Nature

Breakfast porridge, our daily bread and rice sustaining more than half of the world’s population are all bred from natural grasses

Eanna Ní Lamhna on how to handle moths that want to make a meal of the food in your kitchen, the mice at risk from your lawnmower, and a bee-bashing bird

Climate crisis requires bigger efforts from business

Calls grow for farming supports to help landowners push ahead with national climate goals

Cranes were culturally significant in Ireland, kept as pets by nobility and may have been associated in folklore with death

Two layers of stone filled inside with compacted earth and topped off with vegetation or turf, these are irresistible places for plants and animals to live

It’s liberating to accept that you’re never going to be master of your own garden, and this isn’t a failing

A Polish forest gives a glimpse of what Ireland and Britain might have looked like 10,000 years ago

Éanna Ní Lamhna on apple thieves, the Burren’s strange beauties, and the pheasant’s introduction

Unfortunately, this is often a problem for kitchen gardeners at this time of year

With little hope that environmental disaster can be staved off, Macfarlane finds grounds for optimism

Paul Clements spent a year living in a cottage on the grounds of Montalto Estate in Co Down

May is a risky month for gardeners – take timely precautions now for a flourishing summer garden

Éanna Ní Lamhna on the Leisler’s bat, a clawless crab, and an invasive ladybird

Our mission: To discover whether this small migratory bird was faring any better in its (probable) winter home

For a week, thrush nestlings, owls thrillingly close, frogs and an otter were all breaking news, urgent, fascinating. But this can’t be real life

Ella McSweeney: It is possible to counteract relentless damage to our soils caused by human activity

Photographing one of these unforgettable birds on a Dublin river led me on journey of reconnection with the natural world

Éanna Ní Lamhna on sand martins, the peacock butterfly and a dead frog

Reviews of new works from writer and spoken art performer Chris McQueer, contemporary artist Ed Atkins and sports and wildlife writer Simon Barnes

These creatures have made a laughing stock of me. There’s an army of them working shifts, and I’m not the only local feeding them

Pollination is a crucial and vibrant interaction between plants and animals, one that is also captivating

Published in 2015, Laudato Si’ spoke of our serious moral responsibility to protect the planet

A study showed an ability to modify sticks and even bend a straight piece of wire into a hook to retrieve food from a tube

Éanna Ní Lamhna on the hawthorn shield bug, underground bees, and the red-listed yellowhammer

Éanna Ní Lamhna on the scarlet elf cup, plastic pollution and a Kiwi invader

If you think hospital waiting lists and access to GP care are challenging now, climate change will bring more difficulties

Éanna Ní Lamhna on how to report dead birds, a bone of contention, and an imported lizard

A new study finds that people watching nature videos reported electric shocks as less intense, a pattern also observed in their brain scans

Éanna Ní Lamhna on rats’ incisors, the house martins and a suspicious sparrowhawk

‘The shapes we see in starling murmurations are an example of “emergent behaviour” ... from relatively simple underlying rules’

The mix of plants provides a range of ecosystem services and habitats that natural colonisation would not achieve

Readers’ questions: The cherries were a wonderful surprise in the first year, but the tree has not been particularly bountiful since

Éanna Ní Lamhna on the smallest bird in Ireland, an invasive moth, and the fluted bird’s nest fungus

Key to keeping on top of the to-do list at this time of year is to prioritise ruthlessly

Despite its status as a protected area for birds and wildlife, Lady’s Island Lake in Co Wexford is now suffering from a dangerous, if not fatal, level of pollution

Éanna Ní Lamhna identifies and explains readers’ other unusual nature findings

Findings will inform targeting of emissions cuts, say University of Galway scientists

High-value habitats can be avoided if identified but it is the less obvious impacts that are so far known to cause the biggest effects

Eanna Ní Lamhna answers readers' queries about jackdaws bearing gifts, a curious shell and a couple of frogs who got carried away