Copyright

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2020 Copyright © Jane Powers 2020 Illustrations © Robert Vaughan Cover art © Robert Vaughan Jane Powers asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008392147 Ebook Edition © September 2020 ISBN: 9780008392154 Version: 2020-09-04

In memory of Hugh Wahl Powers,

a friend to Irish nature

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Endnotes

Resources

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

Introduction

Nature is all around us. We don’t have to be walking in the countryside or wandering along a beach. It is there, even in the built-up corners of cities. It is in the ivy-leaved toadflax tumbling from a wall crevice, in the chatter of house sparrows sheltering in a neglected hedge, in the clouds of ants appearing mysteriously on a still, summer afternoon. Nature is a constant friend, but so omnipresent that we often forget to admire it and be thankful for its existence.

In these daily notes, I have attempted to give a quick reminder of what is happening in the natural world. Some of the observations relate to creatures and plants that are on our doorsteps, some that are farther afield, and some that even share our living quarters (say ‘hello’ to the long-bodied cellar spider). All the flora and fauna mentioned here can be seen from dry land. You don’t need any special equipment to view it, but if you can get your hands on a magnifying glass and a pair of binoculars, you will see closer, deeper, farther.

Ireland, although it is a relatively small island, has an endlessly interesting flora and fauna. Our climate, with its abundant moisture and lack of extreme temperatures, favours plant growth in every month of the year, so there is always something noteworthy going on in nature. Migrant birds from colder regions visit in winter, confident that our shorelines will give them sustenance through the chilly months. Our western coast abuts the Atlantic Ocean where nature is at its wildest and most magnificent. Whales can be seen from the headlands, as can basking sharks, the gentle giants of the fish world. Some of our plants and animals are bafflingly absent from Britain, our nearest neighbour. Yet, they occur in Ireland, as well as parts of the Mediterranean and in the northwest of Spain and Portugal. Among these are the Kerry slug, the Kerry lily and Saint Patrick’s cabbage. Collectively these species are known as the Lusitanian biota (after the area of the Iberian peninsula where some are concentrated, a region that was once the Roman province of Lusitania). The reason for this anomaly is unclear. But its presence adds to the singular magic of our land.

Much of my writing life has been devoted to gardens and gardening, but I have always had a grá for nature. I can’t help but admire the elastic slugs that eat my lettuces; the satisfyingly baroque form of the shieldbugs on the raspberries; and the portly bullfinches that rip petals from the apple trees. And as for wildflowers, I love their wayward characters. Unlike garden plants, which we subjugate to serve us, wild plants have minds of their own. They do no-one’s bidding and they go exactly where they want – which is always the best place for their particular needs and attributes. If we want to see them and understand them, we must go and visit them on their own terms. For this reason, I will happily go on my knees in a damp bog to commune with the flowers of an orchid or saxifrage.

Wild plants mean different things to different people. Our ancestors variously worshipped them, feared them, told stories about them. They collected them to eat, to flavour food and drink, to use as dyes, as tools, as textiles. They made remedies for themselves and their animals. They named their towns and villages after them. Holly (cuileann in Irish) gives us Glencullen in Dublin and Moycullen in Galway, while birch (beith) gives us Glenbeigh in Kerry and Ballybay in Monaghan. Other placenames commemorate bramble, heather and oak, to mention just three species. Plants themselves have many vernacular names, each specific to an area. Foxglove has at least two dozen names in English (including fairy thimbles and dead man’s fingers), and around the same number in Irish, among them, the simply descriptive lus mór – ‘great herb’, as in a very large plant.

We have fewer animal species in Ireland than many other regions, but we have some that are special. Our Irish hare is a subspecies of the white Arctic hare; our coal tits are also unique, with warmly toned cheek patches.

In the daily offerings in this book, I have tried to capture some of the infinite interestingness of nature in Ireland. There is an entire world in a layer of damp leaves, in the corrugated bark of an oak tree and in the small rock pool that appears at low tide. Nature finds innumerable niches in which to set up its different species, in communities that mesh perfectly together. Sometimes we forget that we humans are part of the picture. But we are, and our actions have huge effects – beneficial or otherwise – on the animals and plants that we share this planet with. We are the world’s most invasive species, a label that isn’t my or your fault, but we can, nonetheless, each do our bit to soften our impact. In the back of the book, you’ll find websites and other resources: organisations to join and advice to follow. The more we learn the lighter our step.

A note on safety and consideration: In this book the old remedies that I mention are given only as a matter of historical interest, and are definitely not recommended. If you are foraging for berries or other foods, don’t eat anything unless you know it is safe. Always leave plenty for birds and other animals, and never forage in nature reserves. Don’t pick wildflowers: insects and other creatures depend on them for food and shelter. Take photos if you want to identify species at home. Collect lichens, mosses, nuts, cones and seashells only if they have been dislodged already. Be moderate in your collecting and gentle with your footsteps.

A note on the text: Some of the material in this book appeared in my daily column in The Times Ireland.

1st On New Year’s Day, there are plenty of flowers in bloom, and the simple lawn daisy is the most frequently seen. The name is derived from ‘day’s-eye’, because the flowers open with the morning light and close at dusk. This protects the flower from the elements during the hours of darkness, when there are no pollinators about. An old custom was for children to pick as many daisies as they could, and to go from door to door demanding a ‘penny for the daisy’. In recent years, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland has run a new year plant hunt, open to everyone. Participants count – but don’t collect – as many wild plants in flower as possible during a period of up to three hours and upload the results to the society’s website (bsbi.org). In mild years, hundreds of species may be in flower, some early, some late. Other plants commonly in bloom now include groundsel, dandelion, annual meadow grass, shepherd’s purse, chickweed and purple dead-nettle.

2nd Winter trees lack leaves, but some are still easy to identify. Ash trees are hung with messy bunches of ‘keys’ and have smooth grey twigs with black buds. Beech branches are also smooth and grey, but the twigs are a warm brown and are punctuated with alternate, tightly rolled buds, like tiny cigars. Horse chestnut buds are plump, deep red and sticky. Cast your eye down the stem and look for the marks left behind when last year’s leaves fell: they are shaped like horseshoes, and even have ‘nail holes’ around the edges. Hazel and alder are bearing catkins. Birch may be farther behind with its own catkins, but its milky bark and dark, flexible-twigged branches are obvious. The slim and whippy red-orange twigs of willow are especially cheering when lit by the low winter light. Oak trees have deeply corrugated bark and a generous, spreading shape. Look around their bases for the corky little berets that once covered their acorns.

3rd As the weather gets colder, and as food supplies dwindle in their usual territories, lesser redpolls come visiting Irish gardens. These little birds breed in upland and bog-edge forestry, often in conifers. They move to lower and more productive ground as winter progresses, sometimes arriving in gregarious parties with other small birds, including tits, siskins and goldcrests. They are the smallest members of the finch family, weighing in at between eleven and sixteen grams, the same as two or three heaped teaspoons of sugar. They are sweet little things, streaked delicately with brown and beige. Mature birds have a wee black smig, and – true to their name – crimson blotches on their foreheads which become more pronounced as the season progresses and the feathers wear away. Some sport fine rosy chests. Nyjer seed is a sure way to entice them into a garden. They are delightfully acrobatic, hanging off birch and alder catkins, and even from the seedheads of ornamental grasses.

4th Clearing the garden in this season can reveal various insects and other creepy-crawlies that have tucked themselves away for winter. Parties of aphids camp on evergreen plants, such as spurges and wallflowers, and provide much-needed fuel for little birds, including tits and wrens. Some insects cluster under the bark of trees, especially on the south-facing side where they are warmed by the sun. Others shelter under rocks or in the stalks of dead plants. Tap a dried, hollow stem and woodlice and earwigs may fall out. Both overwinter as adults: woodlice can live two to four years, while earwigs don’t survive much longer than a year. Ladybirds, their legs drawn up tightly inside their red wing cases, nestle in dormancy in dead leaves, in crevices on dry stems, and in sheds and vacant birdhouses. Snails hibernate in groups, glued to the inside of upturned pots and other dry places.

5th We are entering the breeding season for red squirrels. Invasive grey squirrels sometimes have rusty-toned backs, but they are twice the size and lack ear tufts. Reds are tremendously wary, staying up in trees (on the less visible side of trunks and branches) rather than running along the ground in full sight, as greys do. Red squirrels arrived in Ireland first during the Iron Age, when they may have been introduced for their skins. They became extinct or nearly extinct more than once, and those we see today are the descendants of several introductions during the nineteenth century. Red and grey squirrels cannot co-exist, as the latter compete for food: they raid the caches of the former, and they are also able to digest acorns earlier in the season, when they still contain a large amount of tannins. Grey squirrels carry squirrelpox virus, a disease which can cause them no harm, but which is fatal for reds. A recent resurgence of pine martens is probably helping to reduce numbers of greys, which allows the red squirrel population to recover.

6th If you are feeding a large population of little birds such as finches and tits, chances are that you are also feeding at least one sparrowhawk. Despite the name, the principal food of this common bird of prey is not sparrows. It is more likely to be blue tits, or – if you have a nyjer seed dispenser – goldfinches. Sparrowhawks attack in the blink of an eye. Often all we see is a split-second shadow-bird, followed by a suddenly deserted feeding station, with perhaps a forlornly drifting feather. The sparrowhawk avoids being spotted on its way to a strike by flying low to the ground. It can accelerate to fifty kilometres an hour, swerving through small spaces by pulling its wings close to its rocket-like body. The female is considerably larger than the opposite sex, and can easily take down a wood pigeon. In times of scarcity, she may even dispatch a male sparrowhawk.

7th Occasionally, wasps are out and about on warmer winter days. These are most likely to be young queens who mated in autumn and who normally hibernate in crevices in walls and trees, or in attics. Milder temperatures, however, may rouse them. This can be fatal, as there is little food available for them. Hundreds of queens leave each colony, but only a handful survive to set up their own nests in spring. Some are killed by predators such as spiders, while others starve. A folk story says that when Jesus, Mary and Joseph were fleeing to Egypt, a wasp who had seen them told Herod’s soldiers that they had passed by on that day. A cricket, however, who was more sympathetic to the family’s plight and wanted to confuse the pursuers, said it had been the previous day. For this reason, there is a saying that wasps should be killed, but crickets spared. In reality, wasps are the allies of humans, as they feed on aphids and other crop-eating insects.

