ACCORDING to the Woodland Trust, autumn lasted two weeks longer than usual this year and there were lots of berries. This augurs well for wild creatures facing the trials and tribulations of winter.

THE seabird populations of Scotland have declined over the last decade and a report just issued confirms numbers are continuing to fall. According to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), there may be 46% fewer seabirds now than there were in 1986 when systematic monitoring began.

above, the smooth newt. There is no evidence the frog-killing chytrid fungus is in Ireland, but we cannot be complacent.

THE anniversary of a great Welsh naturalist looms; Alfred Russel Wallace died on Nov 7, 1913. The ‘father of biogeography’, independently of Darwin, hit on the Principle of Natural Selection and discovered the ‘line’ through Southeast Asia which bears his name.

WILDFOWL and Wetlands Trust (WWT) scientists, at Martin Mere, in Lancashire, England, are preventing swans from crashing into cables.

One of the world’s rarest whales was photographed from the deck of the Celtic Mist on Sep 4.

WESTERN religions seem indifferent, even hostile, to nature conservation. Perhaps they see environmentalism as too secularist in outlook.

THE Bard knew the value of sleep. But how does this marvellous therapy work?

John Bradsha, of Bristol University, quotes an Irish legend at the beginning of his new book on cats; ‘a cat’s eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world’.

CLIMBERS on Everest reported distant sightings of a ghostly human-like ape high in the mountains, a nightmare creature, the Abominable Snowman.