THE other morning I went for a walk along the bank of the Grand Canal in a rural part of Co Kildare. The amount and variety of wildflowers was striking.

THE sight and sound of swifts in the sky, scything through the air and screaming, is an icon of summer.

The modern theory is that you should continue feeding wild birds throughout the year and not stop during the breeding season, which was the earlier advice.

I was woken early the other morning by the sound of starlings.

I’VE just built myself a new garden pond.

A FEW weeks ago a pair of blackbirds built a nest in the hedge outside my conservatory.

THERE’S always something magical about that week in the middle of May when the hawthorn starts to blossom.

INTERESTING news from across the water – it looks as though Britain is about to gain a new species of mammal.

ON APRIL 23 Fisheries Officers on a routine patrol of Lough Derg on the Shannon came across a party of French anglers fishing for pike from boats.

WHAT makes deciduous trees and other perennial plants start to grow in the spring?