8th Barnacle geese from Greenland are with us now, particularly along the northwest coast. They are medium-sized, monochromatic birds, with black breast, necks, bills and legs, white bellies and heads, and barred upper parts. Their colouring is effective camouflage in an arctic environment of dark rocks and snow. Here they are conspicuous, gathering on green fields and salt marshes in their hundreds. In the past, before it was known that they were migrants, people thought they hatched from barnacles, an example of ‘nature acting against her own laws’, according to Gerald of Wales in his twelfth-century History and Topography of Ireland. ‘They take their food and nourishment from the juice of wood and water during their mysterious and remarkable generation. I myself have seen many times and with my own eyes more than a thousand of these small bird-like creatures hanging from a single log upon the seashore. They were in their shells and already formed.’ In fact, he was seeing what is now known as the goose barnacle: a stalked barnacle that colonises driftwood and other floating debris. Gerald went on to note that the clergy in Ireland could eat barnacle geese ‘without sin during a fasting time’ as they were not ‘born of flesh’.

9th Our most dramatic evergreen is the yew, and specifically the Irish yew, the sombre tree that watches darkly over churchyards, and offers shelter to roosting birds. All Irish yews are descendants of a pair found around 1760 on the side of Cuilcagh Mountain in County Fermanagh. The finder, George Willis, gave one to his landlord, Lord Enniskillen, at nearby Florence Court. The nonconformist seedlings had an upright, columnar (‘fastigiate’) shape, completely different from the spreading branches of the normal species, Taxus baccata. The original Florence Court yew, which still exists, is female, but the seeds almost invariably produce non-fastigiate trees. The only way to reliably make a new Irish yew is to take cuttings from one. This means that the Fermanagh tree is the mother of millions of Irish yews. Almost all those in existence throughout the world were propagated from her or her clones. The fact that there were no mature Irish yews before the end of the eighteenth century gives great pleasure to those who like to pick holes in the authenticity of period films and television series – which regularly feature them in gardens and graveyards.

10th Waterfowl numbers are at their peak this month. Among the ducks that you might see in the calm, shallow water of estuaries and flooded fields is the shoveler. It is well named, with a great, utilitarian, black bill that gives the bird a self-conscious look. Males have bold and contrasting plumage with a dark-green head, chestnut-brown sides, and black and white flashes on front and rear. The colours are roughly similar to those of the shelduck, but the shoveler has a greater expanse of chestnut, and is much smaller and squatter. Close up, that great Wellington boot of a bill is unmistakable. Its purpose is to filter mouthfuls of water. Fine filaments inside the bill catch plankton, crustaceans and other aquatic foods when the water is ejected. Shovelers sometimes feed with their bottoms in the air, when you can see their long wing feathers crossed over their plasticky orange-red feet. Most of our wintering birds are visitors from France, northern Europe, the Baltic and western Russia, while a few come from Iceland. Shovelers breed here in small numbers – mainly around Lough Neagh, the Shannon basin and on coastal estuaries.

11th Alders have dropped all their leaves, but their branches are not bare. Bunches of juvenile male catkins dangle from the ends of the twigs like tiny knitted sausages. They will open in early spring and release their pollen. Last year’s female catkins, which resemble minute pine cones, are still on the trees. Their oil-rich nutlets are carefully winkled out by finches and goldcrests. Alder often grows alongside rivers, where the roots help to stabilise the banks. The seeds are adapted to float on water: each one has little pockets of air that keep it buoyant for up to a year. It may germinate during that time, and when it hits land it quickly establishes as a sapling. Alder wood also has water-resistant properties and if kept wet, will withstand rot. Some of the piles that support buildings and bridges in Venice are made from alder. The cones of Alnus glutinosa are sometimes added to ornamental fish tanks. They lower the pH of the water by releasing tannins and thus help prevent fungal and bacterial infection of fish eggs.

12th Sometimes, just before dusk, you may pass a dense evergreen tree or shrub that seems to shimmer and chatter. This is the roosting place of a colony of talkative house sparrows. Their brownish plumage makes them nearly invisible in the shadowy depths. Some birds, such as starlings, travel twenty to thirty kilometres each evening to join their roosts. Not house sparrows, however, who usually spend their entire lives within a few kilometres from where they were hatched. Although they won’t be nesting for another couple of months, males are beginning to show their breeding colours, as the grey tips of their autumn-acquired plumage wear away to reveal darker and more contrasting tones. Their sex organs, which shrank to next to nothing over winter are in the process of swelling to working dimensions: about the size of a chickpea. When fully developed, a house sparrow’s testes weigh in at over two per cent of his body mass. Proportionately, this is twice the size of a chicken’s testes, and over seven times those of a turkey.

13th January is not a month we normally associate with the mushroom tribe. Yet this is the season when the jelly ear fungus is looking its best. The fleshy, liver-coloured growths appear on dead and dying wood, most often on elder, and occasionally on other trees, including sycamore and beech. The ‘ears’ always grow facing downwards, so you need to view them from underneath to observe the oval shape and fleshy folds that confer on them their name. Some can look realistically and creepily ear-like – which always pleases younger nature lovers. They are most visible in winter, as they may be dehydrated at other times. When the sun shines through them, they become a warm, caramel colour, which is nicely complemented by their velvety upper surface. The fungus is also known as wood ear, and formerly as Jew’s ear, which is reflected in the Latin specific epithet: Auricularia auricula-judae. Another older name is Judas’s ear. This is because Judas Iscariot was said to have hanged himself on an elder tree.

14th Ducks, waders, gulls and other water birds spend a great deal of time with their feet in very cold water. Yet, although they are warm-blooded creatures, they appear to feel no ill effects. Instead of bouncing up and down, or avoiding icy water altogether, they are entirely comfortable. Nature has arranged that their legs and feet are maintained at a much cooler temperature than the body core. Accordingly, there is very little heat loss, even in freezing conditions. A mechanism known as ‘countercurrent circulation’ keeps the blood in the feet cool and that in the body warm. This is a natural heat exchange system between closely placed blood vessels. The arteries, which carry warm blood from the core, pass alongside veins carrying cold blood from the feet. Arterial blood is cooled by the adjacent cold veins, and the venous blood is heated up by the warm arteries. By the time the arterial blood flows into the feet, it has transferred almost all its warmth to the venous blood that is travelling upwards. Thus, the body remains warm and the feet cold. Occasional surges of warm blood into the feet keep them from freezing.

15th There is less greenery around now, which makes it a good time to get a clear view of the structure of bramble plants, the givers of wild blackberries. If you could see a time-lapse film taken over a year or two, a shoot would look animate, snaking across the ground and rearing up to climb trees or loop over a wall or hedgerow. Such a stem can progress at 7.5 centimetres per day. The fierce thorns deter animals while also helping the plant to grasp surfaces. When a shoot runs out of steam after several metres, it drops to the ground and presses itself firmly against the soil. Its tip splays out and sends out a set of pale roots. When the roots have gained a foothold, a new shoot springs up and wanders off on its own journey. The larvae of many moths and a few butterflies feed on bramble leaves. At present, holly blue butterfly pupae and emperor moth caterpillars are overwintering on the plants.

16th Feral pigeons are reviled by many and dubbed with unkind nicknames such as ‘flying rats’ or ‘rats with wings’. These birds that inhabit our urban areas are mostly the descendants of racing pigeons that have lost their way or been abandoned. They are a population of dispossessed, redundant athletes, wandering about finding scraps of food wherever they can. This is especially poignant because pigeons were once valiant couriers. During the Second World War, Operation Columba saw sixteen thousand British homing pigeons – all donated by ordinary pigeon fanciers – parachuted in canisters into occupied Europe. A note asked the finders to attach details regarding the state of nearby Nazi troops and to send the pigeon on its way. Over a thousand of these ‘spy pigeons’ arrived back home. The ancestor of feral pigeons is the European rock dove (Columba livia), a few of which still inhabit remote, rocky cliffs along the west of Ireland. Their descendants, accordingly, are comfortable among the hard ledges and roofs of city architecture. Adults make long-lasting pair bonds and may raise several broods per year of one or two chicks, which are called squabs. Both partners share the chore of incubating the eggs and feeding the young on ‘pigeon milk’, a high-fat, high-protein substance manufactured in the bird’s crop.

17th

God in His wisdom made the fly

And then forgot to tell us why.

When Ogden Nash wrote that pithy little poem in 1942, he didn’t understand the immense importance of flies and the epic work that they do. Perhaps he didn’t know this:

Without them we’d be knee-deep in corpses and faeces

And surely the earth would be falling to pieces.

Flies and their larvae – maggots – are responsible for marvellous feats of waste processing. They are among the many invertebrates that industriously recycle dead or discarded matter into soil nutrients. The role of flies in this world is crucial: without them, our planet would cease functioning. Flies are food for all manner of predators: other invertebrates and birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. They are important pollinators: some plants, including chocolate and rare orchids, are pollinated only by members of this under-appreciated order. Hoverflies, with their pretty striped or furry suits, are probably the best-loved of all Diptera (from the Greek for two-winged). There are 160,000 known fly species in the world (and thousands unknown). They include everything from tiny midges to great, gangly craneflies.

18th Despite its name, the grey wagtail is more yellow than grey. While the wings and back are slate-grey, it is the lemon-toned rump and undercarriage that calls attention to the bird, especially when set aglow by the low January sun. This elegant relative of the pied wagtail favours fast-flowing water and wild places, and is rarely seen in gardens. Colder weather, however, drives it to more sheltered areas, so those of us with tiny ponds can sometimes be surprised by its presence in winter. These garden visitors may be Irish birds or migrants from northern Europe. The grey wagtail is lovely to watch, bouncing in one place as if on springs, while its long tail dips up and down exaggeratedly. In Ireland, it is often known as the yellow wagtail. This is confusing, as the true yellow wagtail is another bird, a rarely seen passage migrant that winters in southern Spain and sub-Saharan Africa.

19th Sometimes, when you are on a beach, you spot a seal out in the sea – just a chimney-cowl of a head, dark against the water. If it is close enough, the black, liquid eyes are visible. Seals are inquisitive and often swim parallel to walkers, especially if there are dogs in tow. We have two native seals: the grey seal and the harbour or common seal. The ‘common’ is misleading: its population is 4,500 to 5,500 individuals while that of the grey seal is 7,000 to 9,000. Harbour seals are smaller animals, but the two species can be difficult to differentiate when in the water. Harbour seals have a v-shaped nostril configuration and more dog-like heads with a rounded forehead and a dip down to the nose. Grey seals have a smoothly sloped, egg-shaped head, with the look of a more dignified, Roman nose. There is much Irish mythology about seals. Some stories say that they are the souls of dead fishermen, while others say that they are people who were unable to get onto Noah’s Ark.

