www.inesemjphotography Have a wonderful weekend!

St. John’s River: Straightening

St. John’s river walk continues 🙂 You will start at Poleberry, walk along the sport grounds and Tramore Road Business Park, cross the Inner Ring road and stop at the Cherrymount foot bridge. I will leave some short captions over the photographs – you can read them as you walk. But first please watch two videos.

A video courtesy of a Friend of St. John’s River Eoin Nevins brings you back to 2007 – it shows the part of the river you have visited in my previous blog posts.

The other video is about the old Waterford-Tramore railway. The part of the cycling/walkway you are on was constructed along the line of this railway and opened in August 2015.

If you want to know more about our birds, here is a helpful link. When I struggle to identify a bird, I simply send a bird picture to Birdwatch Ireland and always get a prompt reply.

Starlings gather on the sports field netting after the sunset.

Wrens are common on this stretch of the river. They will wait until you walk past, and start singing right behind your back.

Female Blackbird is jerking her tail in annoyance: too many dogs, too many people.

Cormorant is getting ready for his fishing trip.

Cormorants can stay under water a whole minute.

A couple of very shy Moorhens settled at this stretch of the river. They are safe behind the high fencing.

After crossing the Inner Ring road, you are greeted with the bird songs. This is a great bird watching opportunity close to the city boundaries.

Dunnock on the other side of the river sings his head off. Generally shy birds, Dunnocks are seldom seen in the open space. You can read some interesting facts about dunnocks in this article.

A great singer, Eurasian blackcap, could be a winter guest from the Central Europe. Irish population of Blackcaps migrate to North Africa in the autumn.

More wrens in the bushy area. They are one of my favorite birds.

The song thrush is speckled with dark heart-shaped spots, and both male and female look similar. The male Song thrush has a loud and clear song.

You can listen to the Blackbird’s song here to compare. The bird in the picture is a female, you can hear a female song in this video, just wait a couple of seconds. These birds are very vocal, and they have a range of warning calls.

The Collared dove and Wood pigeon are common along the river walk.

This is a male Collared dove, and he is singing ( look at his throat).

Female Collared dove.

Napping Wood pigeon.

This is our winter guest Redwing, a Thrush family bird from Iceland. More pictures in my blogpost here.

Greenfinch is also a rare guest.

Goldfinches are abundant around the Cherrymount foot bridge. When they are busy, you can come up quite close.

That is it for today. We continue our walk in two weeks. More bird sighting as you move closer to the source.

https://inesemjphotography.com/2019/04/06/st-johns-river-confluence/

https://inesemjphotography.com/2019/04/20/st-johns-river-sneaking-through-town/

www.inesemjphotography.com Have a wonderful weekend!

St. John’s River: Sneaking through town

After crossing the Hardy’s bridge we resume our walk. A few words about the Friends of St. John’s River. They are an enthusiastic community voluntary group founded in March 2014 with the mission to ‘return St. John’s River to its former glory’. Our walks along the river are pleasant thanks to them.

In the Integrated Water Quality Report 2011, St. John’s River was mentioned as the only “seriously polluted’ river in the whole county. And seriously polluted it was. It is obvious that the river has very little friends… Hope this will change thanks to the great example of the volunteers and support from the City. On my memory, St. John’s river has never looked as good as it looks now, but there is so much more to do, and first of all, people have to change their mentality, behaviour and habits.

We are approaching the Waterside. The bridge in the picture replaced the old Gasworks bridge. I don’t like the replacement because it is flat and has no character. The old bridge was a curved cast iron beauty built in the beginning of the 20th century. I also don’t like that the wall has been stripped of vegetation which was a habitat for many creatures.

The other Gasworks foot bridge built in 1870 has been beautifully restored and reinstalled.

The Gasworks were established in the 1820’s. A hundred years later, during the Irish Civil War, something extraordinary happened. I want to share this piece of history, because it seems important to me.

‘A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of Communism.’ Inspired by the example of the Russian proletariat, the Gasworks’ workers established a Soviet that lasted 6 weeks! More about the Soviets in Ireland in this article. When I came across the article, it brought back my Granddad’s stories. Both my maternal grandfather and paternal great grandfather were murdered by communists. The families had to hide; the names were changed; none of my parents spoke their mother tongues; generations were affected. But it is not only because of my family history I despise this ideology.

We will destroy this world of violence

Down to the foundations, and then

We will build our new world

He who was nothing will become everything.

Unfortunately, ‘destroying to the foundations’ was the only part of the plan that went ‘well’. Cultural vandalism that started in Russia, reached Ireland. More than 70 Big Houses were burned, many of them of historical importance. The blowing up of the Public Records office destroyed countless pages documenting Irish History. One cannot become ‘everything’ by violence, destruction and ignorance.

History repeats itself when people refuse to learn from it and admit their mistakes.

