#Outdoors

A COMPREHENSIVE SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THIS TOPIC

Sky Matters: February's big space event is NASA’s Artemis II mission
Sky Matters: February's big space event is NASA’s Artemis II mission
This will be the first time humans have embarked on a journey towards the moon since 1972 when Apollo 17 completed the manned exploration of our nearest neighbour

Sat, 31 Jan, 2026

Sinkhole Swallows a Car in Florida
An unsettling natural hazard: Here's everything you need to know about sinkholes 
Sinkholes are surprisingly selective. They require the right rock, the right water chemistry, the right underground space and just enough time...

Fri, 30 Jan, 2026

Malaria drug research
Climate change and deforestation helping mosquitos thrive
As the Atlantic Forest dwindles mosquitoes end up feeding more on humans out of convenience — and the risk of disease increases

Thu, 29 Jan, 2026

Flowers are great... until they bloom at the wrong time
Flowers are great... until they bloom at the wrong time
Results of the 16th annual New Year Plant Hunt show how our weather is changing, impacting flowering times and other wildlife — birds, bees, butterflies, and a wide range of pollinators — that depend on our wild plants

Wed, 28 Jan, 2026

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) eating red berries
Birds of Ireland: Blue tit
Blue tits are smaller than robins and both sexes appear similar

Sat, 24 Jan, 2026

Written on the walls: what lichens tell us about our environment
Written on the walls: what lichens tell us about our environment
Lichens have no roots, no waxy leaves and no way to filter what they absorb. Everything they take in comes directly from the atmosphere so they are extraordinarily sensitive to air quality. For more than a century, scientists have used lichens to track pollution

Fri, 23 Jan, 2026

A bus that goes where you ask it to — service being piloted in Limerick, Kerry, and Mayo
A bus that goes where you ask it to — service being piloted in Limerick, Kerry, and Mayo
On-demand shuttle buses and safer cycling show promise, but a cultural shift and investment are still needed

Thu, 22 Jan, 2026

Summing up our swan squad successes 
Summing up our swan squad successes 
The whooper swan is thriving which is certainly something to celebrate and support

Wed, 21 Jan, 2026

A week-long hike, a three-day hike, or a day out — the Kerry Way has it all
S A week-long hike, a three-day hike, or a day out — the Kerry Way has it all
The 210 kilometre Kerry Way has numerous routes featuring dramatic peaks and windswept loughs, while encountering hidden glens, wild moorlands, and magnificent coastal vistas

Sun, 18 Jan, 2026

Birds of Ireland: Blackcap
Birds of Ireland: Blackcap
A blackcap, which is about the size of a robin, can be very aggressive at a bird table

Sat, 17 Jan, 2026

Mountain stream flows through granite boulders in Glenmacnass valley, County Wicklow, Ireland
The invisible carbon in Ireland’s waters
Dissolved organic carbon may be one of the most underestimated pressures on Irish waters. About 20% of our land area is covered by peat and peaty soils, which are among the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth. That makes Ireland uniquely vulnerable to large losses of carbon from land to water

Fri, 16 Jan, 2026

Five Monk Parakeets on a garden fountain in a Santiago garden
'Testing the waters’ when forming new relationships
Monk parakeets don’t rush into friendships. They gradually escalate interactions, starting from safe, low-risk behaviours and moving toward more intimate acts only when trust is established

Thu, 15 Jan, 2026

Wasteful and dangerous to dump batteries and electronics
Wasteful and dangerous to dump batteries and electronics
Lithium is now used in many batteries, especially the rechargeable ones. But a damaged lithium battery can catch fire, or explode, without warning — so for safety reasons, people are asked not to put batteries into general bins, skips, or street bins

Thu, 15 Jan, 2026

Winter weather Jan 8th 2026
Iridescent kingfishers need clear rivers — can we help?
We need to rethink our disregard for water quality, and to get busy restoring Ireland’s rivers to good health

Wed, 14 Jan, 2026

Weathering storms — and new beginnings
Weathering storms — and new beginnings
Alice Taylor, author of To School Through the Fields, grew up on a farm along the Cork‒Kerry border, experiencing a way of life that, though physically demanding, was kind to the land. This is an extract from her latest book, Weathering Storms, in which she writes about the challenges of living well with aging

