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#Outdoors

A COMPREHENSIVE SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THIS TOPIC

<p>Brú na Bóinne National Park, NPWS — much of the new park is low biodiversity grassland with non-native trees. Pictures: Pádraic Fogarty</p>

S outdoors

This could end up being the most radical of all our national parks...

Brú na Bóinne/Boyne Valley National Park may show us the way back from intensive farming practices that leave so little space for nature

<p>On October 21 the Orionid meteor shower peaks. One of the fun things about watching the Orionids, true for any meteor shower, is their unpredictability</p>

outdoors

Sky Matters: Orionid meteor showers and Saturn visibility in October

<p>Dr Michelle McKeown: "The new wave of nature apps is more than handy, they’re feeding serious science while giving your inner David Attenborough a tech upgrade."</p>

outdoors

Tap, snap, explore: Seven science-backed apps to bring nature closer

Testing zebra stripes on cows — with some very positive results

outdoors

Testing zebra stripes on cows — with some very positive results

Donal Hickey: Extreme care is needed when foraging for mushrooms

outdoors

Donal Hickey: Extreme care is needed when foraging for mushrooms

Geese taken over the soccer field

outdoors

Anja Murray: Charismatic waterbirds arriving from afar this winter

Spooky season is almost upon us — here’s where you can pick pumpkins in Ireland this autumn

Spooky season is almost upon us — here’s where you can pick pumpkins in Ireland this autumn

Pumpkin parties, autumn events, pick-your-own-pumpkin festivals — they're all right here

Sun, 28 Sep, 2025

Could paludiculture be Ireland’s next big idea?

Could paludiculture be Ireland’s next big idea?

Farming on wet land instead of drained soils involves a shift in mindset, from battling nature to working with it. And in a country where bogs have shaped our past, paludiculture could play a role in shaping a more sustainable future

Fri, 26 Sep, 2025

Stark pollinator warning: birds, bumblebees and butterflies need more habitat to survive

Stark pollinator warning: birds, bumblebees and butterflies need more habitat to survive

The EU’s 10% natural habitat target is insufficient for pollinator recovery, say scientists — they need 16-37% habitat coverage in farmland ares for effective protection

Thu, 25 Sep, 2025

Migration and aging link revealed by long-term flamingo study

Migration and aging link revealed by long-term flamingo study

Flamingos could hold the secret to slower aging

Thu, 25 Sep, 2025

A Disordered Medicine Drawer Containing Various Pills, Packaging, and Additional Items

Tackling out-of-date medicines — they can be a serious health and environmental risk

Internationally, one of the most pressing health challenges of our time is the problem of bacteria and viruses which resist the effects of medicine. Every antibiotic incorrectly disposed of adds to this problem

Thu, 25 Sep, 2025

Common / Bandit Pipistrelle Bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) hunting at twilight, Berwickshire, Scotland, June 2008

Autumn Equinox and nocturnal animals

From here on in, we will have more darkness than daylight, making this a good time to consider the lives of wild creatures most active at nighttime. Apart from bats, moths and owls, many other creatures also become active as light fades from the landscape. Foxes, badgers, mice, and pine martens are primarily nocturnal, and half of all invertebrates are adapted to life in darkness

Wed, 24 Sep, 2025

Limerick wind turbine plans will ‘decimate’ protected species

Limerick wind turbine plans will ‘decimate’ protected species

Garrane Green Energy's proposed development to build nine wind turbines described as 'devastating'

Sun, 21 Sep, 2025

Birds of Ireland: Storm petrel

Birds of Ireland: Storm petrel

A storm petrel flutters puppet-like with legs pattering and running on the surface when hunting. They have an erratic flight

Sun, 21 Sep, 2025

Man must decide his way forward to success or failure

Ireland’s climate targets: the clock is ticking and the bill is mounting

Despite the daunting gap, Ireland has shown it can bend the emissions curve. A 6.8% drop in one year proves that action, combined with factors like a mild winter and a shift away from coal, has an impact

Fri, 19 Sep, 2025

Cork enviro campaigner takes a look into our sewers... so you don't have to

Cork enviro campaigner takes a look into our sewers... so you don't have to

Only the 3 Ps for the loo please says the de-influencer who visited a pumping station and discovered more than she wanted to know about some of the nasties flushed down our toilets

Thu, 18 Sep, 2025

Testing the water of a reservoir for the content of microbes .

Societal acceptance of severe pollution and fish kills

Isn't it about time we make deadly nutrient seepages and toxic chemical spills a thing of the past?