20th Hooded crows are often at the seashore, especially in winter, when there are fewer insects about for them to feed on. When the tide is out, they hunt among seaweedy rocks in the intertidal area – a rich hunting ground revealed when the water retreats. There, they find shellfish such as periwinkles, mussels and cockles. Hoodies or grey crows (feannóg and caróg liath in Irish) are known for dropping the shells onto hard surfaces to shatter them so they can get at the insides. Researchers studying the activities of thirty-four hooded crows in Cork Harbour discovered that the average height from which adults dropped mussels was 4.8 metres. From around this height, the shells broke and the flesh was easily retrieved. Any higher and more energy would be expended, the contents would spread farther and the bird would spend longer retrieving it, possibly risking plundering from other crows. Juveniles were more hit-and-miss and often chose softer (less effective) surfaces, either through inexperience or because they were excluded from the better dropping zones. Crows hide shellfish for later consumption so that they have food for the times when their foraging places are covered by water.

21st Now, and over the next month, baby badgers are being born. The cubs are tiny, blind and helpless and will stay underground for around twelve weeks. Although a badger’s pregnancy is short – around seven weeks – mating most likely took place many months ago, possibly last spring. Badgers are able to delay implantation into the uterus of the blastocyte, the pre-embryonic stage, until December. This means that when the cubs leave the sett in spring, the world is waking up, and it is a good time for finding food. They are partial to earthworms, but have a diverse diet, including the larvae of insects (bees, wasps, moths and craneflies) as well as slugs, frogs and vegetable matter. There are many old stories about badgers: one piece of fanciful folklore from County Sligo says ‘there are two kinds of badger, the pig badger and the dog badger. The pig badger is big and wild looking. He would attack a person, but the dog badger is not so wild.’ There are other tales of badgers throwing stones at humans, and even eating them.i In fact, badgers are more likely to scarper upon seeing a human.

22nd On mild winter days, the song thrush sings at dawn and dusk. His is a virtuoso performance: cascading coloratura trills and plaintive keening, interspersed with an outpouring of pips, chirrups and twitters. In the words of Robert Burns, ‘aged Winter, ’mid his surly reign, / At thy blythe carol clears his furrowed brow’. The songsters are males establishing breeding territories. Each bird may have a repertoire of a hundred different phrases, often repeating one several times before moving on to the next. They leave short gaps during their renditions in order to listen for competition. The song thrush is a farmland and edge-of-woodland species, and its habitat is threatened by land drainage and tillage farming. It makes its nest in hedgerows and shrubs, and is equally happy in mature parks and gardens. In times past, thrushes were considered a friend to farmers and gardeners. An old verse, recorded in Donegal in the 1930s goes:

Don’t kill the thrush, boys.

Don’t rob its nest.

For of all the Irish warbles,

The brown bird is the best.

23rd Lesser celandine, a wild plant of woodland, hedgerows and gardens, is in bloom. It is a ‘spring ephemeral’, producing flowers and leaves only in the early part of the year. By summer these have died back, and the plant has vanished from sight. It maintains its presence underground in tuber form. The ‘petals’ on the buttercup-like flowers are not real petals, but are modified sepals, known as tepals. Their extreme glossiness, which is unusual among flowers, serves two distinct purposes. It sends a signal to distant pollinators by bouncing the sun’s light, like the flash from a mirror. It also reflects heat onto the stamens and carpels (the reproductive structures) which helps pollen and seed to ripen – while also providing a warm spot for the pollinator. Lesser celandine was known colloquially as pilewort because the tubers were thought to resemble haemorrhoids. In folk medicine, the plant was used to cure that affliction, as well as pimples, ringworm and rottenness of the teeth and gums.

24th Bird lovers delight in seeing bullfinch families visiting feeders in winter. The males have jet black caps and portly bellies the crimson tone of an unwise holiday sunburn. The females are more demure, their black hats offset by muted, cappuccino-coloured breasts. Orchard owners are less enamoured of these stocky birds. When other food is scarce they systematically strip the buds from fruit trees, starting at the tips of branches and working inwards. Bullfinches can live for over twelve years, and recent research has strongly suggested that pairs stay together for multiple seasons – an assumption that has been made, but not proved, in the past. Olav Hogstad, an emeritus professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, watched bullfinches for twenty-four years. He banded a total of 165 birds and found signs that pairs stay together through several winters, and therefore probably through several mating seasons. Long-term bonding such as this allows pairs to nest earlier in the year: they don’t need to go through the annual hoopla of finding a mate.

25th Snowdrops are in flower. They are not part of our native flora, but they have naturalised and spread at a genteel rate in old estates, woodlands and churchyards. Most records are from Northern Ireland and counties Wexford, Waterford and Cork. The little white flowers – ‘February’s fair maids’ – were traditionally associated with Candlemas Day, 2 February, and were a sign of purity and hope. They are flowering progressively earlier, however, and are now part of January’s floral palette. The flowers open only on mild days, when pollinators are present to collect the nectar and the distinctive orange pollen. The eighteenth-century English poet Thomas Tickell, who lived in Dublin (in Glasnevin, on the property that later became the Botanic Gardens), dubbed the flowers ‘vegetable snow’ in his poem, ‘Kensington Gardens’. In times past, snowdrops were sometimes planted to outline the way to the privy, which must have made a dark and chilly journey more bearable. During the Crimean war, officers sent bulbs home to Ireland of the local snowdrop (Galanthus plicatus), which then became the parent of various cultivated snowdrops. Some soldiers also planted them in ‘gardens’ around their tents. One, writing to his mother from the cavalry camp at Kadikoi, mentions that Lord Raglan, ‘on seeing some flowers around a hut said, yes it was very well, but he should have had cabbages instead’.

26th Take a walk along any rocky shoreline and you’ll see birds foraging among the seaweed-encrusted rocks. There is usually a heron fishing, while turnstone, herring gull and redshank rummage around, looking for molluscs and crustaceans among the strands of wrack. Oystercatchers, more often seen en masse on mudflats and sandy beaches, also frequent the rocky water’s edge, stepping gingerly and inelegantly. Their awkwardly-toed feet seem ill-equipped for the uneven surface. An old Irish tale says that the oystercatcher lent its webbed feet to a gull, which never returned them. It seems also that it may have lent out its bill and received a cartoonish, bright orange carrot in return. Its beady, garnet eye and yin-yang, black-and-white plumage add to its comical looks. When it takes flight, however, with a ‘pu-peep … peep!’, it is a dazzling, dynamic creature: all angular wings and vivid feather patterns.

27th In milder parts of the country, primroses are already popping out their pale flowers. Although they are the quintessential spring flowers of poets and romantics, they can be found in bloom any time from January into June. They provide valuable early nectar for a host of long-tongued insects, including bumblebees and bee-flies and the occasional butterfly emerging from hibernation. The primrose is also the larval food plant for at least four moths: silver-ground carpet, broad-bordered yellow underwing, double square-spot and green arches. Slugs and snails nibble its petals, while the foreign invader from southern Europe, the black vine weevil, will happily mash through the fleshy roots of garden populations. There is much traditional lore associated with the little yellow-flowered plants. They were used to cure a multitude of ailments, among them burns, cuts, piles, jaundice, tuberculosis, toothache and insomnia. In the farmyard, primroses were supposed to be efficacious in treating horse coughs and the sores on cows’ udders.

28th The ‘blue tit tweetles from the patio’ now – to borrow an image from the Northern Irish poet, Michael Longley. The dapper male in his neat, blue-capped, bell-boy outfit sings brief melodies with a piccolo-like shrillness: high trills dropping quickly to lower notes. The female, who is nearby, is in similar plumage, but her blue hat, wings and tail are a little duller. Although blue tits raise only one brood during the year, they pair early and will begin to inspect nesting places soon. If you plan on putting up nest boxes (which they use readily), there is no time to be lost. Choose north- or northeast-facing walls or trees, two to four metres from the ground. Between seven and eleven eggs are laid and are timed to hatch during caterpillar season, from late April onwards. Both parents feed the nestlings. Blue tits can be long-lived: eleven years is the longest known lifespan. The greatest mortalities happen during the first season, with sparrowhawks and cats as the top predators.

29th Although February is frogspawn month for much of Ireland, January also sees a few precocious frogs engaged in the rigours of amplexus in sheltered ponds. Some may even breed in late December. When a female enters a pond, she is grabbed by a male (or two or three). Occasionally, if there are too many males, she may drown. As she releases her eggs, the male sheds sperm, fertilising them immediately. Each egg is enclosed in a capsule which swells in the water to form the familiar gelatinous globules. The jelly both protects and feeds the developing tadpoles, which take from ten to twenty-one days to hatch, depending on the weather. Often the first sign that frogs are about is the croaking of the males, a beckoning call to the females. ‘Croaking’ is an unfair description, as the sound is deep, resonant and regular: like a large woodpecker drumming on a hollow bamboo tube.

30th Walk along any relatively wild coastal stretch and you may see a robin-sized bird with black head, white half-collar and warm, russet waistcoat. It will be perched prominently on a fence post or shrub, and may allow you to get quite close before flitting off to another, slightly farther resting place. This is the stonechat, so named because its alarm call sounds like two smooth stones clacking together. The females are similar to the males (described above), but the colours are less contrasting, more washed out. During winter, birds on the coast are joined by those from bogs, heaths and rough slopes on higher ground. The oldest known Saxicola rubicola was found dead in Germany, having been ringed eight years and ten months previously. The species has several names in Irish. Among the most appealing are Donncha an chaipín (Donncha with the cap) and Máirín an triúis (Mary with the trousers) for the different sexes.

31st Today is the eve of Saint Brigid’s Day or Lá Fhéile Bhríde, the feast of Ireland’s female patron saint, a personage who morphed from pagan goddess to Christian divinity. Today (or tomorrow, at a pinch) is the time to gather rushes to make the characteristic Saint Brigid’s cross, an emblem that may carry a legacy of solar symbolism. The crosses are made of sixteen pieces of soft rush (or geataire in Irish), and are believed to keep a home safe from misfortune. Juncus effusus is a common and familiar plant of marshes, roadsides, ditches, water edges and poorly drained pasture. In the mid-nineteenth century, David Bishop, curator of Belfast Botanic Gardens, discovered a peculiar, curling form of soft rush, spiralis, in Connemara. It is now sometimes grown as a curiosity by gardeners. Robert Lloyd Praeger, the Irish naturalist, later noted that the same form grew on various Atlantic islands off the west coast. The corkscrew rush has also been recorded in the Orkney Islands and the west of Scotland and Wales.

