THE open fire in the sittingroom has been replaced by the more efficient solid-fuel stove. But the smoke must still go somewhere.

Some readers have been in touch about the movement of frogs, which is timely as these fascinating creatures now emerge from hibernation.

It's one of the great movements of nature. The arrival in Ireland of hundreds of thousands of birds from colder northern climes for the winter.

An ongoing cull is resulting in a major reduction in the deer population in one of the country’s most visited natural attractions.

Time was when people in Ireland didn’t run to doctors and pharmacists with every ache. Instead, they had their own medicine drawn from herbs and plants.

Even though long summer evenings, when bats emerge at dusk to devour flying insects, are the best time to see them, many people associate bats more with this time of year.

A ten-fold increase in the debilitating disease should have alarm bells ringing, writes Donal Hickey, especially as some experts believe the real rate is even higher.

Glorious Glengarriff and Garinish, the ‘near island’,can indeed be called gems in that they are precious, more precious with every passing year, trenchant survivors of that classical Irish scenery beloved of Victorians, trees and mountains reflected on still brown waters.

It’s being proven again and again that a most effective way to train people to do something is to show how they can save money, however small the amount, by co-operating.

Scarcely a day passes without some story emerging about the ability of animals to adapt to changing conditions, especially in their search for food.

There are some signs that we may be moving away from a saturation of conifers towards more broadleaf and native trees.

Even people with only a slight interest in the natural world seem to be talking these days about varied weather in winter and early spring, which is again highlighting the effects of climate change on animal and plant behaviour.

Here's your morning bulletin.

Those of us who grew up when the rivers of Ireland were full of fish understood the term, “as slippery as an eel”.

IT USED to be said in olden times that a squirrel could travel from Cork to Killarney, Co Kerry, without once touching the ground, such was the extent of woodland, writes Donal Hickey.

Three wildlife species under threat in Ireland are fitting subjects of the annual autumn series of talks in Killarney National Park, writes Donal Hickey.

Amid the palette of autumn colours now adorning the landscape, a yellow, daisy-like plant stands out. Ragwort, even though a banned weed that can kill if ingested by cattle or horses, is to be seen on farmland, abandoned plots in urban areas, and roadsides countrywide.

A ritual of summer motoring in Ireland used to be fairly regular stops to clean windscreens of huge numbers of dead insects.

Some new insights into the extinction-threatened hen harrier have come to light in a study by a rural development group in Co Cork.

In the days when many people did not have piped water, they had to store some of that which fell so freely as rain.

A few sods of turf we saw scattered on roads in parts of West Cork and Co Kerry, in the past week, told a story.

It’s National Biodiversity Week and there’s hardly a better time for enjoying the outdoors. The Irish Environmental Network has helped organise over 50 free events across the country over nine days, May 19-27. All about encouraging people to connect with nature and celebrate the wildlife, plants and habitats on our doorsteps.

Some people have reported hearing the cuckoo's call around Mangerton mountain, near Killarney, Co Kerry, writes Donal Hickey

Is there any month more welcome than May?

People with even a casual familiarity with one of our best national parks will be aware of two chronic problems — the growth of the deer population and rhododendron infestation, writes Donal Hickey.

April is usually a month of promise, with lengthening days, buds and blossoms and a heightening of wildlife activity.

Every year around this time, a blackbird sings in the evenings from the top of a tall tree within earshot of home.

IT’S commonplace nowadays to hear concerns about the impact of large numbers of visitors on wild places, writes Donal Hickey.

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of lost fishing nets kill more than 136,000 seals, sea lions, and whales every year, in addition to millions of birds, turtles and fish, in the world’s oceans, according to World Animal Protection.

As someone who grew up in a village, I remember it as quite a lively place in the 1960s and 70s, writes Donal Hickey

TIME was when noise nuisance in Ireland was generally created by that dreaded dog which never stopped barking in an area, or the busy, inconsiderate neighbour who insisted on working machinery late at night, writes Donal Hickey

Copious amounts of slurry from Irish farms, as well as some of the million tonnes of food waste produced here annually, could be used to create energy, writes Donal Hickey

It is often raining in the Horse’s Glen when the sun is shining in every other part of the country, at any time of the year, writes Donal Hickey.