Get closer to the wild side of Ireland
“Look up!” is the catch phrase coined by celebrity UK birder David Lindo, the self-styled “Urban Birder”, and it is, by and large, pretty sound advice. If you find yourself wandering the city streets with time to kill, glancing periodically above your head can reveal some truly remarkable things. David gained prominence on the BBC’s [...]
The phone beeped, a message flashed across the screen and five minutes later me, my binoculars and my field guide were in the car. A local birder had spotted a red-flanked bluetail in a garden near Galley Head… and that was just a twenty minute drive away. From the end of March to early May [...]
It was one of those calm spring days where you feel anything is possible. The Atlantic, while not quite flat, had only the tiniest of swells. Gazing out over a vast expanse of blue, a distant haze towards the horizon was the only impediment to otherwise perfect visibility. You got the sense that at any [...]
The problem with routine, apart from the fact that doing the same thing over and over soon becomes incredibly dull, is that you can’t turn it off! Take waking up at exactly the same time every morning. Most of us do it as a matter of course: we rise to an alarm set to make [...]
It was Sunday morning, and it was raining. Not just any kind of rain… it was that sneaky, endemically Irish drizzle that saturates you before you realise you’re getting wet. It was misery incarnate. Miserable or not, we had a job to do. I grabbed the gear, threw it in the car and off we [...]
Round ones, square ones, big ones, small ones, wooden ones… even ones made from recycled election posters: nest boxes, just like the birds that use them, come in all shapes and sizes. They’re a great wildlife win-win — giving birds a safe, secure place to raise their young, and giving us the opportunity to watch [...]
There’s nothing like getting out into the wilds and experiencing nature first hand, raw and unspoilt. Here in Ireland we’re fortunate to have some fantastic wild places, and no matter where you live nature is never far away. That said, there are times when even the most ardent nature fanatic has to stay indoors. Life’s [...]
This column was first published in the Weekend Magazine of the Irish Independent on Saturday 04 February 2012. One of the things I like most about living in Ireland is the changing seasons. The tropics are over rated. Don’t get me wrong, a bit of predictable sunshine now and again certainly wouldn’t go amiss, but [...]
Stop the presses! News just in that I’m going to be writing a regular wildlife column for the Irish Independent newspaper. I’m still finalising the details in terms of column frequency and other logistics with the Independent’s editorial team, but the first column, dubbed “Unseasonal Shenanigans” will feature on page 21 of the newspaper’s Weekend [...]