1st Today, according to some calendars, is the first day of spring. In Ireland, with our changeable weather, the season’s start is a moveable feast. This month often brings snow. Equally, it may also bring warm sunshine – and everything else in between. In the past, the movements of hedgehogs were thought to predict the weather. Folklore collected in County Longford states: ‘When the hedgehog comes out of his “nest” and sees his shadow on the 1st February, he goes back again for six weeks, because there’s hard weather coming.’ In fact, hedgehogs may wake on milder days and ramble around a bit, especially at the start or end of winter. In Donegal, the weather forecaster is a badger: if he appears on Candlemas Day (tomorrow) and sees his shadow, there will be bad weather for three months. In America, tomorrow is Groundhog Day, when the meteorological outlook depends on the prognosticating prowess of a groundhog, known also as a woodchuck.

2nd Shepherd’s purse is in bloom now: it barely stops flowering all year. It is a wild plant of waste places and field margins. Its small, heart-shaped seed pods, which are delicately displayed on ankle-high stems, are more noticeable than the four-petalled, tiny, white flowers. It is the pods that give the plant its name, as they resemble the pouches worn by mediaeval peasants. When they split, minuscule golden seeds pour out, like Lilliputian coins. The seeds exude a glue when they become moist, and adhere to the feet of passing birds or animals, which then help to disperse them. In the doctrine of signatures, the pods were thought to resemble bladders and were used to treat urinary infections. Capsella bursa-pastoris belongs to the cabbage family (Brassicaceae) and is edible. If grown in fertile soil, the first leaves can be used as a baby-leaf salad, and the pods added to dishes for a peppery flavour. The garden carpet moth lays its eggs on shepherd’s purse.

3rd This time of the year often sees unusual migrants arriving in Ireland. One such species is the glossy ibis, a dark and fantastical-looking, gothicky bird with stilts for legs and a sickle-shaped bill. At a distance the plumage is rook-black, but closer up, hints of iridescence become apparent. During the breeding season, these wading birds are a low-key maroon with shining wing coverts that show green, purple and amber highlights. The species originated in Africa, but since the nineteenth century its range has expanded to the Americas and Europe. The glossy ibis is a pioneer species, where some individuals are impelled to wander long distances prospecting for suitable new territories to colonise. Birds that turned up in County Wexford a few years ago had been ringed in Coto Doñana National Park in southern Spain. A pair nested and attempted to breed in Lincolnshire in 2014, but were unsuccessful. However, as our climate changes, it is probably only a matter of time before they establish here. You can check sightings of glossy ibis and other rare birds at irishbirding.com

4th Hazel catkins are swinging from twigs now, like the fingers of limp, mustard-yellow gloves. These are the male flowers, laden with masses of lightweight pollen which is then wafted by the breeze onto the tiny red-tasselled female flowers. Compared to insect carriers, which perform a door-to-door service, wind dispersal is an inefficient mechanism for moving pollen. Relatively huge amounts are released, with only a small portion finding its way to the female flowers. Hay fever sufferers may be affected by the tiny, airborne grains now. Bees collect hazel pollen for food, but they appear not to assist in fertilising the female flowers. These contain no nectar, so are of limited interest. In the Brehon Laws’ hierarchy of trees, hazel was classified as a ‘noble of the wood’.ii The trees were very valuable, both for their nuts and for their timber, which was used for furniture and fencing.

5th The ‘household bird, with the red stomacher’ as poet John Donne called the robin, is normally fiercely territorial outside the breeding season. Both males and females defend separate domains, singing and – if necessary – fighting to maintain their patches. However, during very harsh weather hostilities may be dropped in gardens where food is in plentiful supply. In late winter, females begin to prospect for partners, gingerly entering a male’s zone. Cordial relations are gradually established, and for a few months birds will form harmonious pairs in order to breed and raise chicks. Nest building will commence in the coming weeks – an operation carried out entirely by the female. While she constructs the cup-shaped nest of dead leaves, moss, roots and hair, her mate feeds her, providing about a third of her daily intake. As she incubates the four to six eggs, he continues to bring her food. After about two weeks, the chicks hatch, and both parents feed them.

6th Keep your eyes on the ground, and sooner or later you’ll see groundsel. The opportunistic little plant seeds into crevices in paving, along roadsides and in disturbed ground. It is immune to frost, and can be found in bloom any month of the year. It is not a thing of beauty, with its near-invisible, lemon-tipped, cylindrical flower heads and ragged leaves. Senecio vulgaris is closely related to the ragworts; the genus name comes from the Latin for old man, senex, which refers to the whiskery, white parachutes on the seeds. Grúnlas (in Irish) was frequently recommended as a folk remedy for many ailments, including jaundice, eczema, warts and distemper. In a poultice it was supposed to draw the corruption from a boil. Today, it is still fed to caged budgerigars and canaries. It is the food plant for various moth caterpillars; it also provides a home for aphids. These, in turn, become food for other invertebrates and for small birds. Groundsel is an annual plant: germinating, growing and setting seed in the space of a year.

7th If you live in a suburban or greenish urban area, take a look at the surrounding chimneys and before too long you’re bound to see a jackdaw. Often there is a pair. Members of the species mate for life and maintain the bond throughout the year. The jackdaw is the smallest of the dark crows and is easily recognised if you can get close enough. While much of the plumage is charcoal, the forehead and chin is jet black, as if the bird had dipped its face in a pot of ink. The eyes are disconcertingly pale and staring – like those of a goat. Jackdaws are cavity nesters, and researchers have posited that the white irises act as signals to fellow colony members that a particular niche is occupied. They remain faithful to the same nest year after year. This might be in a tree crevice, a cliff cranny, a fissure in a ruin, or even a rabbit hole. Occasionally you may see a bird with irregular white or pale splotches on its plumage. This is leucism, a condition where pigment is absent or diluted in some of the feathers. It is not uncommon in jackdaws.

8th There is a confusion of yellow dandelion-like flowers all year round. This month’s special is coltsfoot, which sends up single flowers several weeks before the leaves. The vernacular name ‘son-before-father’ recognises this characteristic. The ray florets are finer and more lemony than those of dandelion. The stout, scale-covered flower stalks look touched with grey cobwebs, as do the large roundish leaves. These give the plant its name: they are supposed to resemble the hooves of a colt. The underside is coated with a fine, pale felt. In times past, this downy material was collected and used as tinder. Caleb Threlkeld, in his 1727 Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum, the first Irish flora, recommended boiling it in ‘a Lixivium with a little salt-nitre’ (lye and saltpetre) for the ‘best Tinder’. The botanical name, Tussilago farfara, comes from the Latin tussis, a cough. The leaves were used as a cure for coughs, sometimes – not very helpfully – in tobacco form. Coltsfoot is still used in some herbal remedies.

9th Pied wagtails have roosted at night in Dublin’s O’Connell Street for over ninety years. Robert Lloyd Praeger, in his classic book, The Way that I Went (1937), writes that they were first seen in the winter of 1929, in a tree ‘that rose between sets of tramway rails, among bright arc lights, at a place where traffic is heavy and continuous’. Until the street’s refurbishment at the beginning of this century, hundreds of birds (with a maximum of 3,600 in 1950) roosted in the plane trees from mid-October until mid-April. They still spend cold nights on O’Connell Street, but in much-diminished numbers. A newer roost has appeared outside the library on Dún Laoghaire’s seafront. On the south west edge (opposite the upper entrance) is a large D-shaped water feature with a sunken bed of bamboos in the middle. A hundred or more wagtails roost in the greenery here, and for the next few weeks can be seen arriving at sunset. They gather on the roof of the library and drop down to the bamboos in twos and threes, like falling leaves.

10th How do earthworms fare in freezing weather? The temperature below the soil surface can be several degrees warmer than the air, so often it is business as usual there. When the soil temperature falls, our largest species, the common earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris), burrows deeper, as it cannot survive at temperatures lower than minus 1°C. Russian researchers found the species overwintering at depths of 1.5 metres. Its eggs are able to tolerate minus 5°C, through a mechanism whereby they automatically dehydrate in colder temperatures. When water freezes, it expands and causes damage, so the act of dehydration keeps the eggs safe. The tiger worm (Eisenia fetida), the species often found in wormeries, is unable to tolerate freezing temperatures, either in adult or egg form. It is not a soil-dwelling worm (preferring decomposing material) and is unable to escape the cold by tunnelling downwards. Another species, the octagonal-tailed worm (Dendrobaena octaedra), increases the amount of glucose – which acts as an antifreeze, a ‘cryoprotectant’ – in its body fluids.

11th As natural foods become depleted in the countryside, certain birds begin to appear at our garden feeders. Among them are siskins, small greeny-yellow finches that until now have been feeding on conifer, birch and alder seeds in forestry and woodlands. They are much daintier than their big, burly relatives, the greenfinches, and rarely weigh more than fifteen grams. Males have black skull-caps and splashes of bright yellow on wings, rump and face. Females are hatless and less boldly marked, with some streaking. They are acrobatic birds, often hanging upside down on feeders or the ends of branches in the same way as lesser redpolls. While some of these garden-visiting siskins are Irish in origin, some have come from Britain, Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe. They can travel great distances: individuals ringed in Britain were subsequently found in Algeria, while a bird ringed in Mount Stewart in County Down was recaptured 1,892 kilometres away in Estonia.

12th In mild areas, three-cornered leek is already in bloom, although its main flowering period is from March onwards. It is one of our two common wild garlics, growing over much of Ireland, especially in a wide band along the east and south coasts. At a glance, Allium triquetrum could be mistaken for a white bluebell, but its floppy and inelegant triangular leaves and pungent, oniony smell identify it easily. It is naturalised, but not native. The species comes from the west and central Mediterranean, and was introduced to Britain and Ireland in the mid-eighteenth century. It has escaped again and again from the gardens where it was planted, sometimes in the form of discarded material. Over the last hundred years triangular-stalked garlic, as it is also known, has become well established in many habitats, especially along paths and smaller roads. As our climate warms, it is likely to spread farther. Its march across Ireland is aided by two advantages it holds over other plants. It flowers earlier and can therefore set and distribute seed sooner, and its bulbs are long-lived and can survive out of the ground for weeks. Early bees sometimes visit the flowers, while human foragers use all parts of the plant.

