How does an 81-year-old with no faith in an afterlife keep his sense of humour?This winter has fulfilled the dire promises of the climate-change modellers. Hurricane gusts, 20-metre waves, surging tides: it’s all happeningSat Feb 08 2014 - 01:00
Another Life: Gathering flotsam, jetsam and ITP47Nothing, in all the years of trudging the sands, could compare with coming across what remains of one of the Arctic ‘ice-tethered profilers’ deployed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in the US, to monitor climate changeSat Feb 01 2014 - 01:00
Another Life: The nuts and volts of thunder stormsDo we need to know more about them as climate changes?Sat Jan 25 2014 - 01:00
Another Life: Shoreline shifts as tides come to reclaim loaned landThe storms of the past few weeks highlight the complexity of Ireland’s sand dunesSat Jan 18 2014 - 01:00
Lanterns and boars: fascinating fingers of fish foodDeepwater stock includes some of the smallest fish, newly targeted for trawling in the hunt for species to be minced into food for farmed salmon – even, indeed, for the human frying panSat Jan 11 2014 - 01:00
Another Life: Do you know a heron from a harlequin?Test your nature knowledge in our holiday quizSat Dec 28 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Wren Boys herald tales of the tiny king of birdsWhat were – are – the Wren Boys all about? Was there an elder in the village who told of how the wren should ever have been ‘the king of all birds’? Or why it should be killed, or spared, on St Stephen’s Day, and why everyone had to stump up for the ‘burial’?Sat Dec 21 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Out to bat for the lesser horseshoeBoth greater and lesser horseshoe bats are in serious decline across Europe, but ‘R hipposideros’ has found continuing refuge in Ireland’s western countiesSat Dec 14 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Goldfinches in the cityWatching the ‘exotic acrobats’ as they feed is a modern pleasureSat Dec 07 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: From swerve of shore to bend of bayThe warming globe is eroding Ireland’s coastSat Nov 30 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Surveying territorial toilet stations for signs of our ottersIs the animal in decline or on the rise? Different studies have come up with some surprising answersSat Nov 23 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Oil paints, driftwood sculptures and other evidence of my ambitionThe big deal about moving west was not just the urge to self-taught self-expression but a hazard at surviving somewhere beautiful. But discovering that days were finite, after all, was the first big reckoning of the ‘alternative’ lifestyleSat Nov 16 2013 - 01:00
Human folly and the future of the planetIs there the will – even the remaining time – to repair Earth? And should we prioritise ‘ecosystem services’ or leave nature to its own path?Sat Nov 16 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: What do birds dream about?A study of zebra finches found them practising their songs. Other birds need to stay more alert, so only one side of their brain goes to sleep at a timeSat Nov 09 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: The squidgy little grubs that make oaks their winter havensStill marvellously mysterious in their biochemical triggers, the galls on plants are created by more than 10,000 species of insectSat Nov 02 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: The prickly problems of life as a hedgehogThe animal is capable of living for 10 years, but most don’t survive beyond two, not least because badgers like to hunt them, then leave only scooped-out spiny skinsSat Oct 26 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: All creatures great and small are getting harder to discoverFrom elephants and giant squid to tiny mites and microbes, how many species live on Earth? Does it matter more to find out all there are, in the hope of conserving more of them, or to try to protect those we already know about?Sat Oct 19 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Don’t swipe at that moth with a rolled-up magazineWe’re waking up to the insects’ beauty, diversity and frequent mysterySat Oct 12 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: All the oysters we could want – just the wrong kind, in the wrong placeThe oysters of Ireland were once a native mollusc. Now Pacific oysters have invaded, with potential ecological pitfallsSat Oct 05 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Leaned on from the ocean, hammered through the hillsThe US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate forecast for the end of September is a very strange tangle of frayed and tentative red linesSat Sept 28 2013 - 01:00
Would beavers from abroad improve Irish riversides?Our waterways have become tunnelled with alder and willow, blocking light and reducing bioproductivity, says a reader, who suggests the animals would fell the riparian trees and let in the sunSat Sept 21 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Jellyfish join the ecological anarchists of the western lakesIf the warmth of this summer were to become the norm, explosions of freshwater jellies could add to competition for zooplankton foodSat Sept 14 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Have we had a feast or a famine of butterflies this year?They have been scarce on the acre, but Eye on Nature correspondents report no shortage of spectacular specimens elsewhereSat Sept 07 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Octopus’s reputation for intelligence extends its tentaclesThe animal can learn ‘simple visual discriminations’ as quickly as a dog or catSat Aug 31 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Sometimes stickyback is just the weed we needStickyback, aka cleavers, goosegrass and Robin-run-the-hedge, is a veteran of herbal medicine, and was even used by herdsmen to filter animal hairs out of milkSat Aug 24 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Playing the wandering fool beside the whispering Mayo surfFor the beach lover the boundary of land and ocean is more a state of mind than any line drawn in the sandSat Aug 17 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Westlife – the secret anti-whale weapon every sailor needsMiles and Eithne Henaghan kept their wits about them on their 10-month voyage back to Ireland from New ZealandSat Aug 10 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Don’t be put off by silly myths. Bats are keystone mammalsIreland’s 11 species of bat, which include the pipistrelle and the lesser horseshoe, are under threat. With a little more care we can help them surviveSat Jun 29 2013 - 01:00
Searching for the scarlet, speckled ladies of the gardenA ladybird survey in Cork is seeking all 15 of Ireland’s surviving speciesSat Jun 22 2013 - 01:00
Another Life: Healing herb with spring shoots for munchingAlexanders, aka parsley of Alexandria, was food plant in Egypt long before the pharaohsSat Jun 15 2013 - 01:00
