A charming Barbary ground squirrel enjoying a munch in a ring of flowers that are currently carpeting the otherwise bleak coastal and mountainsides following heavy rains on Fuerteventura.

Yay! A new home record. Morning coffee in bed and a great egret flew past the window. Presumably on its way from the Gearagh to Duniskey.

Incoming grey heron! Get off my patch egret!

A common sandpiper on the move.

Some of the local residents while walking down to see the goosanders at Harty's quay in Cork. A pestered buzzard, A meditating grey heron, A sleeping little egret, and A framed robin.

Variations on the superb drake Goosander at Harty's Quay, Cork, today. This diving duck is a member of the sawbill family, named for their serrated bills as seen in the close up photo, for catching fish. No sign of the females so far.

A brief spell of sunshine recently and this Robin was singing away, and wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Frosty love carved on an old bench on the midwinter solstice.

Wow! I'm currently watching a barn owl perched on my front gate on CCTV for the past 15 minutes or so. In the swirling fog.

Up periscope. A great white egret keeping a not so low profile behind one of the many stumps at the Gearagh.

Autumn fall colours in the rain.

Hundreds of small jellyfish washed up on this small beach in West Cork.

Little and great white egrets blending together. The size difference is quite considerable.

Variations on a belted kingfisher.

All blacks on Vancouver Island. Black oystercatchers, Black turnstones, Black squirrel and Black bear.

I was watching a black squirrel at Buttertubs marsh on Vancouver Island when it suddenly vanished and this lovely barred owl carrying a decapitated rat landed on a branch for a snack, right in front of me. It even ignored a couple of passersby below with their phones. Very dark but amazing!

It took a while, but this grey phalarope eventually left the vast muddy expanse where it was feeding. and floated out for a preen while blown downstream in the wind. I was almost running after it! They are remarkably tame birds.

Morning coffee at home and look who flew past. Grab shots through the double-glazed window, but nice to see the local juvenile white-tailed sea eagle.

Curlew sandpipers showing well on the beach at Ballynamona in east Cork.

Doesn't time fly! Same place, two pectoral sandpipers, but only about 45 years apart. The 'descendants' obviously like Shanagarry in east Cork.

A wee wren waiting patiently for me to move on from one of the hides at Harper's Island Nature Reserve in order to feed its nestlings somewhere nearby. I did. @IslandWetlands

Early morning at the Gearagh, but, oh 'deer', the main carpark is closed for several days, as they are pouring concrete. Afternoon cuppa at home watching a fox coming out of the woodwork, then a female sparrowhawk flypast. The hoodies missed her as they were dismantling a rabbit.

It was cooold up in the clouds in the Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrenees recently. Even the choughs had to contend with snow and hailstones.

Dive bombing alpine choughs.

An alpine accentor on lichen.

Alpine choughs on the move with nesting material.

An alpine chough missing a bit.

Apart from the two well established wildlife wall displays there, I never knew that one of my stormy wave crashing photographs had been enlarged and mounted behind the counter in the café at Mizen Head. Taken at nearby Galley Cove.

Moorhens duelling at dawn.

Great crested grebes, and a cormorant, gathering in the early morning mist at the Gearagh.

The Danish sail training ship 'Danmark' sailing past Blackball Head Napoleonic signal watch tower on its way into Bantry Bay and Glengarriff. Pity about the heat haze. @DMA_SFS @MaritimeBantry @visitbantry1

Some 3 weeks ago, I stopped outside an old building in West Cork to check out a chough site, and the car was attacked by a deranged pied wagtail. Today it ignored me but was repeatedly attacking his reflection in any window. Birdbrain with a headache?

A dunnock on its favourite perch, but watched by a ghostly hooded crow in the background.

A common sandpiper catching the early morning sun at the Gearagh.

More junk going down one of my chimneys. However I have left that one open for the jackdaws who have used it for many years. I used to watch them in closeup with that little camera, but it has since died and I'm not sure I can climb up there again to replace it.

The lesser yellowlegs closing in on a surprised shelduck at Harper's Island Wetlands.

Time for a drink for this wood pigeon during the current hot spell.

This young grey heron was mesmerised by the mating carp at the Lough in Cork.

Starling slurp.

My ring is nicer than yours. You can't beat a good coot fight.

Quite a rare occurrence. A leucistic red kite seen in Wales recently. Only a few such birds exist in the world.

A greylag goose's amazing symmetrical and circular plumage pattern when seen head on.

The lovely black and white pattern of a magpie in flight.

Scanning the garden and nearby field on this lovely warm evening with the thermal imager and was able to follow several cockchafers, aka maybugs flying around. They really glow in the dark. Found one in the garden earlier on.

No nuthatches in Ireland unfortunately, but don't you love the colourful underparts of this Welsh bird.

A delightful whinchat in full cry at daybreak.

Great news. Only a week out, first batch sold out and now No. 3 in the Bestsellers Non Fiction list in Ireland. @theobrienpress.bsky.social

Blackbird worm tosser.

Poetry in motion from the slow slide film archives. A red-rumped swallow lift off.

More junk going up into my roof space!