IRELAND is a very important place for birds from the arctic and sub-arctic to spend the winter in.

A READER has contacted me about a wasp’s nest built into a curtain that had been left open all summer.

MY bird feeders are dominated by house sparrows. They arrive in numbers and with a noisy whirring of wings and a determination to oust other birds.

A READER contacted me.

A READER emailed me to ask the best way to propagate buckthorn trees.

THE other day a male blackcap appeared at my bird table and it’s been hanging round ever since.

LAST week Nature Table (below) featured the ash tree but only days later the news broke that a deadly ash disease had been detected in Ireland.

HOT sandy deserts are exciting places and the Arctic is incredibly beautiful.

A REGULAR reader emails me from time to time with questions and observations on the wildlife around him and, because he’s a very keen observer, his emails are always interesting. One came in the other day.

NEW books devoted to Irish birds don’t appear that frequently.