Join us for a FREE evening of talks and refreshments to celebrate the launch of the 2025 Northern Ireland Seabird Report! Get your tickets here 👇 bit.ly/NI-SeabirdReport2025 🗓️ 26th of March 📍Coffee Cure, Bangor Registration deadline: Thursday 19th March

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group wants an end to tangle netting www.independent.ie/life/climate...

Angel Sharks are in real danger of going extinct locally, which would speed up their demise globally, because of the way the Irish government is issuing tangle net licences. #RTECountrywide Listen: 👉 www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

“A ban does not provide the clubs, the youth workers, the safe playgrounds, the links to their families and friends in the offline world that might nourish and support children.” Well said by Noeline Blackwell from the Children's Rights Alliance. www.thejournal.ie/social-media...

Ireland’s water is at risk and your help could make all the difference! The EU law that has been protecting our water and keeping us safe and healthy for the past 25 years is being torn down. Learn more and sign our petition today: birdwatchireland.ie/.../hands-of... #HandsOffNature

The next time you hear some politician blaming pearl mussels or the Habitats Directive for flooding disasters, might be a good time to point this out to to them.

The main east coast railway line runs on the other side of this fence, which is about to collapse into the sea. How much longer can politicians ignore the reality of climate change?

So in a week of catastrophic flooding the government have decided to move climate from its own section to a subsection under infrastructure and lift the Dublin airport passenger cap. Mighty

"Figures from a fish counter in Waterville... show sea trout stocks have decreased by 95.6 per cent since 2002" The sea is empty, fishing as an economic sector is over, the only thing that will turn things around is strict protection www.independent.ie/regionals/ke...

"The most cost-effective & impactful way to protect our collective future is through large-scale restoration, which can only happen with a truly steadfast commitment of long-term funding in the billions. It’s peanuts compared to what the alternative would cost." 💯 www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

After flooding in the past, successive governments promised protections, but instead, doubled down on dredging and delayed land-use reform, leaving communities exposed, writes Pádraic Fogarty. jrnl.ie/6946724

I caught this bird the day the day it arrived (17th) and it stayed until 25th. It was then seen on 28th 289km away in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. It would seem that the regular wintering bird at both locations is actually the same bird….🤯 🪶📷 Ronan Owens @birdguides.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

"In a disaster, the skeleton of society is laid bare. Politicians need scapegoats when their inability to make hard strategic decisions is exposed...But who rezoned the floodplains,...who has drastically underfunded climate-adaptation measures for the past 20 years?"

#Seabird Journal issue #37 is complete and has been sent out to those who requested a physical copy 😊 Remember to check your mailboxes! It is also available to read online here ➡️ www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-37 #science #seabirds

Third of Ireland’s wintering waterbirds vanish in just 30 years

A periodic reminder that very little has been done to address the biodiversity crisis www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Happy St Brigid’s Day! Oystercatchers are called ‘Gille-Brìghde’ in Gaelic- ‘Brigid’s servant’ - because they saved her life once

We need to get real. Met Éireann is not to blame for flooding damage - poor planning, building on flood plains, not implementing over 20 years of remedial action are. We were warned decades ago winter rain would increase, but continued doing nothing and built on space needed for water #spéirghorm

Imagine if there was an epidemic of pubs selling alcohol to children and instead of shutting the pubs responsible the government imposed a nationwide curfew on everyone under 16.

Sitting across the Oireachtas Children's Committee on online safety for children. Very much getting the impression that a lot of politicians are reaching for the Under-16 ban. Momentum behind that rather than a deeper understanding of platforms, algorithms and any alternative view.

We’re not serious about tackling flooding as long the arterial drainage scheme continues to be treated as untouchable. It was built for mid‑20th‑century land drainage, not 21st‑century climate change charged flooding. Its time to store flood water in flood plains not in towns.

Ireland’s plan to weaken legal protections for waterways will push many of them beyond recovery www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Late last year the government designated 466 rivers as 'highly modified', meaning they will continue to be dredged for the purposes of agriculture, ensuring towns and villages face greater flood risk www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

There should be a one-month moratorium on new work. Just give everyone the month of February to do the things they are already doing. Nothing new. No additional projects. No new initiatives. No requests. Any email asking someone to do something is automatically rejected and replaced with a cat gif.

Yorkshires only Little Tern colony relies on paid wardens to protect them from predators and disturbance, the team have achieved amazing numbers of fledglings in recent years and it would be a great shame if it doesn’t run this year, much appreciated if you can help out with this funding gap 🙏

“Family reunification accounts for little more than 1% of migration into Ireland. Telling people granted refugee status to wait three years – until their children no longer recognise them – is not the stance of a country that professes to cherish the family unit.” www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

The Little Terns at Beacon Ponds have made a remarkable recovery, but they need urgent help to thrive in 2026. Your support can fund a professional warden, ensuring these birds are protected from threats. Please share and contribute if you can! gofund.me/83bf3bdd8

Out counting for the International Swan Census this weekend? Look out for colour-ringed swans. Sightings will help us assess the whereabouts of individuals but also to detect whether any major movement has occurred during the census period. Sightings to ring.ac #ornithology

Ireland has never protected nature well and the State is failing to provide adequate resources to meet its environmental targets - Oonagh Duggan, BirdWatch Ireland. share.google/VtJfokZNwkD3...

