A reduction in the number of farmland birds in some European countries is being attributed to insecticides which are also claimed to have caused massive bee deaths globally, according to new research.

A SONG by the Clare minstrel, PJ Murrihy, about an old threshing mill brought back memories of days growing up in rural Ireland when the whine of a threshing machine echoed around the countryside. In those times, grain was harvested much later than now.

MOST people will, at some stage, have seen the common lizard which is regarded as an important animal in Ireland, being our only native reptile species.

SIGHTINGS of the great spotted woodpecker were once rare in Ireland. However, there’s now clear evidence that the bird is not only breeding here, but is spreading around the country from its original base in the east coast.

ANY person who walks the length of the Munster Blackwater deserves an accolade, writes Donal Hickey

THERE isn’t a parish in the country, urban or rural, without very visible reminders of how people earned their livelihoods, conducted their lives and transported themselves in the past.

CAN there be a better topic to get people talking than the weather? 

THE common dormouse, made famous through the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, has been found in Ireland and is being treated as a non-native species. 

NOWADAYS with professional experts giving weather forecasts based on science and studies of the atmosphere, it is common to mock traditional weather lore, farmers and other rural folk who relied on signs from plants and animals to predict the capricious elements.

IT’S not always appreciated, but birds of prey, including barn owls and red kites, play a key role in controlling the rat and mice population in a natural way, writes Donal Hickey