We have reached the end of the Waterside. In the image below you see the oldest Waterford bridge – John’s Bridge that was originally built in the 1650’s and widened in 1765. On this side of the bridge both arches are round, but on the other side one arch is pointed.

When the water level is low, you might see unusual visitors, like this Common redshank, foraging in the mud.

St. John’s river is a home to a family of resident swans.

Swans under the pointed arch of John’s bridge.

Swans floating along the Railway Square. You can see a shopping trolley in the water.

The river flows under the Johnstown bridge, and we start a somewhat boring walk around Tesco car park – from Miller’s Marsh to Poleberry.

This is the most uneventful stretch of the river walk. Only once I have seen the ducks and swans, and the bird songs are scarce here.

Still, we can come across a mouse on the pavement ( this is the most littered part of the river walk). I spent at least half an hour watching this cute little fella who seems to be a House mouse living outdoors. He is just a little bigger than a bottle cap.

Tesco is the source of all the shopping trolleys littering the water. Friends of St. John’s River do regular clean ups in and around the river, but it is not a solution. Change in people’s attitude would be a solution.

We walk over the Wyse bridge – another flat bridge that replaced the old humpback bridge in 1980. The river makes its last bend at Poleberry before straightening. There is a group of old trees and shrubbery, a home to some birds. The trees don’t look presentable and I am afraid that some day they will be cut down. Hope not.

This cat didn’t look like hunting. He just sat there.

Crow family is well represented in this part of the river. It is still in the city boundaries, and only a handful of bird species visit this area.

Yet one day I was lucky to capture this cute Bullfinch couple feeding on nettle and butterfly bush seeds.

You will continue the walk towards the source in two weeks. I won’t be there in person, but I am sure you won’t get lost 🙂

St. John’s river post #1

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Happy Easter! May your mind be happy, and your heart humble ❤

St. John’s River: Confluence

This and the following four posts are dedicated to the Friends of St. John’s River.

Waterford is situated along the beautiful River Suir – the river one cannot miss. Many visitors, however, might never realise that there is another river sneaking behind the Waterford Crystal House – St. John’s River, which, according to her Friends, represents the heart of the city. About a mile from the Rice bridge River Suir curves to the SE direction. Right before the curve is where two rivers meet.

Until the 18th century, St. John’s River didn’t have banks – there was a marshland and a pool of water that filled up at high tide and almost emptied at low tide. The pool was drained, the city expanded, and St. John’s River was contained within the banks reinforced with stone all the way to the River Suir. Here is some more history.

We know where the mouth of St. John’s River is, but where is the source? I don’t know it, but we will walk as far as we can and try to find it out.

Meanwhile, lets stay at the mouth of the river a little longer and enjoy the wildlife.

This heron at Marina hotel is wise enough to understand that photographers cannot fly over the fencing.

This gull is probably an adult non-breeding Herring gull.

These two look like young Great black-backed gulls. My knowledge of the juvenile gull classification is almost nonexistent.

One ‘teenager’ annoying the other 🙂

The cutest group of Black-headed gulls in their winter plumage. I have no idea what is that ‘stranger’ they have adopted.

The last look at the River Suir from the Scotch Quay before we are off to follow St. John’s River through the city.

We walk to the Georges Quay. The unnamed metal pedestrian bridge connects to the Adelphi Quay.

Gigantic red buoy in the Georges Quay is a lovely bright detail among the grey surroundings.

Pigeons are heading to the William Street Bridge. So are we.

We cross to the other side of St. John’s River. William Street bridge was built between 1780-1820. It is a single arch humpback bridge.

Pigeons are foraging on the walls.

We pass the car park and enter City Courthouse grounds. Courthouse was built to the design of Terence O’Reilly on the site of the ruins of St Catherine’s Abbey in 1841. Many of the dead from the 1604 outbreak of plague were buried in these grounds. Courthouse was recently refurbished and extended. In 2016, after the epic All-Ireland hurling semi-final, Kilkenny flag was put out at the top of the Courthouse .You might remember my blog post where I mentioned the long lasting rivalry between our two counties divided by River Suir.

I am mostly interested in starlings residing in the grounds.

Charming lattice work iron bridge over St. John’s River connect Courthouse grounds with People’s Park. The bridge was opened in 1857 by then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland William Frederick Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle, and named Carlisle Bridge for him.

In the “waste and weary swamp covered with dank and fetid water“, People’s Park was laid out in 1857, after the marshland was drained and St. John’s River diverted and contained in the banks. The “Orb” in the picture is a sculpture incorporating water continuously flowing over it. The sculpture was created by Tina O’Connell, and installed in 2002 in the place of a beautiful Victorian fountain which was vandalized beyond repair.

Look back at the Courthouse ( I just love this bridge).

Blackheaded gulls on the Carlisle bridge.

One more look back.

This is the end of today’s walk. We leave People’s Park and walk into town again. Hardy’s Bridge below was built in 1841/1842, and commemorates the captain of Admiral Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769-1839).