Roundstone is certainly quieting down, I have the feeling its because of the torrential rain over the last few days, and I suppose the schools are opening again earlier this year, golly where does the time go to.
As I do not have a great deal of news, I thought I would just spend a few minutes about mink that are plaguing our area and indeed all over Connemara

War on the mink in Connemara 09:

A friend of mine who hails from Dublin is a regular visitor to Connemara for the last thirty years and in fact owns a house close to Bunowen Castle, Niall is a natural lover of nature, hence his keen sense of observation. For the last few years in the lake beside him he noticed a decline of baby ducks and other water birds, also for the last three years he noticed a black animal swimming in the said lake and thought that it was only an otter however a few days ago he saw the said same creature, & having read lately in the local papers of the problems of the havoc that the mink are causing, he become much more vigilant, two days ago the animal swam very close to the shore with his kids, the creature stared at him showing teeth and hissing almost with defiance, that’s when he was advised to get in touch with me, Niall duly did so and was able to give him and show him how to set a trap, the next morning he rang me to say he thinks he has caught a mink, I drove straight over and warned him not to do anything until I got there. Sure enough he had caught a young female, we duly dealt with it by drowning, to shoot it would be a mistake as the shot residue remains on the cage for some time, which would be a deterrent from any other mink in entering for the bait. The point of my story is here is some one always on the look out for nature and was able to set a trap on habitat runs, he has caught three more since and I would like to use this example of observation to tell other people to do the same and make contact with anybody within the area who has some knowledge of these vial creatures. I have just received some more traps and would be more than glad to help set them for anybody who spots the mink, and would require a trap.

I spoke to Conall Hawkins from the Galway University this morning on his survey re the mink. He wants the carcasses of mink for control programmes and
would appreciate if anybody could save any carcasses, and if you have a deep freeze place it in it, or bring them directly to me. Conall also sent down to me a small container of mink gland lures, they are about the size of a cigarette filter soaked in the gland juices of the mink, you place two of these into the trap, which will last for about a week, each one smells some thing awful, but they really work, I have caught two within the last twenty four hours on my own grounds, I have the feeling these could be the ones that Martin O’Donnell spotted last week. The other thing I would like to put out, I gather young Lambs are being killed by these guys, He needs one or two dead lambs to determine if in fact they were killed by Mink, either get it down to me, or photograph it showing the puncture marks, or call me if you are not too far away, and if I can I will photograph it myself and arrange to have it sent to the Galway University. There are some rather disturbing photos of the mink that have been caught lately on the Roundstone website plus a small video clip on youtube on the news page

Community Games Table Quiz:

We had a table quiz to raise some funds for the Community Games here in Roundstone for the 20th September 2009 in the Roundstone House Hotel, 17 tables all told, not quite sure how much was raised, one thing for sure there should be enough in the Pot, therefore thanks to everybody who was involved one way or another.

And while we are on the subject of thanking people, it took five days of phone calls to have our bottle banks emptied, which accumulated loose bottles all over the place, however Friday the banks were emptied, but the bottles on the ground were not, so a cleaning up process of loose bottles took place, with the Kids from Fair Green, thanks to Clara King, Dale Joyce, the freeman family, Peter, Sue, Toni and Collette, well done guys we had a smashing time. I only hope this dreadful site of bottles and boxes will never happen again. Come to think of it, its just wishful thinking.

Also to Francis Ashe, and visitors Rob and Denise who are annual helpers in trying to keep our beaches clean, today we went down to Dogs Bay for a clearance of all the Rubbish. So it was a great job to have it cleared off. Many thanks.

John Paul Ferron:

Congratulations to John Paul Ferron and his wife Christine, on the christening of Master Connors little sister Hannah, who was christened on Saturday in Roundstone, and of course we wish her well through her life, as we do to all the family.

Pony Shows:

Our own Roundstone man Caillin Conneely at the Clifden Pony show with his 2 year old colt “Letterdyfe Rira” won first prize, in fact Caillin has been very successful with this colt through out the summer with 5 junior champions and 2 Reserve Supreme Champions with 11 1st Prizes. At Clifden Caillin won the 2 year old filly class, Junior Championship and Reserve Confined Championship. A superb and memorable double for the Conneely Family. Not a bad season no doubt we will be seeing his prize winners at the Roundstone Pony champions of champions on the 13th September.

Last but not least the Supreme Confined Championship was Geuroíd Curran from Moycullen with “April Rose” a 17 year old Mare, what’s interesting this Mere was bred by Caillin’s father, Michael and was sold to Geuroid’s father Padraig in 1992.

“April Rose” won the Reserve Overall Supreme Champion of the Clifden Show 09. This mere is the mother of Glencarrig Rosemarie who earlier in the day won the 2 year old filly class for Caillin