SPOTTING a barn owl near his grandmother’s house and playing in the trees of Muff Glen Forest, near Eglinton, surrounded by red squirrels were some of the childhood experiences which fostered a love of wildlife and conservation for Conor McKinney.
The Tamnaherin-born conservationist can be seen on our television screens tonight in the return of the rural affairs programme Home Ground.
"From Fermanagh's Lakelands to the Foyle in my home town, to the Glens of Antrim and the slopes of the Mournes, I've always been entranced by the landscapes, biodiversity and communities that make up our home here in Northern Ireland," says the 34-year-old.
“I'm delighted and hugely excited to be joining the Home Ground team to explore the places, people and wildlife that makes our home here so unique."
As well as his broadcasting work, the former conservation manager at the charity Ulster Wildlife is currently completing a masters in Ecological Management and Conservation Biology at Queen's University and doing ecological consultancy work.
Among the projects he’s involved in at the moment is creating biodiversity management plans and carrying out protected species and habitat surveys on the remote Scottish island of St Kilda.
One of the most exciting stories he was involved in for the BBC Northern Ireland series was documenting the release of curlew fledglings back into the wild. The project involved the work of the Lough Neagh Partnership, which acted quickly to protect the eggs of curlews when their nests were threatened by peatland fires in spring.
The eggs were incubated until they hatched and the chicks then reared by hand, before being successfully released near Lough Neagh.
It’s a story that demonstrated the positive effect volunteers can have upon the future of our wildlife and one which emotionally affected McKinney.
“Whilst Ireland used to have a really internationally important population of curlew, they are now on the red list for endangered species of bird here. To see the population collapse here is really frightening. With wildlife conservation it’s easy to get depressed as it always seems you're fighting an uphill battle, but to do a story on the successful release of the young birds was really heartening,” he says.
Growing up, McKinney had a pond in his garden and recalls how he used to spend hours watching frogs and plant life grow in it.
“I remember a spotted orchid started to grow and I was so curious to know what it was I saved my lunch money to buy a book on flora in Ireland just so I could identify it.”
McKinney encourages everyone to “do their bit” for the environment, and that can start in their own gardens.
“Allowing a couple of sunny or shady corners of your garden to go uncut can attract wildlife such as hedgehogs, butterflies and the many beautiful moth species we have here. The construction of a pond will see the return of newts, frogs and dragonflies, as well as birds,” he says.
He also enthuses that planting fruit trees in your garden will not only benefit wildlife, but also ourselves.
“A crab apple tree has big showy flowers which are really good pollinators. I’ve been growing elderflower trees and making my own cordial, as well as attracting a wide range of insects. They have a lovely perfume smell and the berries are also really good for making jam.”
Also in Home Ground McKinney explores the life of the swift as it makes its annual journey from Africa to nest here.
“We get a lot of winter migrants here, such as Brent geese, who are just arriving at the minute from Scandinavia, and birds flying from the equator, such as the swift. They come here because of the abundance of insects and it’s no surprise that their arrival coincides with the hatching of the Lough Neagh midge.
“However, one of the main issues they are facing is the lack of nest sites and we talk about what people can be doing to support this by erecting brick boxes.”
Viewers will also see McKinney paddling in Strangford Lough and documenting the marine species living in its rock pools.
“There are a lot of protected species that exist along our coastline, so we are always encouraging people to go out and find out where those species are so that conservationists can make much more informed decisions. But we need to horizon scan and collect records of what other species are there.
“In the midst of the Covid crisis we seem to have taken our eye of the fact that there is a climate crisis occurring. Our waters are starting to warm up and as a result we have many new species moving north. I was up and Donegal yesterday and came across a species of furrowed crab for the first time.
“Our waters are also seeing much more John Dory, which is traditionally found in the Mediterranean, and that will have major implications for our traditional species like cod and haddock.”
McKinney warns that it’s not just our marine life that will be impacted by climate change, as alpine plants traditionally found on Slieve Donard are also under risk.
“Those plants are the bedrock off our ecosystems. Just like we need to be introducing native plants in our gardens to support insects, there is a particular kind of insect that the lives of alpine plants and when those plants go those insects will begin to go as well.
“Climate change is something we need to be very conscience of because it's not just going to change the ecology, it’s going to affect every level of society here. It’s going to change the way we approach farming and the potential lack of water availability is going to impact our growing seasons for grass and crops.”
Laughing off a suggestion of a future in politics where he can help implement environmental change, for the moment McKinney is delighted to be able to communicate the conservation efforts happening throughout the north.
“Home Ground is a fantastic opportunity to highlight that work and to let people know that they too can play a huge part in protecting our natural heritage," he says.
“It's a shared heritage, in a society that quite often is fragmented here. It’s waiting to be discovered and often people just need a bit of signposting to realise how superb the landscapes, habitats and the species that we have around us actually are."
Also in the new four-part series of Home Ground, Gavin Andrews helps with the vegetable harvest in Co Down and in Enniskillen he explores how the farmers’ mart has managed to keep operating under social distancing restrictions.
Plus Ruth Sanderson meets a farmer who has combined two of his great loves into a business – beef and beer – and Jo Scott’s been finding out how technology can benefit the farm. And with Brexit just around the corner, viewers will also hear from the Ulster Farmers’ Union on their concerns that cheaper meat imports from outside the EU might not have the same welfare standards as locally produced meat.
:: Home Ground returns to BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday September 7 at 7.35pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer.
