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Ireland’s Wildlife Features

Wildlife highlights of a memorable year

Breaching Humpback

Life is punctuated by years that are particularly memorable for wildlife. Calvin Jones looks back at some of the highlights of the 2016 wildlife year on the West Cork stretch of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. With 2017 well underway I’m looking forward to the wonderful wildlife encounters the year undoubtedly….

Christmas gifts with a wildlife twist

wildlife-gift-voucher Christmas

You know it’s coming. Big commercial brands have been pushing it since October, and yet somehow this most surreptitious of holidays still creeps under your radar. One day you glance at the calendar… and PANIC! Yes, Christmas is just around the corner, and with it the challenge of choosing something….

Antlers at dawn: Killarney’s red deer rut

Bellowing red deer stag Killarney

Sean O’Callaghan of Kerry’s Wild Side gives us the low-down on one of the most testosterone-charged events in the Irish wildlife calendar: the annual red deer rut at Killarney National Park in County Kerry. Each autumn as the first of the winter chills set in and the summer’s dying leaves….

How to watch whales and dolphins

Whales and dolphins are an exciting part of Ireland’s wildlife. As an island nation perched on the edge of the north east Atlantic we have some of the best whalewatching in Europe right on our doorstep. This in depth feature will help you spot whales and dolphins around the Irish….

Kinabatangan — an incredible Borneo wildlife experience

Borneo gibbon, Kinabatangan Jungle Camp

The gibbon sat in a tree, gazing out across the turbid waters, its long, sinuous limbs somehow more graceful than gangly. It was the black variant of the endemic Bornean gibbon, and a magnificent specimen. As our guide manoeuvred the small boat to give us better views of one of Borneo’s most iconic primates, I took….

Birdwatching for Beginners Revisited

Birding, any time, any place, anywhere

With spring on its way, our resident birds getting ready for nesting season, and the prospect of  spring migrants just around the corner, this is the perfect time to revisit our popular series of articles on birdwatching for beginners. This series of four articles is a great introduction to birding, spanning everything from getting started,….

Christmas gift ideas for wildlife and nature enthusiasts

Quercus Oak Bird Feeders

What do you buy the wildlife enthusiast or nature lover for Christmas? It’s a conundrum faced by partners, families and friends every year. You’d think it would be easy… anything to do with wildlife would be perfect, right? But from long years of experience I know that we wildlife enthusiasts can be….

Garden wildlife: it’s a jungle out there!

Ladybird

As another wildlife documentary draws to a close, I can’t help looking out of the window at our back garden: the patio, the lawn, the garden wall strewn with ivy, the flowers nodding their heads gently in the evening breeze. It all seems so quiet and mundane compared to the….

All abuzz in Limerick City!

Buff-tailed_bumblebee,_Bombus_terrestris

  Ireland’s Wildlife Contributor Albert Nolan gets up close and personal with the bees of Limerick and discovers that the City really is buzzing!    I pass quietly through the city streets pausing at every corner to scan the buildings for birds, or peeking into an overgrown garden in the….

Why you should visit a dead whale

Stranded Sperm Whale Carcass, Fermoyle

In this guest post marine biology student Sean O’Callaghan, a keen cetacean enthusiast and admin of the popular Kerry’s Wild Side page on Facebook, explores some of the benefits of visiting a dead whale. Visiting a dead whale may appear on the surface to be a morbid proposition, but there are many….

Wildlife Projects for Tidy Towns

Early flowers provide vital food for pollinators

Ireland’s Wildlife contributor Albert Nolan urges communities to champion wildlife as part of the nationwide Tidy Towns initiative.   Spring had forgotten about our part of the world as a chilling wind greeted us in the morning. Bags and pickers were quickly shared out and everyone was glad to start walking and get the….

Wildlife Portfolio: Sarah Corner

Male Merling Sarah Corner

In this instalment of our Wildlife Portfolio series we introduce the work of wildlife artist Sarah Corner. To view larger images in slideshow format click on one of the thumbnails in the portfolio below. If you’re a wildlife photographer or wildlife artist and would like us to consider your work for….