Larry Dunne from County Wexford enjoys watching the gulls at Waterford Quays’ flood barrier, especially when a local man is feeding them. He admires the demanding gaze of the juvenile herring gull, a species where males and females have a similar appearance. As they mature over a period of four years, their light grey backs, white bodies, and distinctive black and white wing tips become more prominent. Unfortunately, due to overfishing leading to food scarcity, these gulls are now red-listed in Ireland, indicating a significant decrease in their breeding figures. The downside of feeding these gulls is that they quickly correlate humans with food and become insistent if they think there’s a delay in receiving their fair share of chips or ice cream.
On February 21st, Martin Moloney was birdwatching in Inishowen and took a picture of a crossbill—a finch that’s confined to coniferous forests since their primary diet is cone seeds. They can comfortably inhabit sitka spruce plantations due to their uniquely crossed bill which they use to extract seeds from spruce cones. Males flaunt vibrant crimson-orange hues, while females exhibit a more subdued yellow-green colour palette. Crossbills have an intricate breeding process that aligns with the availability of conifer cone crops, hence breeding could commence as early as February depending on the year.
David Devitt from Dublin was caught off guard by an unexpected bathroom guest last month—a ladybird. Specifically, this was a foreign harlequin ladybird from Japan, which has distinct winter survival strategies compared to native ladybirds that prefer congregating in large groups at protected outdoor locations waiting for the spring season.
Suzanne Crosbie from County Clare spotted an out-of-season primrose blooming in the hedgerow during an early January walk in Moher, Liscannor. She was left puzzled by this anomaly of nature.
The Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland’s annual New Year Plant Hunt, spanning three days at the beginning of the year, has once again made its observations. All varieties of blooming flora found thriving in the wilderness within these isles were taken note of. The Hunt identified a total of 629 flower species in 2024, with over half (53%) in late bloom while around a quarter (27%) were early bloomers. Meanwhile, one-fifth of the population were found blossoming as expected for the New Year, containing both season-bound species and those that bloom throughout the year. Interestingly, these proportions mirrored those recorded the previous year.
On the topic of primroses, seen as an early-blooming species, records from the National Biodiversity Data Centre show their blossoming across all months in the Irish wild, although they are most common in April.
A snapshot of a horse chestnut leafing in Merrion Square, in close proximity to the Oscar Wilde Statue, was captured on the 20th of February by Michael Maloney. This species, native to the Balkans, is known to be the first extensive deciduous tree to welcome spring with its leafing here.
As part of their Discover Science and engineering programme for primary school students (2006-2011), Forfas spearheaded the GreenWave project, which has gathered snapshots from around the nation of horse chestnuts, among others, in the process of leafing. Notably, the earliest instances are usually recorded around St. Patrick’s Day.
Nevertheless, this year is an exception with the horse chestnuts leafing quite early—a response to the spring warming and the heat island effect of metropolitan areas. Indeed, temperatures in February soared two degrees above the mean.
Queries, observations or snapshots related to nature—with location details—may be submitted through irishtimes.com/eyeonnature.