King
of waterways  |
Lough Neagh is an amazing sight. It's Britain's biggest
area of freshwater at 20 miles long and 12 miles wide. The
lough has an average depth of almost 40 feet, although this is relatively shallow
for its enormous size. | | Lough
Neagh - the scale of the Lough is mind-blowing |
Six
major rivers flow into the Lough and they collectively drain more than 40% of
Northern Ireland.
The loch holds approximately 3.5 million million litres
of water, and is more like an inland sea, and its sheer size makes it a great
place to see wildlife.
This large expanse of water is ice free during winter
making it a number one holiday destination for wintering birds escaping the Arctic
wastes of Greenland, Iceland and Norway. Swan
spectacle  The
biggest and most majestic bird to be found at Lough Neagh in the winter is the
Whooper Swan.
About 1,000 of these swans winter on Lough Neagh - the majority
of birds from Iceland that visit the UK. This is a great place to see them
because this is where they fly into the Lough to feed after roosting elsewhere
during the night. There's a fly in and fly out each day but the dawn departure
is better because the swans tend to fly in groups rather than in 'ones and twos'
which they do when they're flying back. The swans stay at Lough Neagh from
October to late March when spring arrives, before making the journey back to Iceland
to breed. The best time to see them in significant numbers is late winter. Underwater
wonderland  Millions
of fish live under the waters of Lough Neagh including Eels and the Dollaghan,
a fish which is a living relic from the Ice Age.
This species of Brown Trout
is only found in the Lough and some of the rivers that feed into it, and, as a
result, it has developed an unusual lifestyle, behaving more like a salmon than
a trout. Most Brown Trout live and spawn in rivers but the Dollaghan treats
Lough Neagh as a sea and migrates to local rivers to spawn before coming back
to the Lough. It's the only trout in the world that behaves in this way.
The local hatchery at Ballinderry is doing its best to keep numbers high,
and is a good place to see these fish in winter. Heron
spotting
 Coney
Island is a nature reserve located in the south west corner of Lough Neagh.
A
boat ride out to the island is a must for lovers of the UK's largest predatory
bird - the Grey Heron. There's a good chance of seeing these birds in late
winter when the males start to nest build ready for the breeding season. The
birds are doing well on the island with 57 pairs - there were only six when seven
years ago. But after getting rid of the island's rats, the Heron population
mushroomed. This is now the biggest heronry in Northern Ireland. For
most of the year it's hard to tell the male and female Herons apart, but during
the mating season the female goes through a transformation.
Her bill turns
from yellow to pink, her breast feathers turn into a powdery down and she grows
an extra claw to preen her soft egg warming down feathers. | 
