I HAVE been doing some research recently into the history of angling in Ireland for a television production company, and in the course of it I was re-introduced to a fascinating character, Viscount Grey of Fallodon.

I was walking beside a river the other day when I came across a bank of firm mud with a perfect set of footprints in it.

THE fact that our lakes and rivers still contain many biological surprises was emphasised recently when it was announced that freshwater jellyfish had been discovered in Lough Derg and Lough Erne.

IT’S been a bad year for wild fires in California and the one that caught the attention of the world media last week was the ‘Rim Fire’ which spread into Yosemite National Park.

I WAS surprised last week on the radio when a woman asked me to stop eating octopus, because the animals were so intelligent.

The first thing I do in the morning is to open the curtains to see what sort of day it is.

I got a worried call from a neighbour the other day. There were leeches in his garden pond. Big ones.

A COUPLE of weeks ago I had the pleasure of travelling in a small boat across the mouth of the Shannon estuary accompanied by a pod of 40 to 50 bottle-nosed dolphins.

I CAME across the first harvestman of the summer the other day, skimming over the leaves and stones in my rockery.

THERE’s a road I travel fairly frequently that crosses an area of cutaway bog.