13th Although we may associate fungi with late summer and autumn, there are a few mushrooms that fruit in this season. The prettiest is the scarlet elf cup, a species that inhabits damp, broadleaf woodlands. It is so radiantly coloured and perfectly named that it might have stepped out of a children’s book. It bears wide-mouthed goblets with smooth interiors of bright orange or red and with paler outsides that look as if they are coated in felt. The showy pigmentation and generous size (up to seven centimetres across) make scarlet elf cups easy to spot. Sarcoscypha austriaca grows on fallen, decomposing sticks, including alder, beech, cherry, hazel, willow and sycamore. It is usually found pushing through vibrantly green moss, making for a cheery colour combination. Appropriately, one of its other common names is moss cups. The concave surface and warm colouring of the cups help to concentrate the sun’s rays in this chilly season, thus allowing the spores to ripen and disperse. The genus name comes from the Greek words sarco meaning flesh, and skyphos, a drinking vessel. The ruby elf cup (S. coccinea) is nearly identical: a positive identification of either species needs a microscope.

14th It is Saint Valentine’s Day, so let’s have a bit of shameless anthropomorphising. To the back-garden birdwatcher, few birds are as romantic as the collared doves, neatly dressed in their mocha-toned plumage and dark neck bands. They are almost always seen in couples, as they form long-lasting pair bonds. When perched, they sit closely together, quietly companionable, with none of the fidgeting of other birds. The song is a soothing ‘coo-COO-coo’, repeated again and again. Often you hear them before you see them: a flight call of a rasping ‘kwaarrrr’, accompanied by whistling wingbeats. Collared doves originated in India, but have spread westwards and, in the last century, rapidly. They first bred in England in 1955 and in Ireland in 1959. A pair produces three or more broods of one or two chicks per year. The nest is a sloppily built platform: the awkward, twiggy material is collected by the male and cobbled together by the female. Construction will commence shortly.

15th Alexanders is coming into flower in warmer parts, especially by the coast. Look for it along pathways and roadsides and under hedgerows. It is a substantial plant, immediately identifiable by its ornate, dark and shiny leaves. Before they flower, the bulky buds are wrapped inside a protective skin. It is an umbellifer, a plant with parasol-like arrangements of tiny flowers, the same family as cow parsley, hogweed, fennel, carrot, angelica and some thousands of other species. The Latin family name, Apiaceae, comes from apium for celery, which in turn comes from apis for bee. Flying insects of all kinds are attracted to the clan’s accessible flowers. Alexanders is an archaeophyte: a plant that is not native to Ireland or Britain, but which was introduced before 1500. It was brought to Britain by the Romans, who used it as a spring tonic and vegetable. For centuries the entire plant was used, including the root and the young flower buds, which were pickled. It fell out of favour when celery became popular.

16th Wading birds that have overwintered in Ireland are already heading back north. We know this partly through the work of the Dublin Bay Birds Project, run by BirdWatch Ireland. The stretch of coastline between Sutton and Dún Laoghaire is one of the most important sites for wintering waterbirds, regularly supporting over thirty thousand birds of forty or more species. Since 2013, project members have been monitoring and colour-ringing birds. Re-sightings of the ringed individuals by dedicated birders reveal the birds’ breeding places and the routes they take to get there. Some of the oystercatchers, for example, will stop off in the Inner Hebrides to breed, while others will travel on to Iceland before finding a mate. Birds flying to Iceland between now and mid-May include other waders (black-tailed godwits, golden plover, redshank, snipe and whimbrel), swans, geese, ducks, gulls and songbirds. They will return to Ireland mainly in the autumn, but those that fail to breed may come back sooner, as early as the end of June.

17th Ivy plants are laden with round fruits that ripen from olive green to black. The leaves surrounding the berries are a simpler, more ovate shape than the angular and lobed leaf that we usually associate with ivy. The classic ivy leaf is found only on juvenile plants, the form that the species takes when it is clothing the ground or snaking up a wall or tree. When it reaches the top of the support, where there is more sunlight, the plant enters adulthood and is ready to reproduce. Its stems change to become thicker and self-supporting, the leaves take on a more oval profile and flowers begin to form. The berries are a nutritious food in this lean month. They are popular with many birds. The least elegant are the wood pigeons, who clumsily flap and tumble while gorging. Smaller, more delicate birds, such as blue tits, goldcrests and wrens, also bustle about in the ivy, searching deftly for the overwintering insects, eggs, larvae and spiders that are hidden there.

18th We’re entering the season when male birds start throwing themselves around in the air with great bravado and vigour. These are courtship displays, a ‘look at me!’ to the females. They demonstrate speed, strength, agility and fitness: all qualities that any hen bird would like to see in the father of her chicks. The most spectacular (and perhaps the rarest) is the ‘sky dancing’ of the hen harrier, one of our most threatened bird species. The male flies higher and higher until he turns and falls to the ground, twisting, somersaulting and careering madly as he goes. Other birds perform less breathtaking aerobatics, but are just as determined. The wood pigeon flies steeply upwards, claps his wings over his back and glides downwards, tail spread into a fan. Wing-clapping is performed by all doves and pigeons. Many other birds provide aerial performances, including ravens, skylarks, blue tits, greenfinches, woodcock and lapwings. Even the house sparrow puts on a show, bouncing up and down, like a fluffy grey-and-brown yo-yo.

19th Feral goats are giving birth to their kids. Mating takes place between late summer and early winter and the young are born between January and early April. Some of our better-known wild herds are at Glendalough, Dalkey Island, the Burren and on Bilberry Rock in Waterford City. The last, a herd of about two dozen animals, are said to be the descendants of goats brought to Ireland at the end of the seventeenth century by Huguenot immigrants. They have thick and luxuriant coats, and may have Cashmere or Maltese ancestry. Most feral goats, however, are mixed breeds, and their genetic makeup may include the tall, white Swiss Saanen as well as the short, robust Old Irish. Goats were first introduced three or four thousand years ago by Neolithic farmers, who brought them into Antrim from Scotland. Goat hooves are split into two toes, each with hard outer sides and rubbery pads. This structure allows the feet to adjust minutely and continually to steep and uneven terrain.

20th The great spotted woodpecker is drumming on dead wood now, beating a rapid-fire tattoo that resonates across a wide area. The full-bodied reverberations, lasting just one or two seconds, announce his territorial rights over the region. Despite the ‘great’ appellation, this woodpecker is a relatively small bird: about the same length as a blackbird and a little slimmer. It is strongly marked in black and white with a red rear; males have an obvious red patch on the nape of the neck. The species has recently colonised Ireland from Britain, breeding in County Down in 2006 and in County Wicklow in 2008. It is still rare, but its range is spreading along the east coast, where individuals sometimes visit bird feeders close to woodland or forestry. Great spotted woodpeckers have tiny pockets of air behind their bills and strengthened bone tissues that prevent them suffering brain damage from drumming.

21st Elder is pushing bright green leaves from its buds already. It is the first native species to leaf up in spring, with some plants producing new foliage as early as January. Few people plant it these days; it is an unloved and underused species that falls somewhere between a straggly tree and an overgrown shrub. Nonetheless, it persists in hedgerows and plants itself in waste ground, and on roadsides, railway embankments and woodland edges. The foliage has an unpleasant odour when bruised and is supposed to be unpalatable to browsing animals. In the past, bunches were tied to horses’ harnesses to keep flies away. Elder has countless culinary, medicinal and practical uses. Berries and flowers can be made into wine and ‘champagne’. Traditionally, the hollowed stems were used by children to make pea shooters and water pistols. In Longford, stems were filled with molten lead to make ‘a good weapon for protection on a journey or out walking at night’ according to Roy Vickery’s Oxford Dictionary of Plant-Lore. Elder is a short-lived species, often lasting only two or three decades. The young wood is soft and easily compressed, like vegetable polystyrene. The pith was once widely used in labs (and biology class) as a holding material when slicing cell-thin cross-sections of specimens for microscope slides. Pieces of pith are still sold by some laboratory supply companies.

22nd Pairs of magpies have started to build new nests and refurbish old ones in the tops of large trees. Existing nests may have been used as winter roosting places by other birds, such as hooded crows. There may be angry arguments as the rightful owners regain possession. In urban areas, magpies occasionally build nests on streetlights or electrical poles. The construction process can go on in a desultory way for weeks. Usually, the male forages for material and brings it to the female, flying determinedly in an arrow-straight path to the nest. Building material can be large and awkward, and includes long sticks, lengthier than the bird. The nest is a tall dome lined with grass, hair or fine roots and held together with mud. Five or six eggs are laid in April, and are incubated by the female. After less than three weeks the chicks hatch, and are fed by both parents. Magpies usually live about five years. The oldest recorded individual was ringed as a nestling in Coventry in 1925 and shot in 1947 at 21 years, 8 months and 23 days.

23rd It’s important to keep bird feeders topped up now, as many of the foods provided by nature are running out. Most plants, both cultivated and wild, have exhausted their berries or seeds. A few stragglers still offer pickings to small birds: the seedheads of artichokes, cardoons and mulleins are eagerly inspected for stray seeds and for the invertebrates sheltering in the dry depths. Teasel continues to attract goldfinches. Adult aphids may overwinter on plants, especially evergreen ones, where they are shielded from the worst of the elements. They are generally females, and when the weather warms up, they give birth to more aphids. On certain trees, including maple, sycamore, chestnut and various fruit trees, there are little clusters of aphid eggs around the buds. They are timed to hatch just as the buds start to unfold in spring. All these morsels of protein – the adults, the eggs and the hatchlings – provide vital nutrition for birds during this period of slim pickings.

24th White-tailed eagles are courting, soaring in pairs above their eyries. The wingspan can be up to 2.4 metres, making them, along with mute swans, our ‘wingspanniest’ bird. An average human with outstretched arms falls well short of this. Sea eagles, as they are also called, were once widespread around our coast, but by the beginning of the twentieth century poisoning and shooting had wiped them out. Victorian collectors seeking eggs and skins also hastened the demise of these majestic raptors. Between 2007 and 2011, a hundred birds were reintroduced to Killarney National Park. The young birds came from wild nests in Norway. In the eagle world when two chicks are hatched, the second rarely survives, so these are the birds that are used in reintroduction programmes. By the end of 2019, Ireland’s new white-tailed eagles had raised twenty-seven young, in territories from the Beara Peninsula to Connemara. Over the coming weeks, eggs will be laid, incubated, and – it is hoped – more eaglets fledged. Sea eagles are mainly scavengers, eating dead fish and mammals. They also steal from other predators; sometimes they catch their own prey, swooping dramatically to the water to grab an unwary fish.