Wed, 17 Sep, 2025

Bloody Sunday jersey, stone carving workshops and more at unique 'time capsule' museum

Bloody Sunday jersey, stone carving workshops and more at unique 'time capsule' museum

Tipperary Museum of Hidden History brings tradition and craft to life in a major heritage initiative involving stone carving workshops and willow planting and weaving sessions

Mon, 15 Sep, 2025

Birds of Ireland: Manx shearwater

Birds of Ireland: Manx shearwater

Manx shearwater are often seen feeding with gannets and kittiwake, forming large flocks called 'rafts' on the water

Sat, 13 Sep, 2025

Foraging in Ireland: A feast or fatal mistake?

Foraging in Ireland: A feast or fatal mistake?

Let’s be clear: foraging is not a game of chance. Mistakes can be costly, and in the worst cases, fatal. And remember, in the great supermarket of nature, there are no refunds

Fri, 12 Sep, 2025

Dublin accountant battles asthma to summit the world’s seven highest volcanic peaks

Dublin accountant battles asthma to summit the world’s seven highest volcanic peaks

As if mountain climbing weren't enough of a challenge, Dublin-based accountant Milasha Joseph is contending with chronic asthma as she biggest volcanic mountain in each of the seven continents

Thu, 11 Sep, 2025

Brent Pease TON

The working day of some birds may be up to an hour longer than ‘normal’ due to artificial light

New research shows that light pollution caused birds to sing, on average, 50 minutes longer that they would were artificial lights absent. Birds in the brightest environments tended to begin singing up to 20 minutes earlier in the morning and continued doing so up to half an hour later in the evening

Thu, 11 Sep, 2025

How do you like them apples... huge amount of fruit on trees in gardens and orchards

How do you like them apples... huge amount of fruit on trees in gardens and orchards

We had the ideal conditions for apple-growing this year — and scroll down for recipes for apple tart or mulled apple and whiskey

Thu, 11 Sep, 2025

Connemara Coast

Colourful or camouflaged, crabs can live up to 20 years of age

Crabs constitute Ireland’s third most valuable seafood export, with an export value in excess of €60 million per year

Wed, 10 Sep, 2025

One of the largest Irish animals is at imminent risk of further decline — new report

One of the largest Irish animals is at imminent risk of further decline — new report

The flapper skate is critically endangered and are top predators and their absence, like taking wolves from a forest, can lead to impacts cascading through the ecosystem. It is hard to imagine that a species in a similar predicament on land would attract so little attention says ecologist Pádraic Fogarty

Mon, 08 Sep, 2025

Birds of Ireland: Shag

Birds of Ireland: Shag

A shag's breeding plumage features distinctive forward-curling dark crown tufts and they have all-dark iridescent plumage with a thin yellow patch below the eye

Sat, 06 Sep, 2025

Donal Hickey: Best blackberry season in years, isn't it?

Donal Hickey: Best blackberry season in years, isn't it?

There's a bumper crop of blackas on the brambles this year thanks to a great summer — scroll down for recipes for blackberry gin and blackberry drizzle cake

Thu, 04 Sep, 2025

Richard Collins: No smiles for illegally released crocodile in Spain

Richard Collins: No smiles for illegally released crocodile in Spain

The one-metre long yacare caiman was smuggled into Spain from South America. As it grew, the exotic pet probably became too difficult to keep at home, so its owner dumped it into the reservoir

Thu, 04 Sep, 2025

Hands off nature — vital to defend the laws protecting nature and people

Hands off nature — vital to defend the laws protecting nature and people

Here's how to make your voice count and state your opposition to the proposed weakening of environmental laws across Europe — the European Commission has launched a consultation about the “simplification of administrative burdens in environmental legislation” which runs until September 10

Thu, 04 Sep, 2025

John Gibbons: The lie of the land — adapt or die

John Gibbons: The lie of the land — adapt or die

Does Ireland need to appoint a Ministry for the Future or a Future Generations Commissioner asks journalist and author John Gibbons in his new book The Lie of the Land

Thu, 04 Sep, 2025

Mating Ned Devine? The New Zealand snail turned global celebrity

Mating Ned Devine? The New Zealand snail turned global celebrity

"Most snail shells spiral clockwise, but Ned’s curves the other way — an unusual genetic quirk found in roughly one in around 40,000 snails."

