“God in his wisdom made the fly, but then forgot to tell us why.” So wrote American poet Ogden Nash, and few people, enraged by a buzzing bluebottle, would not agree. But like everything in the animal kingdom, flies have their reasons and their charms. Many flies annoy us, some […]
Environment
John Horton, warden of the Cape Clear Bird Observatory, describes how he spent much of the winter months of 2025/26 volunteering his expertise in the Karoo region of South Africa. The culmination of two years’ work, in 2018, I successfully led an ambitious project to establish the first newly-accredited bird […]
This month Andrea Reichstein, from the Save Murragh Action Group – a group dedicated to protecting the Bandon river valley – highlights the rare gem of ancient oaks found in Bandon woods. Bandon town, nestled into the beautiful Bandon River Valley has something very special right on its doorstep: probably […]
By Nicholas Mitchell If you visit one of West Cork’s estuaries during July and August, you may notice something puzzling. Two Black-tailed Godwits standing side by side can look remarkably different, even though they belong to the same subspecies, ‘Limosa limosa icelandica’, which breeds in Iceland. I photographed the two birds […]