25th The ground in parks and gardens that was bare in winter is covered in a green haze of seedling leaves. Some of our most persistent wild plants – or weeds, to gardeners – are annuals. They die in autumn and appear anew each spring, sprouting from seeds in the soil. Cleavers (vernacularly known as sticky-backs and many other names) is one of the first to germinate. Some of its seeds bounced off the parent plant last year and are now starting new populations on the home ground. Others stuck to the fur of animals and clothes of humans, and were carried far from their origins. Chickweed, another common annual, is also enjoyed by domestic fowl – and budgerigars. It is springing up all over vegetable patches and flower beds. Ivy-leaved speedwell is also proliferating. The first leaves are neat ovals; they are followed by miniature, ivy-shaped true leaves, covered in hairs. In some ditches the leaves of wild arum are appearing, like sheaves of glossy arrowheads.

26th Bramblings are with us now, pretty finches visiting from Scandinavia and farther east. They are the same size and weight as chaffinches, but the plumage is bolder. At this time of the year, males have blackish-brown heads, rusty breasts and white bellies and rumps. Backs and wings are a scatter of brown, rust and white, like burnt toast that has been hastily scraped. Females are similar but more muted. In both sexes, the snowy rumps are noticeable when birds are in flight. Single birds, or twos and threes, may visit gardens and bird feeders – along with other finches, especially chaffinches. But they are more likely to congregate where there are beech trees; beech mast is their preferred food. In previous years flocks have gathered at Powerscourt House in Enniskerry in County Wicklow and at Curraghchase Forest Park in County Limerick, among other places. In late March, bramblings head home for the breeding season where they build nests in birch woodlands or on the edges of mixed conifer and birch forests.

27th Winter cherry (Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’) has been in flower since November or earlier. In colder years it takes a break in January and February and sets off again with a fresh blast of blossom in March and April. It is a Japanese variety, but it was introduced to western gardens by a famous Irish nursery in County Down. In 1901, Tom Smith of Daisy Hill Nursery received the first specimens in Europe in a consignment of plants from Japan. For many years this cherry was a rarity, as it must be propagated from cuttings or grafted onto the rootstock of another cherry. The pale pink, delicate blossom is visited by winter-foraging bumblebees. It never bears fruit. A related tree, also in flower now, is the cherry-plum (Prunus cerasifera), a native of southern Europe and western Asia that has been growing here for centuries. It is often used as a hedgerow plant. The white flowers with their prominent stamens are similar to those of blackthorn, but they appear some weeks earlier, and the branches are thornless. A pink-flowered form has wine-toned leaves. Both are good early bee plants. Small fruits are sometimes borne in late summer.

28th Buff-tailed bumblebee queens – and workers, in mild areas – have been around all winter. Young queens of other species are beginning to emerge from hibernation. Each one mated last summer and stored the sperm inside her body. As soon as she wakes in early spring, she seeks out flowers such as deadnettle, winter heather, lesser celandine, crocus and rosemary. She needs pollen and nectar to restore her body fats and develop her ovaries. If you see a large bee buzzing along at ground level rather than visiting flowers, it is a queen looking for somewhere to make her nest. This may be an old mouse hole, a deep crevice in a wall or the hollow space at the base of a plant or clump of grass. When she finds her ideal spot, she may rearrange leaves and other debris for insulation. Before laying eggs, she makes a wax pot and fills it with nectar, to supply her with sustenance during the incubation period. She lays her eggs on top of a ball of pollen and keeps them warm under her furry abdomen until they hatch.

29th As winter progresses, the leafier, softer parts of seaweed scattered on the beach are worn away by the action of waves against sand and pebble. The stipes (stems) of kelp are more durable and remain strewn about like rubbery brown sticks. At the base of some, the holdfast remains, a formation like a many-fingered fist. The fingers, known as haptera, colonise microscopic crevices on rock surfaces underwater and secrete a waterproof glue. This keeps the seaweed securely fastened in place through months or years of continual movement. The space within the haptera offers a habitat to dozens of tiny creatures, including crustaceans, tubeworms and molluscs. It is worth looking closely at the fresher holdfasts you find on the beach to see what is living within the space enclosed by the haptera. One resident is the blue-rayed limpet, a small shell (less than two centimetres) with shimmering turquoise bands painted across its domed surface. It carves out a niche in the seaweed’s fabric that can weaken the holdfast’s bond, causing it to become dislodged and washed ashore.

1st It is Saint David’s day, the patron saint of Wales. The sixth-century Welsh bishop is also revered in parts of Ireland: there is a holy well dedicated to him at Ballynaslaney in County Wexford. David’s emblem is the leek. In the Irish flora, the nearest thing is Babington’s leek (Allium babingtonii), a plant that may be an archaeophyte – a relict of cultivation prior to 1500 CE. It is perennial, growing wild in sandy and poorish soil. It is most frequent along the west coast, from southwest Clare to south Donegal; there are also numerous records of it in County Wexford. It is locally common on the Aran Islands where it was used in the same way as garlic. The strappy new leaves have been coming up for some weeks. By the time the plant blooms in late summer (on stems that may be nearly two metres), the foliage has withered and disappeared. The flower heads are a mix of tiny mauve florets and tightly packed bulbils. In traditional veterinary medicine, blackleg, a disease of cattle, was supposed to be cured by putting half a bulbil into a slit in a calf’s tail. The plant was named after an English botanist and archaeologist, Charles Cardale Babington, by his friend and fellow botanist, William Borrer.

2nd Although it may look like spring in some parts of Ireland, it’s important to keep feeding the birds. Last year’s wild crop of seeds, fruits and nuts is almost spent, and this season’s first generation of insects is barely getting started. Small birds can lose 20 per cent of their body weight keeping warm on a harsh night: they need to eat constantly during daylight if they are to survive. Garden feeding stations with energy-rich seeds, sunflower hearts and suet are life savers. Blackcaps and other territorial species may protect some food sources and drive off all comers, so more birds have a chance if there are several feeders. Snow sometimes hits in March or April; food should definitely be supplied then. Birds also require water to avoid dehydration. Eating snow is not a realistic option as melting it saps a huge amount of a bird’s energy. During cold snaps in Europe, continental birds such as redwings, fieldfares and waxwings come to Ireland looking for sustenance, and may visit gardens.

3rd Some biennial plants (those that flower in their second year of growth) spend the winter as rosettes: neat ground-hugging clusters of leaves. One of the most common is mullein, with its unmistakable clumps of grey-green, felted leaves. In early morning the furry surfaces are silvered with tiny dew drops. While this effect looks pretty to our eyes, it is a mechanism that many rosette-formers use to collect moisture. Other such plants are foxglove, spear thistle, marsh thistle, teasel and weld or dyer’s rocket. All these biennials need ‘vernalisation’ in order to recommence growth in spring. This means that their systems require a period of cold before they can respond to stimuli such as lengthening days and rising temperatures. The cold triggers the plant to switch from a vegetative mode (growing leaves) to a reproductive one (producing flowers). As spring advances, flower stems will begin to emerge from the rosettes, lengthening gradually until they bloom.

4th Song thrushes, robins, blackbirds and sparrows are in full voice. Blue tits are singing too, mostly variations of a chirrupy ‘chee-chee-purrrr-ah’. In woodlands, the dominant proclaimer this month is the great tit. Its most common declaration is a ringing, far-reaching, high-low refrain: ‘Teach-er! teach-er! teach-er!’ It also sounds like a vastly amplified squeaky wheelbarrow. This basic phrase is often reworked and embroidered with grace notes. Seventy different utterances, including alarm calls and songs, have been identified among great tits, with each bird normally having a repertoire of about eight songs. When a male is defending his territory, he uses different songs in different areas to fool potential intruders into thinking they are facing multiple birds instead of a lone, resourceful individual. The great tit is the largest of its family to visit gardens. Weighing eighteen grams, it is considerably bulkier than the coal tit or blue tit. It has a black head with white cheeks, a yellow breast and an olive-green back. It also sports a vertical black chest stripe. Males with the widest stripes are most attractive to females.

5th Wheels of jagged dandelion leaves have been expanding since the start of the year, pressed flat against the ground. In milder areas their spring flush of flower is beginning. Within a month their cheery yellow heads will cover grassy verges and weedkiller-less lawns. Some will host pollen beetles, tiny, shiny, black or greeny-bronze insects that tumble about among the petals. Each flower is a composite of individual florets (sometimes over two hundred) with each having a reservoir of nectar and a dusting of pollen. This makes them an important source of food for early bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other insects. About a dozen moth species lay their eggs on the plants, which then feed the caterpillars. Later, when the clocks form, goldfinches and house sparrows pluck the seeds. There is no definitive dandelion species. Instead, there is an aggregate of hundreds of microspecies: over seventy different forms have been identified in Dublin alone. Look carefully at a few dandelions in the coming weeks, and you will see how they differ in leaf shape and coloration. Many other factors vary, but these are the easiest to spot.

6th Seabirds are putting on their breeding plumage, which makes them easier to identify. A small but striking bird is the black guillemot, which is a deep sooty brown (nearly black), with a well-defined white wing patch. The legs and inside of the mouth are a rich coral red. It is an auk, a family that includes guillemot, puffin and razorbill. Black guillemots are found all along the coast and are easily spotted in the relatively calm water of various harbours, including Bangor, Dingle, Dún Laoghaire and Howth. The birds float quietly, most often in ones and twos, and disappear from view periodically, as they dive for small crustaceans and fish. Occasionally a small group flies low and fast over the waves. The species’ diminutive size and habit of nesting in crevices and holes in walls led to its common names in Ireland of sea pigeon and rock dove (not to be confused with the European rock dove, mentioned on 16 January). In Roundstone in County Galway, a vernacular name was ‘parrot’, according to the Reverend Charles Swainson’s 1885 book, The Provincial Names and Folklore of British Birds. Britain and Ireland are the black guillemot’s southernmost breeding range. It breeds as far north as Greenland and Alaska.

7th Butterbur is in flower in milder areas. Petasites hybridus is like a better-looking, jumbo version of its invasive relative, winter heliotrope (P. fragrans). Growing along rivers, damp roadsides and other moist places, it carries batons of pink-tipped, tasselled, tubular flowers, thirty to forty centimetres tall. The round and scalloped leaves, emerging now, can expand to ninety centimetres when fully grown. They are also soft and flexible, and were used for wrapping butter in the days before refrigeration. Almost all instances in Ireland are male, so the species can spread to new territories only by the roots fragmenting and starting new plants. In David Moore’s 1866 flora of Ireland, Cybele Hibernica, butterbur was recorded predominantly around houses and gardens in some regions, suggesting that, although native, some populations are relicts of cultivation. In some countries, a preparation known as Ze339, made from an extract of the leaves, is used to alleviate the symptoms of allergic rhinitis. Research has also shown an extract of the root to be effective in reducing the frequency of migraines.