Mon, 01 Sep, 2025

Sky Matters: The best times and places to see the lunar eclipse on September 7

Sky Matters: The best times and places to see the lunar eclipse on September 7

And the Autumnal Equinox is on September 22 — this is the date when the length of day and night are equal for every one of Earth's 8.2 billion people

Mon, 01 Sep, 2025

Aerial

Drowning nations: Kiribati and the South Pacific’s fight for survival

If we fail to meet our own 2030 climate targets, if we continue to expand high-emission sectors, then our solidarity with Kiribati is nothing more than rhetoric. Every delayed decision in Dublin, every postponed policy on transport, every row over methane cuts, translates into sea-level rise in Tarawa

Fri, 29 Aug, 2025

Female gorillas choosy about which group to settle in — potentially an inbreeding avoidance strategy

Female gorillas choosy about which group to settle in — potentially an inbreeding avoidance strategy

Scientists have found that female gorillas shunned troops in which males from their own neck-of-the-woods were present, but opted to join ones in which no males were their close relatives

Thu, 28 Aug, 2025

Driver Delivering Online Grocery Order

Donal Hickey: Food waste is a big problem for our pockets and for the planet

When food is wasted, all the resources used in bringing food to our tables are wasted too. Reducing your food waste is a key action you can take to help the environment and save money too

Thu, 28 Aug, 2025

Seal pups on Farne Islands

Anja Murray: Life and death among Ireland's wild seals

These gorgeous baby Grey seals are born on beaches from September onwards... but going too close will do them more harm than good

Wed, 27 Aug, 2025

The Burren: a magical place — but with eco pressures such as goat grazing

S The Burren: a magical place — but with eco pressures such as goat grazing

In the Burren there is a tension between opposing versions of nature: one that is man-made and closely hitched to an ancient farming tradition, and another that wants to free itself from the need for human interference

Sun, 24 Aug, 2025

Three European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) on a bird feeder with Nyjer seeds.

Light pollution tricking urban birds into staying awake longer each day

Researchers were ‘shocked’ to discover some species settling down for sleep 50 minutes later than rural counterparts

Sun, 24 Aug, 2025

Birds of Ireland: Cormorant

Birds of Ireland: Cormorant

Both male and female cormorants look similar — with a strong, grey, hook-tipped beak and a thick snake-like neck

Sat, 23 Aug, 2025

Rotorua, New Zealand

What’s the story, twiggy glory... stick insects in Ireland

There are more than 3,000 species of stick and leaf insects globally — and at least one has taken up residence in the south of Ireland

Fri, 22 Aug, 2025

female malaria mosquito (Anopheles funestus) biting a human arm. Image shot 2009. Exact date unknown.

Mosquito surveillance programme underway

From disease transmission to nasty bites, some insects just aren't nice neighbours

Thu, 21 Aug, 2025

A year in the woods — with its community of wildlife

A year in the woods — with its community of wildlife

An extract from Paul Clements' book about a year spent in a cottage on the grounds of Montalto in County Down

Mon, 18 Aug, 2025

A close-up of a clean-up volunteer wearing protective gloves and holding small pieces of microplastic pollution on a beach.

What are nurdles and why are they polluting our oceans?

Buoyant, the size of a lentil and almost impossible to recover, millions of the tiny plastic pellets are being washed up on the coast of Kerala in India in the latest in a series of global spills

Sat, 16 Aug, 2025

Depletion of ozone layer, Ozone hole, illustration

Back in the ozone: How we plugged the hole in the sky

If we could do it once, we can do it again, whether it’s climate change, biodiversity loss, or the plastic in our oceans. We once had a hole in the sky — now we have a blueprint for how to mend the planet. And that, in anyone’s book, is a good news story

Fri, 15 Aug, 2025

ladybug on a green leaf

About one-third of insects here under threat of extinction due to pollution, intensive farming, and habitat loss

Insects play an essential role in the planet. David Attenborough once said the world’s ecosystems would collapse if all the bees, wasps, ants, flies and others were to disappear

Thu, 14 Aug, 2025

Remembering Glenbower Lake — and keening its loss

Remembering Glenbower Lake — and keening its loss

Coming up... a celebration of the six-acre East Cork lake at Glenbower Woods which was drained nearly four decades ago

Mon, 11 Aug, 2025

Birds of Ireland: Mediterranean gull

Birds of Ireland: Mediterranean gull

The jet-black hood on adult Mediterranean gulls is very striking — and they have long red legs too

Sat, 09 Aug, 2025

Losing ground: Coastal erosion in Ireland and what we can do about it

Losing ground: Coastal erosion in Ireland and what we can do about it

Entire sections of coast are disappearing into the sea. And while erosion is a natural process, it’s now accelerating due to human activity and climate change. The question we face is no longer if we should act, but how

Fri, 08 Aug, 2025

Plastic pollution disposable gloves and sea turtle

Why the world is divided on plastic as UN treaty talks underway

The volume of plastic in the world and the scientific record of its risks keep rising

Thu, 07 Aug, 2025

Increase in dolphin strandings — here's what to do if you see a live dolphin stuck on the beach

Increase in dolphin strandings — here's what to do if you see a live dolphin stuck on the beach

Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue Service (BSCR) and the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) were involved in a rescue operation for a stranded striped dolphin at Long Strand, Ballybunion in Kerry recently.

Thu, 07 Aug, 2025