Biomass appealWestport has surpassed itself this summer, gone riotously over the top in extravagant floral displaysSat Sept 04 1999 - 01:00
Crabbers claw out a fresh KlondikeThe summer people put me to shame, the way they arrive with their senses all a-quiver, their eyes out on stalksSat Aug 28 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureRecently, while exploring one of the islands in Lough Key, Co Roscommon, I came across the enclosed mushroomSat Aug 28 1999 - 01:00
Desire takes to the air - by the millionIf, in the excited days coming up to the eclipse, Dubliners found themselves consulting the sky more keenly than usual, they …Sat Aug 21 1999 - 01:00
Shark spotting in the summerThis fine but humid summer, wreathed in evening sea mists, has produced some delectable sunsets over the Atlantic, so different…Sat Aug 14 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureI found a five-legged frog in my granny's garden beside Lough MaskSat Aug 07 1999 - 01:00
Solving the puzzle of the monkey puzzle treeThe Sitka spruce at the gate is a lamentable specimenSat Aug 07 1999 - 01:00
Star of the seaA scallop can see you coming: a whole row of eyes glitter like tiny ballbearings among the tentacles fringing the gape of its…Sat Jul 31 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureLast year bees nested in the apex of a garage gable which is 25 feet from the groundSat Jul 31 1999 - 01:00
Growing painsA tiny, dense cloud whizzed across the hillside and resolved itself into a flock of starlings - around 100 of them, flying in…Sat Jul 24 1999 - 01:00
Shelf lifeFrom the bottom of the hill to the far horizon is terra incognita, a landscape permanently veiledSat Jul 17 1999 - 01:00
So what's all the buzz?July's creamy-white platters of hogweed seethe with hairy bluebottles, each with its shiny, peacock-glint of colour as it tiptoes…Sat Jul 10 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureI have had a tit box on the house wall (north-facing) for about the past 10 yearsSat Jul 10 1999 - 01:00
Let there be light on our forestsThe song of the goldcrest, the new Collins Bird Guide tells us consolingly, is "difficult to hear for many elderly peopleSat Jul 03 1999 - 01:00
Forging nature's signatureIn shady corners of the acre, a haze of starry pink flowers rewards me for years of positive discrimination: whatever else has…Sat Jun 26 1999 - 01:00
Dealing with the Fistigruff's table manners`Beware the Fistigruff, my son - the jaws that bite, the claws that catch!" This is a line Lewis Carroll might have coined, if…Sat Jun 19 1999 - 01:00
Our special landscapes deserve a policyMweelrea, the mountain in my window, is growing its summer shadows - drifting blue-grey darks of uncertain depth and fluffy edges…Sat Jun 12 1999 - 01:00
The loneliest place in Ireland`The very loneliest place in this country" as judged by Robert Lloyd Praeger (who, after all, had walked most of the island and…Sat Jun 05 1999 - 01:00
A new guide takes wingEarlier this month in west Cork, a bee-eater, Merops apiaster, from the Mediterranean flew in from the sea and took up residence…Sat May 29 1999 - 01:00
The mountain that's upside-downFrom many angles, Croagh Patrick is such an impeccable pyramid as almost to lose its own identity, becoming merely, if majestically…Sat May 22 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureWhile fishing on the River Slaney in Co Wexford on April 23rd I noticed a bat flying between a wood and the river at 2.50 pSat May 22 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureOn April 24th I heard a sound in the sky that I hadn't heard for ages, and there I beheld 25 wild geese flying over Portumna …Sat May 15 1999 - 01:00
Enough of this hanging aboutSkittering and drumming noises above the ceiling of my workroom a few weeks ago suggested a bat might be stretching its wings…Sat May 15 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureOne afternoon some time ago I noticed hundreds of crows settle down in a field next to my garden; the field was black with them…Sat May 08 1999 - 01:00
