Richard Collins on the big cat scare in the mountains of Munster

I RECEIVED an email this week about a mongrel swan in Cork. It came from an unlikely source, Maria Weiloch, a swan expert at the Gdansk Ornithological Station.

XAVIER METZ, a Frenchman, runs a cashew farm in Madagascar. While he and his family were walking in a remote area of the country last year, they came upon a strange-looking palm tree with its branches covered in flowers.

ROOKS, known as ‘crows’ in Ireland, are impatient birds; they can’t wait to begin nesting.

THE extraordinary transformation of Dublin Zoo, which began in 1994, continues apace. Last year saw the completion of the new state-of-the-art Asian elephant facility. Now, a landmark building is being restored.

Richard Collins delves into the poorly understood world of gut bacteria

JUST before the solstice, I spent a few days on the shores of Carlingford Lough. There was quite a good dawn chorus in the morning, to which the outstanding contributors were not the usual robins, but song thrushes. Although thrushes begin singing early in the year, the Carlingford ones were ahead of themselves, in full voice before the year had even turned. These fine vocalists have become scarce over much of the country but they seem to be thriving on the Cooley peninsula.

Richard Collins explains why there won’t be any more snow days in Ireland.

THE popular English carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, mentions five kinds of bird and a tree.

Richard Collins finds out that humans aren’t the only animals to ‘pig out’.