PBS SPECIAL "Ireland's Wild Coast"

Stephanie and I watched the PBS special "Ireland's Wild Coast," (links to watch it online are below) which featured a lot of animals doing the wild thing.  Seriously, they should have played some Marvin Gaye along with the lilting Irish music. Apparently the west coast of Ireland is a sexy place where toads, seals, salmon etc., get their groove on. There was either mounting or spawning, or fighting to mount or spawn.  The love lives of these animals is as tempestuous as the Atlantic Ocean.

But who could blame these creatures for feeling romantic in such beautiful surroundings? The cinematography of this nature documentary is outstanding, with cameras that take us soaring into the skies with the Whooper swans and down into the surges of water stirred up by breaching humpback whales.  We rise above majestic green cliffs and mountains and then with hushed breath, we are witnesses to the delicate nests of plovers (wading birds) on land, as a mama feeds her babies.  We watched the special in high definition, so we felt like we could almost breathe that fresh sea air, and we both squealed when the host and wildlife cameramen, Colin Stafford-Johnson, walked among the lampreys (eellike, jawless fish with pointy teeth) in his wellies. I respect lampreys from a distance, even when they're just on my tv.

This part of Ireland is largely uninhabited by people, so the animal populations have thrived. For us, it was an introduction to the wildlife and the land.  We learned about the spirited, chatty puffins, which I could watch for hours on Skellig Michael, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I appreciate that titles were provided for the locations, but I wish they extended the same courtesy for some of the animals' names. For example, I had to look up how to spell pine marten online, because I had never heard of this adorable, yet lethal gray squirrel hunter until now. In my notes I spelled, "pie martin," but I knew that couldn't be right. I chuckled to myself imagining an animal in the wild whose main food source is pies, particularly apple. But I digress...

Other animals that I learned about were the majestic Red deer. Despite their considerable size and formidable antlers, there was one male deer (stag) who my heart went out to. You'll have to watch the documentary to see why, but I wanted to give him some medical attention and a pep talk. These animals lead hard lives, where they have to fight to survive and to mate. Other animals in the documentary included Gannets (a type of seabird), Grey Seals (friendly backscratchers, fierce competitors and surprisingly sensual lovers), bottlenose dolphins (intelligent, compassionate, friendly. We should all be more like bottlenose dolphins), basking sharks (look scary, but they're not), long-eared bats ("...They can hear the sound of a caterpillar walking across a leaf.") and the Golden Eagle, who is fighting its way back from extinction in Ireland.

I will have to study more about the many places mentioned in the documentary, as each was outstandingly beautiful, but they included Great Blasket Island (gray seal hangout), Macgillycuddy's Reeks (a mountain range) and The Burren in County Clare, Ireland,  which features exposed limestone that was once at the bottom of the ocean and is the home of ravens.

Along with learning about nature, I also enjoyed when the host talked about the legends and stories of Ireland, such as the song of the fairies, which sounds like the song of the humpback whales that fishermen were rumored to have heard through the skin of their currach, a traditional Irish boat.  Nature and myth are intertwined here. Ireland is a place to dream and to be astonished. I hope to visit someday. For now, I'm going to watch this documentary again. 

http://www.pbs.org/video/part-1-qcv1sy/

http://www.pbs.org/video/part-2-jkafw2/