Why is the shark basking?Once, perched high among the sea-pinks on the summit of the Bills Rocks in Clew Bay, I tracked the dorsal fin of a basking shark…Sat May 08 1999 - 01:00
Where badgers boldly goOne moonlit night about 20 years ago, two badgers were seen crossing a long (2Sat May 01 1999 - 01:00
A walrus on holidayLooking out into what one hopes is the last kick of winter, with sleet squalls blotting out the islands and the ocean steeped…Sat Apr 24 1999 - 01:00
Walrus makes striking Irish visitor in AprilA wandering walrus from the Arctic spent six hours hauled out on rocks near Old Head in Clew Bay, Co Mayo, recently, within 100…Sat Apr 24 1999 - 01:00
Eye On NatureRecently, on a beach on the seaward side of Coney Island in Sligo Bay, I spotted a fox coming up from the seaSat Apr 17 1999 - 01:00
Beetle maniaI am beginning to think something may have befallen Megabyte, my weevil friend, more formally Otiorhynchus clavipes, he-of-the…Sat Apr 17 1999 - 01:00
Bringing back the birchOn clear-felled slopes in Connacht's conifer forests, odd clusters of birch trees have been spared to lean together, more than…Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:00
Little voiceThe hawthorn has a little fan of lettuce-green at every node, but still its silhouette before sunrise is gaunt and wintrySat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
A stoat under the bedOUR house is built upon a rock, or rather half the house is built on a raft of rocks that began life as a cow-byreSat Mar 27 1999 - 00:00
Eye On NatureHave you any Darwinian explanation as to why Willie Wagtails wag their tails? As they do it irrespective of season it is unlikely…Sat Mar 20 1999 - 00:00
Eye On NatureRecently I met a sparrowhawk standing on the footpath beside the busy Ballinteer RoadSat Mar 13 1999 - 00:00
A kind of home makingThe grey crow was perched on a branch of the old spruce tree at the gate and tugging hard at a thin, whippy twig that had quite…Sat Mar 13 1999 - 00:00
Will the hare follow the corncrake?There is a shabby look to the hillside at this vacant point in the year, neither finished with winter nor entirely sure about…Sat Mar 06 1999 - 00:00
After the meltdownTaking a short-cut through the dunes last week, I found myself crunching over hundreds of tiny white snails, scattered like hail…Sat Feb 27 1999 - 00:00
Eye On NatureIn mid-December we counted 18 little birds entering the blue tits' nesting box at the edge of darkSat Feb 27 1999 - 00:00
Eye On NatureToday I was delighted to see a flock of birds, eight in all, with the same quick way of moving as the blue titSat Feb 20 1999 - 00:00
Dark harvest of the suicide seedThe seedlings on my window-sill, the first of the year, are like little green ballet-dancers, all grace and energy, arms flung…Sat Feb 20 1999 - 00:00
Foxy StudyA favourite sound-effect for makers of television thrillers these days is the weird night-wail of a vixen calling up a mate: …Sat Feb 13 1999 - 00:00
Giving Megaloceros the humpAmong the most powerfully haunting images of modern Irish art is a study of the giant Irish deer, Megaloceros giganteus, painted…Sat Feb 06 1999 - 00:00
A clean sweep of waders and diversThe binoculars wait on the window-sill these mornings, the better to scan the strand for promising-looking objects on the tideline…Sat Jan 30 1999 - 00:00
A rich field for twitchersThe storms' revision of the strand has added an extra swerve to the channel that takes the mountain river to the seaSat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
Nature in a rageThe townland of Thallabawn is smaller than it used to be, if land rather than sand is meant to be its substanceSat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
The big windFor a whole morning after the first big storm the hillside was a Christmas-card period-piece: Victorian, ochre-tinted sheep knee…Sat Jan 09 1999 - 00:00
Garlic, medicine of the ancientsAt the year's end, the soil in my raised beds can be crumbly as porter-cake and moist as plum pudding, as its myriad worm-holes…Sat Jan 02 1999 - 00:00
