I am currently collecting some more info on access to reserves here in West Cork and also further afield.
Perhaps I can try and use this blog to see if we can perhaps start a site and organisation similar to the Disabled Birders Association depending on the information I can assemble.And I also hope that Darlene at Comfortablebirding for All and I can work together in the collecting of data.
Living in such a beautiful area of this island, it is a real pity that I cannot fully enjoy those places where habitat and wildlife go hand in hand as it is supposed to in the Parks and Nature Reserves and where birdwatching is often rewarded with species you perhaps won't see along the road or in our gardens.
It is ridiculous I think that I am already looking forward to moving away from this beautiful area and returning to the Netherlands, the country I was born and grew up until we, my husband and I, moved to Ireland to escape the hectic life in the small country which is Holland.
It is the size of Munster, which is only about a quarter of the Republic of Ireland (more or less) yet it has almost 16 million people leaving not much room for wildlife, you would think? Actually this is not true. For one it has many places where yuo can still observe wildlife and birds. Besides, Holland has a great history in catering for people with disabilities. I got mine already when I was 9 years old. And I got my first bird feeder at 10 or 11 years old, when I got a little window feeder. Immediately behind our house was a very large forest, so birds aplenty.
Here in West Cork I'm having great areas with lovely habitat around me too. Yet I keep having problems in getting into or onto these.
It can be very awkward keeping to the side on a main road, when your Local patch has surfaces like these.
It had worsened again after all the rain and the council started patching up the roads again and I should be delighted but the problem is that,
these patches or Cow dung as we tend to call them, will have washed away after the next rains. And until then? They are the source of even more pain in my back as I have to go over them on my way to the bay.
I can't imagine how you can manage to get over roads in that condition. You'd think they would do a better job of it than that.
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