Get closer to the wild side of Ireland
Every winter our resident blackbirds, song thrushes and mistle thrushes are joined by an influx of visiting northern European thrushes: fieldfare and redwing. The birds usually start to arrive from late September / early October, and stay until early March… with some lingering a little later. Redwing are songthrush sized, and are possible to confuse [...]
I stumbled across this video on Twitter yesterday. It offers a bit of insight into the manufacture of high end binoculars and optics for birding and nature watching from the perspective of a pair of Swarovski Optik’s flagship binoculars — the EL Swarovision range. While this is a Swarovski video, I’m sure there are parallels [...]
OK – so we all know that peregrine falcons are awesome predators, and that in a stoop they are the fastest living thing on earth. But just how fast is fast… and what exactly does a stooping peregrine look like up close and personal, in slow motion? One US scientist took a novel approach to [...]
An evening canoe trip on the Shannon recently turned into a phenomenal wildlife encounter of epic proportions for Sophie Windsor Clive and her paddling partner Liberty Smith. The duo witnessed one of the most awe-inspiring sights Ireland’s wildlife has to offer… and caught it on camera. Some of you may have seen this video featured [...]
“To eradicate a species once is regrettable, but to allow it to disappear for a second time is simply irresponsible.” Those are the words of John Murphy, Wildlife Expert and Director of Waxwing Wildlife Productions talking about our native Irish red squirrel. Decimated by habitat destruction and persecution, the red squirrel only survives in Ireland [...]
A few weeks ago an osprey making its way south for the winter decided to stop off for a few days at White’s Marsh near Clonakilty. It’s only 15 minutes up the road and the chance of seeing my first osprey in Ireland was too much to miss. So bright and early one Sunday morning [...]
I just spotted this shared on the Birdwatch Ireland page on Facebook, and thought that I simply had to share it here. Flocking starlings are amazing enough… but flocking starlings reacting to a peregrine falcon attack… wow! If you don’t already, don’t forget to “Like” Birdwatch Ireland on Facebook and follow @birdwatchie on twitter for [...]
Cornish surfer Mickey Smith hit national television in the UK last week when his short film Dark Side of the Lens featured on the incredibly popular Springwatch series. It struck me straight away that a lot of the coastline looked like the Atlantic coast of Ireland – and I found out later that much of [...]
There’s some amazing footage of wildlife available online… some of it truly jaw dropping. This BBC footage from the woodland edition of “The Animal’s Guide to Britain” falls into that category. It shows the staggering manoeuvrability of a stunning northern goshawk. No wonder these birds are supreme woodland hunters when they can move like this. [...]
Chiffchaffs and willow warblers have been back in the country for a while now, and are singing their little heads off… which is a good thing… because the song is the most reliable way of telling these two very similar species apart. If you don’t hear them, getting a positive ID on that willow-chaff can [...]
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