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….

One of the most appealing things about nature is that you never really know what to expect. Every time you venture outdoors there’s a sense of heightened anticipation as you wonder what you might encounter. In Ireland at least that sense of the unknown tends to include the weather. This….

Yesterday I dropped everything and went hightailing down to Mizen Head — Ireland’s most southerly point — with a birding friend for an opportunity that was just too good to miss. Ducks. Yes, that’s right, ducks. And pretty unusual ducks at that. While the two chaps in the photo (a….

Every winter our resident blackbirds, song thrushes and mistle thrushes are joined by an influx of visiting northern European thrushes: fieldfare and redwing. The birds usually start to arrive from late September / early October, and stay until early March… with some lingering a little later. Redwing are songthrush sized,….

Two secondary school students from Co. Cork are in the process of conducting an intriguing experiment to ascertain how birds are influenced by colour, and how that affects their foraging and feeding habits. Jemma Dearden and her friend Gill Blackburn, who are currently in the transition year at  Loreto Convent Secondary school….

The influx of waxwings continues, with reports of these striking birds coming in from all over the country. I finally managed to hook up with a small flock in Clonakilty, County Cork over the weekend… and what a lovely lot they were too. Here are a few photographs. The waxwing….

An evening walk on the beach is one of the real high points of Autumn. In this part of West Cork we’re spoilt for choice with some stunning beaches within striking distance of the house… but more often than not we pick Long Strand at Castlefreke near Clonakilty for an….

Prestige Austrian optics manufacturer SWAROVSKI OPTIK has announce a radical new redesign of the spotting scope with its modular ATX / STX modular scope system. The new design incorporates two eyepiece modules (offering a straight or angled wide-angle zoom) and three detachable, interchangeable objective lens section. This radical redesign allows….

Living and working in the country is often quite tranquil, but this morning the calm was shattered when this male sparrowhawk dropped in for an impromptu visit. Suddenly the background harmony of birdsong was replaced by a cacophony of anxious alarm calls as blackbirds, swallows, house sparrows, chaffinches and tits….

The phone beeped, a message flashed across the screen and five minutes later me, my binoculars and my field guide were in the car. A local birder had spotted a red-flanked bluetail in a garden near Galley Head… and that was just a twenty minute drive away. From the end….

It was one of those calm spring days where you feel anything is possible. The Atlantic, while not quite flat, had only the tiniest of swells. Gazing out over a vast expanse of blue, a distant haze towards the horizon was the only impediment to otherwise perfect visibility. You got….

The problem with routine, apart from the fact that doing the same thing over and over soon becomes incredibly dull,  is that you can’t turn it off! Take waking up at exactly the same time every morning. Most of us do it as a matter of course: we rise to….