Over the last couple of weeks a truly remarkable bird has been making headlines in the national press across Ireland. The Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops), has been turning up in unprecedented numbers this spring, particularly along the south coast, making this the best opportunity ever to catch a glimpse of….

Figures from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) confirm that the red-listed Corncrake has had its most successful Irish breeding season in 25 years with 233 confirmed breeding territories. The 2024 figure represents a 45% increase since 2018. The ground-nesting corncrake is a shy and elusive summer visitor that….

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine confirmed earlier this week that colonies of the invasive Oak Processionary Moth (Thaumetopoea processionea) had been discovered on four oak trees in a Dublin housing estate. The caterpillars and the trees have been destroyed in an attempt to eradicate the pest before….

Around 450 different bird species have been recorded on the island of Ireland, and although a lot of them are migratory and rare, now is the best chance to catch a glimpse of them as they return north to build nests and prepare for the breeding season. Esri Ireland, a….

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI H5N1) has hit Irish seabird colonies this breeding season after running rampant through similar colonies in the UK earlier this year. The disease, which can infect a wide range of bird species, appears to have hit breeding Gannet colonies particularly hard. Gannets, our larges seabird,….

On the most recent leg of his remarkable journey, Wally the wandering walrus who was first spotted off Valentia Island in Co. Kerry back in March 2021, was seen lounging aboard a moored motorboat in a small cove near Clonakilty on the West Cork coast. Wally, a young male walrus,….

For the first time in more than a century, not one, but two pairs of Marsh Harrier have bred successfully in the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Raptor Study Group (IRSG) confirmed in December that the rare birds of prey successfully reared young at sites in counties Galway and Westmeath….

The Irish Whale And Dolphin Group’s (IWDG) Humpback Whale Catalogue has broken the 100 individual milestone. On the 20 July IWDG researcher Nick Masset photographed two new Humpback Whales off the coast of West Kerry, and HBIRL#100 and HBIRL#101 took their respective places in the photo ID catalogue that documents….

Ten new White-tailed Eagle chicks arrived in Ireland from Norway last week to bolster population numbers as Phase II of the ongoing White-tailed Eagle reintroduction programme got underway. The ambitious reintroduction programme, a joint initiative between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the Golden Eagle Trust, began with….

Thanks to the National Parks and Wildlife service we can now follow the intrigues and antics of the white-tailed eagle pair nesting in Glengarriff Co. Cork live via their very own nestcam. Part of a reintroduction programme for the species that began in 2007, the adult eagles (male Blue W….

Minister for Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan TD has announced that she will not exercise her discretionary powers under the new Heritage Act to allow hedge-cutting to proceed in August this year. “Hedgerows are a very important wildlife habitat, providing food, shelter, corridors of movement, nest and hibernation….

Attaching sensors to animals in order to study their movements and record aspects of their behaviour has become commonplace over recent years. However, because they need to be lightweight, these automated bio-loggers typically have limited battery capacity. That’s a challenge, particularly when you want to use power-hungry data collection methods….