Sun, 11 Jan, 2026

Birds of Ireland: Chiffchaff
Birds of Ireland: Chiffchaff
Chiffchaffs of all ages have green-grey upperparts, their underside is light yellow-grey, and they have a thin, dark eye stripe with a narrow, dull supercilium ('eyebrow')

Sat, 10 Jan, 2026

Cold enough to remember
Cold enough to remember
Ireland has lived through colder climates than this, and what stands out in hindsight is not collapse, but continuity. During the Little Ice Age (from roughly the 14th century to the mid-19th century) people adapted to altered seasons and unreliable weather without knowing they were living through a climatic shift

Fri, 09 Jan, 2026

Teenage girl observing the winter night sky with telescope
January is the best month for astronomy — here's what to look out for
It used to be said that you could test your eyesight by counting the number of stars visible to the unaided eye. The best nights to try this are around January 19 when the Moon is new

Wed, 07 Jan, 2026

Pond reconstruction
Is 2026 the year you build a pond or plant native trees and hedges?
When so much around the globe is coming apart we need things to ground and reassure us. The reality of lengthening days and unfolding seasons can do just this

Wed, 07 Jan, 2026

Lense
Ireland’s 2025 environmental review — and a look ahead to 2026
Ireland did not experience a single defining climate disaster in 2025... climate change in Ireland now operates less as a headline-grabbing event and more as a persistent context

Fri, 02 Jan, 2026

dilapidated cable car at a former ski resort near the town of Zabljak in northern Montenegro
Hundreds of ski slopes lie abandoned... will nature reclaim the Alps?
With the snow line edging higher, 186 French ski resorts have shut, while global heating threatens dozens more

Thu, 01 Jan, 2026

International project aims to decode whale communication
International project aims to decode whale communication
Listening to our animal kin — some experts predict that the capacity and technology to understand and talk back to non-human mammals will be developed by the end of the decade, just a few short years away

Wed, 31 Dec, 2025

Blow away the cobwebs with these wonderful winter walks
Blow away the cobwebs with these wonderful winter walks
Here's a handy link to lots of long and short walks suitable for varying skills 

Mon, 29 Dec, 2025

Hiking Ireland’s longest waymarked walking trail takes around three weeks
S Hiking Ireland’s longest waymarked walking trail takes around three weeks
Tbe creation of the Beara Breifne trail involved 'stitching together' 12 existing walking routes so you can of course tackle it in sections 

Sun, 28 Dec, 2025

Birds of Ireland: Short-eared owl
Birds of Ireland: Short-eared owl
Short-eared owls have stiff wingbeats and glide. They are often seen hunting in broad daylight and are regularly seen on the ground

Sat, 27 Dec, 2025

Red Fox At Night
The fox is a fine, healthy thing of beauty — why would we rip her to shreds?
Her coat shone, dense and full. Her amber eyes glowed, cleanly set in a ring of black. A creature of utter perfection, writes environmental activist, Seán Ronayne.  And we allow such majestic beings be chased and violently killed for 'sport'

Fri, 26 Dec, 2025

Mayo Cheeseburger Feast
Saving the planet, one label at a time  
We've had a series of earnest discussions and proposals, including within the European Parliament, about whether plant-based foods should be allowed to use words like 'burger' or 'sausage'

Fri, 26 Dec, 2025

A beach walk with a little more — explore your shore
A beach walk with a little more — explore your shore
Through the Big Beach Biodiversity Survey,  everyone visiting an Irish beach this winter is invited to record marine life washed ashore by the tides and the storms

Wed, 24 Dec, 2025

Why are our marine 'protected' areas still nothing more than lines on maps?
S Why are our marine 'protected' areas still nothing more than lines on maps?
Blanket bans on certain activities, such as towing trawls and dredges across the seafloor, or fixing nets for long periods, or even prohibiting all kinds of fishing or extractive activities from some areas, are urgently needed says ecologist Pádraic Fogarty

Sun, 21 Dec, 2025

robin bird
Christmas pre-tinsel: when plants — and robins — ran the show
Strip Christmas of its baubles, batteries and Amazon deliveries, and what you’re left with is, at heart, a festival of plants. Trees dragged indoors. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling. Berries admired but (wisely) not eaten.

