HomeWildlife Guide - A Walk on the Wild Side
Central Belfast
Suggested time: three hoursLocations: Botanic Gardens, Lagan Walkways, Ormeau Park
Botanic Gardens
The charming Botanic Gardens, near the Ulster Museum and Queen’s University, is one of Belfast's most popular parks.It is home to two wonderful Victorian creations, the Palm House with its tall trees searching towards the light and colourful plants spilling out from hanging baskets and the steamy Tropical Ravine greenhouse. Both supply the hottest nesting sites in Belfast for thrushes, blackbirds, wrens, bluetits and robins, who know the heat offers a better chance of a full hatch.
Ormeau Park
On the other side of the Lagan river, the extensive Ormeau Park, Belfast's first public park, is renowned for the many trees from around the world that flourish there, including willows from China and Lebanese cedars.Look out for brightly coloured jays and spotted flycatchers hunting flies on the original walls of the former walled garden and oystercatchers.
Foxes have been known to appear in the early morning and the meadows host a mist of butterflies in the spring and summer.
It's worth getting the guide pack for the education trial and orienteering route through the park.
Lagan Walkway
It's one of the most spectacular sights of a Belfast autumn or winter. As you stand on the Lagan Walkway, near the Albert or Queen Elizabeth bridges (where over 40,000 starlings are known to roost), thousands of starlings form a gigantic dark cloud high above the city.Right in the heart of the city, the Lagan Walkway reveals a surprising world of wildlife whatever time of year you come, with the chance to glimpse peregrines and swifts speeding through the skies, grey herons, black guillemots, terns and even common seals.
More information
The guide is also available from the Belfast Welcome Centre.Belfast Welcome Centre
47 Donegall Place
Belfast
BT1 5AD
Telephone: 028 9024 6609
Fax: 028 9031 2424
Email: welcomecentre@belfastvisitor.com
