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….

For many a budding birder, myself included,  gulls can be an absolute nightmare! There’s just so much plumage variation across the different year classes, and lots of potential overlap between species in sub-adult gulls that accurate identification can be extremely taxing, and scanning gull roosts in (inevitably) low light in….

Frogs play an important role in our lives; they are great pest controllers in our gardens and on farms by eating slugs, worms and flies, while otters and herons rely on frogs to supplement their diets. Ireland has only one native frog species, the common frog, Rana temporaria. It is….

Blue whales are perhaps the most evocative and spectacular of all the great whale species. The largest animals ever to have lived on earth, there’s an almost mythical quality surrounding these ocean giants. Hunted almost to extinction at the height of the whaling boom the species is thought to be recovering….

The West Cork and Cork Branches of BirdWatch Ireland are hosting an illustrated talk by Cork based author and naturalist Jim Wilson on Friday 7th February 2014. The event takes place at the Cork International Airport Hotel, with doors opening at 7pm, and the talk commencing at 8pm sharp. This is the….

The last day of January sees another wet start to the day, the fields around the Calendar Road are looking worse for wear, muddy and wet.  On this months show Sinéad talks about birds that call the Calendar Road home. And welcomes the Spring with some optimism despite the wet,….

A new radio show introducing Irish children to the wonderful world of invertebrates debuts on RTÉ Jr Radio on Saturday 08 February at 11am. Stings, Wings & Crawly Things is a 12 part series for children aged 4-7 years that explores fascinating facts about Irish insects, spiders and all manner of winged….

A Stellar’s sea eagle called Nikita has gone missing in the Yorkshire Dales in England. The female bird, which is one of the world’s largest bird of prey species with a wingspan of 2.4 metres (8ft), went missing from her home at the Hawk Experience in Settle on Saturday. Her….

It was a day that I should have spent in the office working… but the forecast for the rest of the week was bad. This was the only weather window to get out around my local patch. Decision made I grabbed my binoculars and headed out. You never really know….

Given clear views on the ground adult crow species generally present few ID problems… but throw juveniles into the mix, and birds in flight at distance, and they become surprisingly tricky. There are clues you can use to identify crows accurately even in these situations. In this video the BTO….

I was born in London but whenever anyone asks me where I’m from my stock answer is always that I am a black, Afropean, child of the earth and Honorary Irishman. I particularly cherish the ‘Honorary Irishman’ bit of my epithet because I really do feel a close affinity with….

This month has been fierce at times with high winds over the Festive Season. Sinéad talks about traditional weather signs from the sun, the moon and wildlife, a few tips for amateur meteorologists and we look forward to a new year on The Calendar Road. Click play in the audio….