What's the definition of 'public interest'? Is it leaving just the deep pocketed corporate players on the field, who make enough profit to pay their lawyers hundreds of thousands to defend their own economic interest, further stacking the deck against the environment in favour of corporate profit?

2026 Training Grants are now open! 📢🕊️ Are you: 📏 Hoping to gain experience with #seabirds via unpaid work? 🧑 From a BAME background? (though others may apply too) 💸 A grant of up to £250 could help! (to cover travel, accommodation or food) Info: www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/grant Apply by 28 Feb 💌

Putting this in context: About 75% of Europe's Whimbrel breed in Iceland. Over 50% of Europe's Dunlin. About 50% of Europe's Golden Plover. About 20% of Europe's Redshank. SCARY! #ornithology

*Rebel HQ* LUKE: Are we all set to blow up the Death Star? MON MOTHMA: No, at the end of the day, it’s the Imperial Officers using this machine… LUKE: Are you suggesting the planet-destroying machine is okay on principle? MM: Technology is advancing far faster than the law can respond. LUKE …..

Your honour, my client has simply gotten so good at stabbing people that murder laws do not apply.

Financial barriers to environmental litigation are against the law, because protecting the environment is an important public interest. The government now wants to make it super expensive (>€100,000) for ordinary people to go to court to protect the environment Please read and take action 👇

BirdWatch Ireland is hiring a Marine Advocacy and Campaigns Officer. Deadline Jan 7th 2026. Details at link here: birdwatchireland.ie/get-involved...

BirdWatch Ireland is hiring a Marine Advocacy and Campaigns Officer to help secure a better future for Ireland's seabirds. Deadline 5pm Jan 7th 2026 for applications and cover letter. Full details including job description is here birdwatchireland.ie/get-involved... (pic Brenda Sheridan)

"It’s harder to date. Harder to think about having children. It’s harder to come to your own conclusions about what you earnestly want from life. It’s harder to realise who you are. It’s impossible to feel as though you are meeting your potential." This week's column, more personal than usual.

Unbelievable. I get that it's important to highlight the positives. And yes there are some great, inspirational projects happening in some places. But it's a drop in the ocean compared to what's needed. And to frame the Art 17 report as good news is just misinformation.

Want to take part in the Irish Garden Bird Survey this winter? You can download your survey form at birdwatchireland.ie/app/uploads/...

With our Irish Garden Bird Survey now well into its second week, we thought you might like to know some of the collective nouns used to describe flocks of our feathered friends: birdwatchireland.ie/collective-n...

“Simplification” sounds harmless - until you realise its a Trojan horse to weaken critical environmental laws that protect our air, water and Nature itself. These laws protect you. Let’s protect them back. Tell EU leaders: #HandsOffNature @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @jessikaroswall.ec.europa.eu

Good on Penn Jillette. Having to come to terms with your entire political identity and philosophy being wrong is not easy and most people could never do it.

EU decision-makers are on a mission to roll back vital nature laws Our response to that? #HandsOffNature Environmental laws need to be enforced not weakened @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @jessikaroswall.ec.europa.eu Read more here 👉 wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/eu...

What excuse do the other countries have for delaying nature restoartion?

Don’t give people shit for putting up their Christmas decorations ‘early’. For some, Christmas is like a pension you pay into all year until you get to enjoy it in December. And if it’s been a tough year for someone and they want to ‘cash in’ a little early, leave them be.

Seeing how much of the right-wing on Twitter is just bot farms, kinda lays bare how much hate and hatred is a project that needs to be constantly maintained, a fire that needs to be fed all the time lest it go out for a moment, so much time, effort, and resources to keep people angry and hateful.

“Eoin Dorgan, asst sec at Dept of Public Expenditure Dorgan said Ireland needs to apply Tony Blair’s motto “tough on crime, tough on causes of crime” to the ongoing issue around legal objections” ..citizens ensuring that decisions are lawful are not criminals www.businesspost.ie/politics/sen...

Worker’s rights getting rolled back. Environmental protections getting torn up. Financial regulation getting loosened. Data privacy laws getting sacrificed to the AI Gods. Access to Justice being undermined. Capitalism isn’t in crisis. Capitalism is the crisis.

We're now starting to get reports of dead Whooper Swans with rings. If you find a dead bird & feel comfortable doing so - check for rings using the below @btobirds.bsky.social advice 👇🏻 Collecting information on ringed birds helps better understand the impact on different age groups.