The equinox has passed and the first frost of the season has appeared at the meadow #Rahugh #Westmeath #Ireland #wildmeadow #equinox #frost #seasons #autumn

Nice hiking weather in Connemara today #TwelveBens #Derryclare #Galway #Ireland

Me, taking a pic in Connemara - 5 years ago this week #Connemara #Galway #KillaryFjord #hiking #Ireland

Spuds!

A juvenile bullfinch wondering when it will be fed next (recorded back in June) #juvenile #fledgling #bullfinch #bird #Rahugh #Westmeath #Ireland @birdwatchireland.bsky.social

I finally got around to posting a video update on my back garden pond in Galway - youtu.be/4iekeGqwZec. (I also mention my new nature project, which is very exciting for me). And there are STILL a couple of tadpoles in the garden pond, yet to transform. #GardenPond #Nature #biodiversity #Galway

Make yourself heard! A wren giving it everything in the garden during the week. @birdwatchireland.bsky.social #wren #galway #ireland

Someone has finally discovered the perch I built for them (and has used it all week) ! A Common Buzzard surveying the meadow below, on Monday afternoon. #CommonBuzzard #Rahugh #Westmeath @birdwatchireland.bsky.social

Looking like an inside day today... #weather #aimsir #fliuch #rain #Galway #Ireland

A pair of willow warblers in the meadow a couple of weeks ago (video slowed to 50%) #WillowWarbler #bird #Rahugh #Westmeath #Ireland #meadow @birdwatchireland.bsky.social

The rowan tree on my street is already nearly stripped of berries, probably by birds like this blackbird feeding its 2nd brood (ignore the incorrect timestamp). I wonder if there will be enough food to forage in the hungry winter months ahead ? #blackbird #rowan #Galway #Ireland

A juvenile hen harrier hunting over marshland at the edge of Galway city this morning #henharrier #Galway #Ireland @birdwatchireland.bsky.social

Sunday was a great day for hiking in Connemara. #Maumturks #mountains #hiking #Galway #GalwayWalkingClub #Ireland #wildatlanticway #TwelveBens

You wait all year to see a 22-spot ladybird and then 17 of them show up all at once! I have a small , raised bed at the meadow to grow peas and a colony of Psyllora vigintiduopunctata seem to have made it their home. #22-spotladybird #rahugh #westmeath #ireland

There's only room for one wren on this perch! #wren #troglodytestroglodytes #dreoilín #rahugh #westmeath #ireland #biodiversity #birding #ireland #nature

There's a REALLY quick and easy survey for the public consultation on the Basic Income for the Arts scheme - it only takes a few seconds, anyone can fill it in, and it could make a huge difference to arts workers in Ireland. Take a few ticks to places a few ticks here: ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/run...

Female Brown Hawker dragonfly laying eggs onto a piece of floating wood in a shallow pool of water last Sunday in Rahugh, Co. Westmeath #BrownHawker #dragonfly #rahugh #westmeath #ireland

A sparrowhawk that visited my back garden a couple of weeks ago. #sparrowhawk #galway #ireland

Every time I visit Mám Éan in summer, I call to a nearby pond that is a great environment for damselflies and dragonflies. On my most recent visit last month, dragonflies were in short supply but there were plenty of damselflies. This Emerald damselfly looks like a work of art up close.

Back in May, I could hear a male blackcap calling in the meadow. Last week, the fruits of his endeavour were clear: a female blackcap feeding a juvenile female - I'm not sure what sort of berry she has. #blackcap #rahugh #westmeath #ireland #birds @birdwatchireland.bsky.social

Motherfucking wind farms…

Why are no trespassing signs appearing on Irish mountains that hikers have accessed for decades? Can walkers really sue farmers when they injure themselves on private land? Listen to my conversation with @johnsmyth.bsky.social about land access in Ireland. ➡️ pod.fo/e/304bbb

Common Emerald damselfly (female, I think) at the side of a bog pond near Mám Éan in the Maumturk mountains in west Galway. #EmeraldDamselfly #CommonSpreadwing #LestesSponsa #Galway #MámÉan #Connemara #Ireland

Meanwhile, in Cork

To be a Rock and not to Roll... We were working on our own Stairway to Heaven at the weekend, adding some steps to a stretch of the mass path at Mam Ean in Connemara. The steps will help prevent the 'drift' of stone and scree down the hill, and make the path a bit easier to ascend. #mountainmeitheal

