Ireland’s hen-harrier population has declined by 33.5% since 2000, and this is likely to be down to several factors, including tree-felling, windfams, and turf-cutting. The hen harrier is one of our rarest birds.

Two prominent environmental bodies have called for an end to the “continuing vilification’’ of the protected hen harrier.

One of the wonders of nature at night is watching a barn owl swoop for prey. 

A campaign has been launched to monitor the country’s birds of prey amid fears that large numbers are being accidentally poisoned by infected rats and mice.

Ireland’s declining native barn owl population could be given a boost by a foreign shrew that has managed to get into the country.

SATURDAY

ACCORDING to the Meteorological Service, average temperatures here rose by three quarters of a degree in the last 20 years.

BIRDWATCH Ireland has expressed horror after poisoners used three live pigeons tied to the ground to kill a pair of young buzzards.

WHEN I heard that BirdWatch Ireland was starting a survey of kestrel numbers in Ireland one thing immediately struck me.

THE list of wild mammals in Ireland has grown by an astonishing amount over the past 100 years. Some of the new additions have here all along but they were animals we never noticed and includes several species of bat.

A TINY mammal, not previously known as an Irish inhabitant, has been discovered living quietly in the Tipperary countryside.

EATING OWL flesh will help a child’s whooping cough and owl’s eyes contain a cure for blindness, or so the piseogs claim. According to the ancient Doctrine of Signatures, an animal’s special attributes indicate the medicinal benefits its flesh has to offer.