AS you read this article a complex arsenal of chemical weapons is being manufactured at sites all over the island of Ireland. When deployed these chemical agents are designed to subdue, inhibit, mutilate, mutate and in some cases even kill!
Emma Websdale for the Cork Branch of the Irish Wildlife Trust
Say hello to the gardener’s best friend – the bright and beautiful ladybird.
Also known as lady beetles, these species are often found cupped in the palms of children, filling eyes with awe as they try to count the spots on their backs. more »
One of the benefits of being an island nation like Ireland is that you’re never too far from a beach. But how many of us look at what’s going on literally beneath our feet when we hit the Irish coast? Let’s take a closer look at the wildlife of an Irish beach.
Given our national preoccupation with the Irish weather it’s hardly surprising that when a bit of sun has the temerity linger we make the most of it. Warm, sunny periods in late spring, summer and into the autumn see us heading for the beaches in droves – and one of the great things about living on an island is that for most of us the beach isn’t too far away.
But while we’re busy sunning ourselves on the sand the beaches’ permanent residents are going about their daily lives, often quite literally beneath our feet, and for them the beach is anything but a relaxing environment.
“This is a research charter, not a pleasure cruise,” cautioned Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) sightings coordinator, Padraig Whooley as we boarded the boat. “We’re not stopping for anything under forty tonnes!”
As the Holly Joe slipped out of Reen Pier the anticipation on board was palpable. IWDG researchers were joined on board by a National Parks and Wildlife Service Ranger and eight IWDG members who’d managed to bag a place. I was lucky enough to be one of them.
Pic: Keith Marshall via Flickr
An account of a memorable encounter with grey seals off the West Cork coast in Summer 2010.
We call them natural disasters: events like earthquakes, tsunamis, eruptions, hurricanes… nature’s raw power at its most awe inspiring and terrifying.
Luckily few of us ever experience the full destructive power of nature first hand, but we can all feel its presence.
It’s in the breakers rolling up a stormy beach, or the winter gales that whip our coastline: the relentless energy, the insistent surge.
You can sense it even on the calmest days, a latent potential for violent change that makes the natural world so unpredictable and fascinating.
This was such a day.
SPRING, it seems, has come early to Ireland this year.
On Saturday, January 7th I spotted a clump of frogspawn in a roadside ditch beside a small lake not far from the house.
Frogspawn, in West Cork, laid the first week of January. That’s just nuts!
Common Frogs normally emerge from hibernation around the middle of February — but this year it seems the abnormally mild weather has our amphibian friends stirring from their winter slumber much earlier than usual.
