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citizen science

World Migratory Bird Day — ESRI Mapping Migration

Swift Migration Ireland

Around 450 different bird species have been recorded on the island of Ireland, and although a lot of them are migratory and rare, now is the best chance to catch a glimpse of them as they return north to build nests and prepare for the breeding season. Esri Ireland, a….

New Citizen Science Project needs your Seal Sightings!

Grey seal wildlife holiday Ireland

A new research project at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) in partnership with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is looking for public input to analyse seal populations around the Irish coast. The project is being undertaken by German native Kristina Steinmetz, a graduate of the Biodiversity….

Birdwatch Ireland Garden Bird Survey kicks off Monday

This Monday, 30 November 2015, sees the start of Birdwatch Ireland’s most popular survey: the annual winter Garden Bird Survey. Every year Ireland’s largest conservation NGO asks households across the country to record the birds visiting their gardens between the start of December and the end of February. How the Garden Bird….

Lost bumblebee rediscovered in Dublin after 88 years

Southern cuckoo bumblebee found in Dublin Park

A gardener at a Dublin park has rediscovered a bumblebee species last recorded in Ireland in 1926. Eddie Hill, who is an avid bee recorder, and regularly submits bee sightings to the National Bumblebee Monitoring scheme, noticed some odd looking bees feeding on flowers at St. Enda’s Park in Rathfarnam. After studying photographs and two….

Cork school children contribute to international godwit study

Under the banner of Operation Godwit an international team of scientists has been studying the Icelandic black-tailed godwit since the 1990s. Unique combinations of colour rings placed on the birds’ legs on their breeding grounds in Iceland and on their wintering grounds in Western Europe allow individual birds to be….

Have you seen a dormouse in Ireland?

Hazel Dormouse Ireland

If you have, then researchers at NUI Galway want to hear from you. The hazel dormouse (also know as the common dormouse) was discovered living in Ireland very recently, most likely introduced from the UK or Europe. NUI Galway is conducting a survey to discover where they can be found and….

Bird Atlas 2007-2011 — save 33% before 31 July

Bird Atlas 2007-2011

If you’re a birder in Britain or Ireland then chances are you already know about the upcoming publication of “Bird Atlas 2007-2011”. The culmination of one of the most ambitious citizen science projects ever undertaken, Bird Atlas brings together data on bird populations collected by tens of thousands  of dedicated….

BirdTrack… a smart new way to record the birds you see

Sand Martin Arrival 2013

Brian Caffrey, co-ordinator of BirdTrack  for Irish partner organisation, Birdwatch Ireland, introduces this new tool for recording and managing your personal bird records, and contributing to a body of data that helps inform bird conservation on a local, regional, national and international level. BirdTrack (www.birdtrack.net) is an exciting project that….

Irish Pollinator Initiative: driving bee conservation through better data

Andrena fulva - extinct solitary bee rediscovered in 2012

Dr. Una Fitzpatrick, Ecologist with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, explains why we need to conserve our pollinators, and how you can help. The staggering value of pollination Pollination services provided by insects, mainly bees, have been valued at €153 billion a year. With 71 out of the 100 crops….

Birdwatch Ireland Garden Bird Survey starts Monday 03 December

The blue tit -- one of the most striking of our common garden birds

Birdwatch Ireland’s most popular “Citizen Science” project… the annual Garden Bird Survey… starts next Monday, 03 December. It’s a survey that anyone can take part in and its really easy to get involved here’s how Birdwatch Ireland explain it: The way the survey works is very straightforward…  Between December and….

Citizen Science hits the beach with Coastwatch 2012

Coastwatch team seeks Citizen Scientists for shore survey

Coastwatch is an annual “Eco-Audit” of Ireland’s shoreline that relies on “Citizen Scientists” like you to submit records from all around the Irish coast. 2012 marks the survey’s 25th anniversary in Ireland, and takes place between 15 September and 15 October [I know this post is a bit late… oops…….

IWT and Biology.ie team up to encourage citizen science

Citizen Science in action: interactive Biology.ie sightings map on the IWT homepage

The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) and wildlife records and mapping website Biology.ie have joined forces to encourage more people in Ireland to submit their wildlife sightings online. According to a post on the IWT website the hope is that the initiative will “contribute to the growing level of ‘citizen science’….