I WAS cleaning up my pond the other day.

THE smoking ban has benefited swallows.

I HAVE a pond on the patio with half a dozen goldfish in it.

IN May the weather was cold and this was followed by a period of drought.

I WAS doing a guided walk through a forest the other day and several people asked me about the ash die-back disease and the threat it poses to Irish ash trees.

I WAS watching whirligig beetles in the margin of the canal the other day.

FOR a long time I’ve suspected birds have a totally different sense of taste to people or other mammals.

FOR most people, the Liffey is Dublin’s river.

THE other day, I revisited Great Saltee Island, off the Wexford Coast.

IN the past couple of weeks, two pairs of lesser redpolls have added to the birds visiting my feeders.