8th If you take a holiday in a warmer climate during this season, you may notice plenty of birdsong. Sometimes the singers are familiar birds, but the melody and timbre may be slightly different. A Canary Island blackbird, for example, gives a less liquid and more staccato performance than its Irish counterpart. Birdsong can vary from region to region, especially in non-migratory species. Even on a small geographic scale, birds of the same species may have distinct ‘dialects’. This happens when colonies are separated by a mountain, water or other inhospitable terrain. Dialects are learned, with young birds adopting the local versions sung by the neighbourhood males. Females usually respond to males vocalising in their own dialect. With some species, however, they may choose males with different dialects, perhaps to widen the genetic base of the next generation. City birds, meanwhile, may sing at higher frequencies than their country cousins: this allows their voices to be heard above the urban din.

9th The summer snowflake is misnamed, as its flowering period – just starting – is over and done with in May. The lampshade-like flowers on this bulb are roughly similar to those of snowdrops, but they dangle in small groups of three to six on tall, knee-high stalks. There are six identical petals, instead of the snowdrop’s arrangement of three outer and three inner petals. Each white petal is tipped with a lime-green nub. Leucojum aestivum is rare in the wild in Ireland, and only a portion of the population – along the banks of the Shannon and in the southeast – is believed to be native. The other instances are probably garden plants that have jumped into the wider countryside, possibly by seeds travelling along watercourses. The fruits are inflated with air, which allows them to float. Leucojum establishes in moist places such as riversides, marshes and damp meadows. There are large colonies at Inistioge in Kilkenny and Innishannon in Cork.

10th Some garden ponds, ditches and bog pools are wriggling with little black tadpoles. Others are still hosting clumps of gelatinous frogspawn in various stages of development, from the solid black pinheads of eggs to the elongating commas of embryonic tadpoles. Prolonged spells of freezing weather, such as those that sometimes hit this month, can kill off both the eggs and the budding tadpoles. Eggs on the bottom of clumps may survive, if they are floating in unfrozen water. Free-swimming tadpoles may also live, provided that the pond is not sealed with ice long enough to become anoxic (deprived of oxygen). Individual frogs lay only one batch of spawn per year, so the producers of frost-damaged eggs will have no progeny this spring. However, some frogs spawn late, so even in very cold years, there will be tadpoles somewhere. If your pond freezes, place a pan of hot water on top of it, to melt a hole in the ice. Sometimes, floating a ball on the surface prevents the water from freezing overnight.

11th Let us consider the ‘Lent lilies’, as daffodils are sometimes known. In Irish it is lus an chromchinn, the plant with the bowed head. Although it is not native in Ireland, several different daffodil species and hybrids have become naturalised, forming colonies in demesnes and gardens and around old ruins. Some communities are very old: a planting of the scented Narcissus x medioluteus on Killiney Hill in County Dublin has been known for over two centuries – although the increased volume of foot traffic now means that its days are probably numbered. Daffodils are an important forage plant for early bees and other pollinators. Another insect depending on daffodils and other bulbs is the large narcissus fly (Merodon equestris) – much despised by bulb growers. This furry hoverfly, which mimics a small bumblebee, is a harmless consumer of nectar and pollen when an adult. Its immature phase is another matter. The larva hatches from a single egg laid at the neck of the bulb in May or June. It tunnels into the bulb’s interior and chomps through the tissues, spending months steadily munching away and leaving behind its excretions of gooey, brown frass. In early spring, the larva moves to the adjoining soil, pupates for a few weeks and then emerges as an innocent hoverfly.

12th In its winter plumage the great crested grebe is an almost puritanical-looking bird, quietly dressed in grey, white and buff. Its dark head plumes, however, jauntily backswept into a quiff, are a hint of the glories that appear now in the breeding season. In spring, the body plumage becomes more richly coloured, and the head and neck are adorned with a double-tufted black crest and chestnut ruff. The birds’ famous courtship display takes place on the lakes, reservoirs and quiet waterways where they will build their nests. With crest and ruff spread tall and wide, a pair dances on the water in a synchronised performance that oscillates between gracefully balletic and energetically slapstick. They head-shake, preen, dip, rise up, tread water, dive and offer each other gifts of waterweed. The nest is a floating platform tethered to vegetation, so that it doesn’t drift away. Demand for the birds’ plumage in Victorian times nearly wiped out the British and Irish populations. By 1860 there were around fifty pairs in Britain. The finely feathered chest skins, known as ‘grebe fur’, were used in clothing, while the head plumes were added to hats.

13th Wood anemones, or wooden enemies, as wits are wont to call them, are in bloom now. Their starry white flowers speckle the ground in mature woodlands and in undisturbed areas in older estates and gardens. Large gatherings are indicators of very old woodland, as the plant spreads at a painfully slow pace, mostly via thin, underground rhizomes, rather than by seed. Clumps are reputed to increase by no more than six feet per hundred years. During rainy or dull weather and at night time, the flowers close up and hang downwards, like minuscule white handkerchiefs. In sunshine they open wide, revealing exquisitely poised golden stamens. Hoverflies and occasionally honeybees visit them. Anemone nemorosa is a spring ephemeral: after flowering, the leaves die back. The plant completely disappears for the rest of the year, its place taken by ferns and mosses. The wood anemone belongs to the same family as the buttercup. Imagine the flowers as yellow instead of white, and the resemblance is clear.

14th Mad March hares are boxing now. They stand on hind legs, batting at each other in quick-fire bouts of frantic, speedy energy. The sparring pairs are usually a female and male, with the former fighting off the attentions of the latter. The bucks are a little smaller than the does: it is possible that the clash is also a test of his strength and stamina. She is more likely to choose a fit and feisty father for her offspring. Our native hare, Lepus timidus hibernicus, is endemic to Ireland (that is, occurring nowhere else) and is a subspecies of the white Arctic hare. Unlike the northern species, the Irish hare does not turn white in winter. Its coat may be anywhere between light brown and dark russet, tones that blend well into our countryside. The Irish hare is found all over our island, from upland bogs to sea level dunes. The greatest numbers are on grassland, such as farmland, golf courses and airfields – including Dublin Airport. The busiest mating season is spring and summer, but breeding can happen all year round. The longer-limbed and longer-eared European brown hare (L. europaeus) has been introduced here several times since the nineteenth century; the two species sometimes crossbreed.

15th Leaves are emerging on some trees, while others are bare. Still others are carrying sere remnants of last year’s foliage, fruits and seeds. Old relics are just as much a part of the tree-scape at this time of the year as new growth. Young beech, oak and hornbeam hold on to their rustling brown leaves until well into spring. Ash is still untidy with bundles of ‘keys’ (seeds): it is the last to leaf up and may be stark and skeletal for many more weeks. Plane trees are adorned with the occasional knobbly seed ball, while on rowan and crab apples a few dried fruits hang – those that escaped the attentions of birds. The great hand-like leaves of horse chestnut are squeezing out of the sticky buds, like lime-green crumpled gloves. In gardens and parks, purple-leaved cherry-plum has been in leaf for over a month and is still sporting dainty pink flowers. On river banks, cascading weeping willows are hazed with green.

16th Sand martins are the smallest of the hirundines that breed here in summer. The others, which share the characteristic bullet body, forked tail and swept-back wings, are barn swallows and house martins. The brown-and-white sand martins are the earliest to arrive, with the first small parties flying in around now. They have spent the winter in Africa, just below the Sahara in the semi-arid Sahel zone. They are faithful to breeding sites, returning year after year to the same locations, which may host colonies of hundreds of birds. Older individuals may return two or three weeks before first-year birds. While this ensures that they can be among the first to set up house in the side of a cliff or quarry, it also puts them at risk from cold March weather. In the coming weeks, pairs will be excavating burrows and lining them with grass and feathers. Despite their petite size, sand martins are adept at digging, shifting heavy stones and other material.

17th There is no true shamrock. Historically, five different trifoliate plants have done service as Saint Patrick’s emblem on this day. The species that is grown commercially is yellow clover (Trifolium dubium), also known as lesser trefoil. It blooms from May onwards with tiny, canary-coloured tuft-like flowers. Its leaves provide food for caterpillars of the common blue butterfly. White clover was another of the shamrocks. In 1726, Caleb Threlkeld notes in his Irish flora:

This Plant is worn by the People in their Hats upon the 17. Day of March yearly, (which is called St. Patrick’s Day.) It being a Current Tradition, that by this Three Leafed Grass, he emblematically set forth to them the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. However that be, when they wet their Seamar-oge, they often commit Excess in Liquor, which is not a right keeping of a Day to the Lord; Error generally leading to Debauchery.

Other plants once used as shamrocks were red clover, black medick and wood sorrel.

18th The wren is the loudest bird in the garden now, declaiming in five-second bursts of clear, trilling sound that end abruptly as if an ‘off’ button has been pressed. The song is both to defend territory from other males and to attract a mate. Despite its great volume, the wren can be difficult to spot, as it is most often surrounded by dense vegetation. Its short, rounded wings are adapted to life in this congested habitat. They allow take-off and other manoeuvres to be accomplished speedily in cramped conditions. Each male builds several nests in his territory (‘cock nests’) and when a female shows interest, he escorts her around his various bits of real estate. One of her criteria is a secluded location, well hidden from potential predators. If she finds a nest that she likes, she adds the finishing touches, bringing in hair and feathers to soften and insulate it. Some males are polygamous, especially in areas where there is abundant food. When they have settled one female in a nest they go off in search of more mates.

19th Moths get bad press, thanks to a few rogues such as the common clothes moth and the codling moth, which is fond of apples. However, of the 1,500-plus species native to Ireland, most do no damage to fabric or food. Some act as pollinators and many provide sustenance to birds and bats and other mammals. Blue tits are just one of the birds that time their broods to coincide with caterpillar season. Several macro-moths – those that are larger and thus easier to identify – are on the wing already. Among these is the beautifully marked emperor (Saturnia pavonia), which belongs to the same family as the silkworm. Males are mostly russet-coloured, while females, which are larger, are more sepia-toned. Both have eye-spots on all four wings, and are decorative enough to be mistaken for a butterfly. Look for them in open, scrubby ground and in hedgerows near brambles, heather and hawthorn – some of the plants fed on by the caterpillars. See mothsireland.com for help with identifying the moths that you find.