Fri, 19 Dec, 2025

Donal Hickey: Do try to avoid making pour decisions
Donal Hickey: Do try to avoid making pour decisions
Fats, oils and greases (FOGs) should never go down the kitchen sink. Hot fats cool quickly inside pipes causing hardened blockages in the plumbing

Thu, 18 Dec, 2025

Aquatic habitats in such poor condition even adaptable species like herons may struggle
Aquatic habitats in such poor condition even adaptable species like herons may struggle
Since the start of this millennium, Ireland has lost around half a million waterbirds — almost 40% of the total population

Wed, 17 Dec, 2025

Christmas 2025: Are you doing a Christmas swim this year?
Christmas 2025: Are you doing a Christmas swim this year?
Christmas is definitely on the way when people start planning Christmas swims — if you're aiming to have a seasonal dip then check out this list which includes couple of handy pre-Christmas swims too

Mon, 15 Dec, 2025

Curious hedgehog in the grass
A pest or a prince — is it all down to postcodes?
The conservation–invasion paradox is when a species is endangered where it evolved but causes havoc where humans introduced it. So why can't we just bring unwanted animals to where they're wanted?

Fri, 12 Dec, 2025

World first — hippopotamus has cataract surgery in Dublin
World first — hippopotamus has cataract surgery in Dublin
Visually impaired hippo, Imani, has had sight restored to her left eye thanks to a very successful specialist procedure

Thu, 11 Dec, 2025

A Brown Bear comes close to a house entrance in Hokkaido
Increase in bear attacks in Japan
One theory is that trees may be to blame — a lean crop of seeds and nuts may be forcing hungry bears into human habitats in search of food

Thu, 11 Dec, 2025

Leaping Scottish Salmon
Helping wild Atlantic salmon overcome man-made obstacles
In the days before electricity, barriers of all sizes were important for using a river’s energy to turn mill wheels and power all sorts of machinery. Many of these barriers are still present but most now serve no purpose, other than preventing salmon from making their journeys between the sea and freshwater

Thu, 11 Dec, 2025

Ireland's lax approach to inspecting farms and enforcing rules
Ireland's lax approach to inspecting farms and enforcing rules
The EU Nitrates Committee meets on Tuesday and may extend Ireland's nitrates derogation by up to three years. At the same time we need to protect or restore water quality on a national scale writes ecologist Pádraic Fogarty

Sun, 07 Dec, 2025

Michelle McKeown: The weather tug-of-war that shapes our winters
Michelle McKeown: The weather tug-of-war that shapes our winters
Understanding the North Atlantic Oscillation won’t stop Irish winters being chaotic, but it helps explain why they sometimes fall into familiar rhythms. And it reminds us that, while climate change is gradually reshaping global systems, natural variability still has plenty to say

Fri, 05 Dec, 2025

View from the sea of Giannutri Island
Studying impact of honeybees on local wild bees
Giannutri is a little island off the coast Italy. Its isolation ensured that honeybees never got there under their own steam — 18 hives were introduced in 2018 and scientists have been studying their effects on the local bee population

Thu, 04 Dec, 2025

Donal Hickey: A salute to farmers working with nature
Donal Hickey: A salute to farmers working with nature
Making a shift from using every bit of land and ‘driving it hard’ to a work model where climate and nature guide every decision

Thu, 04 Dec, 2025

Anja Murray: Nitrates not giving our rivers a chance to breathe
Anja Murray: Nitrates not giving our rivers a chance to breathe
Why is it now widely considered acceptable to heap pollutants in to lakes until the ecosystems they once sustained are eliminated?

Wed, 03 Dec, 2025

Merry Christmas Santa Claus flying in UFO spaceship flying saucer with gift boxes in space Earh night. Vector illustration isola
Planets Santa might end up visiting... next year?
As Santa sits at the North Pole anticipating the discovery of life on some far-flung planet he might be somewhat nervously scanning the latest scientific literature to see which exoplanets are hot topics

Sat, 29 Nov, 2025

16,000 years’ worth of stories to uncover from sediment in a West Cork lake
16,000 years’ worth of stories to uncover from sediment in a West Cork lake
In search of Ireland's ancient past by recovering and examining sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA)

Fri, 28 Nov, 2025

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Mick Clifford
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