First new potatoes this year, and very tasty they were, too. #newpotatoes #Westmeath #Rahugh #Ireland

I made a perch overlooking my meadow in the hope that it would attract predators, and so it did. Look at the talons on the long-eared owl . Next time, I'll try to adjust the trail cam so it doesn't over-expose the birds at night. @birdwatchireland.bsky.social #LongEared #Owl #Rahugh #Westmeath

One of a pair of Common Buzzards soaring over the fields in Rahugh, Co. Westmeath last Friday, on one of the hottest days of the year so far. @birdwatchireland.bsky.social #CommonBuzzard #Rahugh #Westmeath #Ireland #biodiversity #nature #birds

A gathering of Mountain Meitheal volunteers for a training weekend in Leitrim a couple of weeks ago #mountainmeitheal #mountainmeithealwest #leitrim #trailmaintenance #sheepwoolpath #ireland

Not every early bird prefers worms... Spotted at the Claddagh on Sunday morning...

First task of the day- collecting apples from my 2 Beauty of Bath trees which have been producing fruit for the last week or so. #apples #harvest #Galway #Ireland

One of 2 silver-washed fritillary butterflies feeding on bramble blossoms beside a lake near Carrick on Shannon yesterday evening. #butterfly #SilverWashedFritillary #Leitrim #Ireland #biodiversity

this is the mostly wildly optimistic romantic view of marriage since the invention of til death do us part

This pair of Collared Doves are regular visitors to my back garden

Yes - there was plenty of mud, but we got the job done. We finished off making a raised path through a muddy section of the Black Head Loop int he Burren yesterday, as part of a Mountain Meitheal West volunteer day.

Ready for take-off! #yellowhammer

Mountain Meitheal West is having another outdoor volunteer day next Saturday in the Burren. We’ll be returning to the Black Head Loop to finish the drainage work along the trail that we started in February. We’ll be assembling in Ballyvaughan for 10.30. There may be mud! #mountainmeithealwest

Early morning song thrush @birdwatchireland.bsky.social #songthrush #rahugh #westmeath #ireland

A Large Red Damselfly eating a fly that it had just caught while hunting over the surface of my back garden pond. This one would regulalry nab a fly in mid-air and then perch on a pond flower to consume @britishdragonflies.bsky.social #LargeRedDamselfy #PyrrhosomaNymphula #Galway #Ireland

A male bullfinch feeding in the wilderness that is the bottom of my garden #bullfinch

Young bullfinch getting a feed from Dad - recorded on the same perch as the previous clip. @birdwatchireland.bsky.social #bullfinch #rahugh #westmeath #ireland #birds #fledged

A yellowhammer battling the wind and singing up a storm. #yellowhammer #rahugh #westmeath #birds #ireland @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @irishwildlifetrust.bsky.social

A swallow swooping over a meadow catching insects that I've let grow wild. They are nesting in a shed next to the field. #swallow #westmeath #rahugh #ireland

For the last 2 years, a nestful of 4 wrens fledged on the June Bank Holiday weekend in the back garden. Both years, I was working on my pond, so got to see them hopping about. This year, the brood arrived a week later (today), and again 4 chicks. It's going to be a busy week for the parents!

Someone is ready for breakfast this morning! #sparrow #fledgling #Galway #Ireland #backgardennature @birdwatchireland.bsky.social

Back in early February, I went hiking in the Maumturk mountains. During the I checked the mountain pools for any signs of frogspawn. I didn't see any - it was a bit too early in the season. #frogspawn #maumturks #connemara #galway #ireland

'It turns out the company had no AI and instead was just a group of Indian developers pretending to write code as AI. Remarkably, the company managed to sustain this deception for eight years.’

A young wren that has recently left the nest being fed by its parent. These wrens will require constant feeding for a couple of weeks and will chirp constantly to 'nag' for more food. Notice that as soon as it gets a mouthful, it starts chirping again! #wren #fledged #Rahugh #Westmeath #Dreolín

Leafcutter bee feeding on bramble blossom in my back garden

It didn't feel like summer in the Twelve Bens yesterday (though we did get a bit of sunshine too) #TwelveBens #Connemara #Galway #hiking #Ireland