20th Cherry laurel is in bloom, holding up slim torches of creamy flower amid large, shiny, leathery leaves. In the past, this native of eastern Europe and southwest Asia was planted extensively on estates for game cover and beautification. By the mid-twentieth century, those well-intended plantings were choking demesne woodlands with evergreen thickets. They marched along, relentlessly sending up new shoots from the base and forming roots where branches touched the ground (processes known as suckering and layering). Bird-dispersed fruits also allowed the plants to jump into the wild. Laurel is now considered an invasive species of high impact, as it shades out native plants and degrades habitats. For non-botanists, it’s hard to believe that this elephantine shrub, with its thick leaves and batons of blossom, is a cherry, but its Latin name, Prunus laurocerasus, signifies its membership of the Prunus or cherry genus. Despite its general undesirability in the wild, it is popular with bees, hoverflies and butterflies, as it produces plenty of nectar. This comes not just from its flowers, but also from nectar-secreting glands (known as extrafloral nectaries) on the undersides of the leaves.

21st Cock pheasants are looking their pompous best for the breeding season. They strut regally with magnificent tails, gleaming blue-green necks, bright-red faces and dazzling white collars. Body and wing plumage is a sumptuous mix of russets and brown with white and dark markings. Males gather a bevy of females, in the same manner as domestic chickens – both belong to the Galliformes order of birds. Pheasants fly only short distances, but they roost in trees at night, out of harm’s way. The hens lay their eggs on the ground in shallow dips, sometimes in the shelter of a bramble or hedgerow. They are not a native species, and are originally from Asia. All those that we see now on roadsides and in parks and woodlands are escapees from shoots, or their descendants. The Romans probably introduced the bird to Britain, but the earliest records in Ireland date from around the sixteenth century.

22nd We have over a dozen native and naturalised species of willow, as well as an array of hybrids. Osiers were often planted in hedgerows and close to houses to provide material for baskets and wickerwork. Such plantings were known as sally gardens: the name is a derivation of the Latin species name, Salix. Most willows are blooming now, although the catkins, as they are known, don’t look like normal flowers. Immature male catkins – pussy willows – are covered in grey fur, which acts as insulation during cold weather. As they mature, they elongate, the stamens protrude, and the copious yellow pollen on the anthers is visible. Willows are wind-pollinated, but they are also visited by bees, which stock up on pollen. Nectar is sometimes produced, and this is a life-saving boost for butterflies emerging from hibernation. The smallest species is the creeping willow, which rarely tops a metre. It grows most often near the coast, on sandy and rocky ground. Look for silvery or silky leaves and little catkins.

23rd Hibernating butterflies sometimes rouse on warm and sunny winter days, but after soaking in a few rays they return to their slumbers. Sunny March days, however, cause surges of butterflies to properly wake up and fly off in search of mates. Peacock, small tortoiseshell, brimstone, comma and red admiral butterflies all overwinter in adult form. The last two have begun to hibernate here only in recent years. Painted lady also attempts to hibernate here, but may not survive. In mild areas the very first of the season’s freshly hatched holly blues may be on the wing. These tiny, pale and luminous butterflies are easy to miss, as they dance in the air some metres overhead and barely stay still. They overwintered as chrysalises on the undersides of the leaves of ivy and various other plants, including bramble. Early summer will see a wave of migrants, including painted lady, red admiral and comma, arriving from abroad.

24th The first of our native hedgerow plants to flower is blackthorn. Its clouds of white blossom billow out from roadside and motorway plantings. The impenetrable thickets of dark twigs – with each shoot ending in a vicious spine – give shelter to the nests of birds, including wrens, blackbirds, thrushes, tits and finches. The leaves provide food for the caterpillars of over fifty different moths. The brown hairstreak butterfly also lays its eggs on blackthorn. The butterfly, which is a rich, rusty orange rather than the brown of its name, is confined to the Burren and a few other places. In autumn, the tremendously bitter sloes, which look like miniature plums, will be eaten by birds and foraged by humans for sloe gin and hedgerow jelly. The stones from sloes picked over a thousand years ago were found in excavations of Viking Dublin. More recently, other parts of the plant were made into folk remedies, while the dried leaves were used as a tobacco substitute. The best-known uses of the wood are for walking sticks and, in the past, for fighting sticks. After the stick was cut it was seasoned in the smoke of the chimney.

25th The dunnock, also known as the hedge sparrow, is a small brown bird. It is not related to the house sparrow, but from a distance it looks similar. It has a slimmer, more pointed bill and more uniform colouring. The dunnock’s manner is careful and diffident, as it shuffles around in the undergrowth, nearly invisible in its sensible, mousy outfit. The Irish-born Victorian ornithologist, the Reverend Frederick Orpen Morris, advocated it as a role model for humans: ‘unobtrusive, quiet and retiring … humble and homely in its deportment and habits, sober and unpretending in its dress…’ Morris was magnificently wrong, for the dunnock’s sex life is so intense that the good reverend is no doubt spinning and blushing in his grave. While a few individuals are monogamous, most dunnocks make complex liaisons involving one, two or even three members of the opposite sex. A ménage à trois of two males and one female is the most common. During the ten-day mating period, starting soon, polyandrous females copulate on average 1.6 times an hour. Females solicit more than one mate because each male who shares paternity of the brood helps to feed her chicks.

26th Young fox cubs are nestled in their dens. In urban areas, vixens may set up house under tool sheds or decking or in an overgrown garden or ruined building. Most cubs are born in March, in litters of four or five. The cubs’ coats are brown when they are first born, and their eyes – which turn a glowing amber as they get older – are blue. Both parents hunt for their offspring, while unmated females born the previous year also often help with care. Rats, mice, nestlings, birds’ eggs and roadkill are all brought back to the den. Back-garden poultry, where available, is a delicacy. The cubs will emerge in the coming weeks, at first staying near the entrance of the den. Later they will play in the open, often stealing balls, plastic plant pots and other items. By the end of the summer they will be able to hunt and forage for themselves.

27th Barn swallows are returning to Ireland. The first few individuals have been flying in from their wintering grounds in southern Africa over the last couple of weeks. These are most likely males, who arrive before the females to establish a nest site. Birds remain faithful to the same nest places from year to year, building their mud and straw cups up against the beams inside barns and sheds. Swallows can be distinguished from their cousins, the martins, by their high-low, swooping, gliding flight and their lengthy, deeply forked tails. Females’ tails are a little shorter. Males with the longest, most symmetrical tail streamers are the most sought after. Swallows often gather communally on wires, nattering constantly in lightweight, liquid voices. They will raise two or even three broods of young before returning south for the winter. Swallows feed entirely on insects, favouring larger flies such as horseflies and bluebottles. Their food supply suffers where pesticides are used, including animal worming medications. Such drugs render cowpats sterile, so that flies’ eggs don’t hatch on them.

28th Solitary bees are emerging from their nests and are feeding on dandelion and willow flowers. Unlike honeybees or bumblebees, they do not form cooperative communities. Instead, the young raise themselves, having been provided with the equivalent of a packed lunch by their mother. After mating in late spring or summer, she searches for a suitable nest site. This might be in an earthen bank, a crack in masonry, or even a manmade ‘bee hotel’, depending on her species. She collects pollen, makes it into a cake and lays a single egg on it. She repeats the process – one cake, one egg – until her eggs are finished, after which she dies. The larvae hatch, feed on the pollen and overwinter in cocoons. In spring they emerge as adults and the cycle starts again. A few species are ‘kleptoparasites’, laying eggs in the nests of other solitary bees. Most of our seventy-seven solitary bee species are smaller than a honeybee. Some are very efficient pollinators. They carry pollen on the underside of the abdomen, instead of on the legs: with each flower visit, pollen is left behind. The red mason bee (Osmia bicornis), which readily uses bee hotels, can provide 120 times the pollinating services of a honeybee.

29th Violets are in flower. We have several species, but the common dog violet (Viola riviniana) is by far the most widespread – in woodlands, banks, hedgerows and pastures. The ‘dog’ denotes that it has no scent, unlike the sweet violet. In parts of Britain, ‘horse’ and ‘pig’ replace the dog. Its pale purple flowers are borne singly and the leaves are hairless and heart-shaped. You can tell it apart from the similar early dog violet (V. reichenbachiana) because its spur (the tiny finger at the back of the flower) is pale, instead of dark. Or maybe you can’t: the two species have intermingled, especially in Leinster, and it can be hard to put a name on some plants. Violets have multiple interactions with insects. The flowers provide valuable early forage for bees, while the caterpillars of certain fritillary butterflies feed on the foliage. Violet seeds have a fatty appendage, called an elaiosome. This attracts ants, which unwittingly disperse them by transporting them to their nests. After the elaiosome is eaten, the seed is removed to a ‘rubbish’ area, where other organic matter makes the soil more fertile. The seedlings from these natural compost heaps have larger leaves than others.

30th The first basking sharks of the year are appearing off the coast of Ireland. Between now and late autumn, hundreds will be seen, mainly ranging from Waterford, along the west coast and up to the north coast of Donegal. During May and June, the cliffs of the Inishowen Peninsula, Ireland’s most northerly point, are a good place from which to spot them. One of the vernacular names is ainmhide na seolta (monster with the sails), because of the huge tail fin. It is also known as the ‘sun-fish’ because of its habit of basking near the surface on sunny days.iii Cetorhinus maximus is the largest fish in the north Atlantic, and the second largest in the world (after the whale shark). The usual length is five to seven metres, but the longest known individual was over twelve metres. It swims around with its massive mouth open, straining dozens of kilos of plankton per day into its digestive system. Seen from above, they are huge-headed, majestic creatures, swinging their rudder of a tail from side-to-side as they curve slowly through the water. Basking sharks migrate to deeper waters in the autumn, but occasionally they go farther. In 2012, a shark tagged off Donegal travelled over five thousand kilometres to tropical waters off West Africa. In 2019, another shark, also tagged off Donegal, was photographed off Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

31st Geese that have overwintered in Ireland are starting to make the journey north to their various breeding grounds. Pale-bellied brent geese from Dublin Bay have been stopping to feed at Carlingford Lough and at Killough in County Down. They will eventually end up in eastern High Arctic Canada via Iceland and Greenland. Meanwhile, the huge population of Greenland white-fronted geese (around 8,500), which winters in the Wexford Slobs, is also on the move. They usually begin to depart around now and continue to do so over the coming weeks. Like all geese, they travel in groups composed of family units, and let warm winds from the south help them on their way. They also break the journey in Iceland, a destination they can reach in eighteen hours if assisted by a following wind. Barnacle geese from Greenland, which overwinter in the west of Ireland, likewise stop in Iceland. The arduous journey can burn a huge amount of fat: up to a third of a goose’s body weight. It takes several weeks to build up their reserves again.

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