Search Results ... (626)
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Otter (Madra Uisce) and Brown Trout (Breac)
Otter (Madra Uisce) and Brown Trout (Breac)
Otter catches a brown trout in a South Dublin park
Original work carried out under contract for South Dublin County Council
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Hazel 1
Hazel 1
English Name: Hazel Botanical Name (Latin): Corylus avellana Irish Name: Coll Order: DICOTYLEDONES Family: BETULACEAE Brief Description: Shrubby, deciduous tree; catkins (“lamb’s tails”) appearing in early Spring before leaves; leaves hairy, oval; hazel nuts enclosed in leafy bracts.
Carsten Krieger
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In 2007, we created the weight of 428,000 double decker buses in waste
In 2007, we created the weight of 428,000 double decker buses in waste
The image shows a bin on a street packed full of household and commerical waste.
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The Eurasian badger, Meles meles, belongs to one of the largest families of carnivores the Family Mus
The Eurasian badger, Meles meles, belongs to one of the largest families of carnivores the Family Mus
The Eurasian badger, Meles meles, belongs to one of the largest families of carnivores the Family Mustelidae which has 65 species. Its relatives include other animals found in Ireland the stoats, pine martins and otters in addition to the skunks, ferrets and minks. Its range is extensive, badgers can be found all across Europe and Asia, bounded by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and by latitudes at 60 and 35 degrees. Badgers are elusive creatures, only coming out at night, and therefore relatively little is know about their complex social behaviour. Generally badgers live in social groups of 6, but up to 23 individuals in a group has been recorded. Badgers inherit their living areas, or setts, from their parents, as a result some setts can be centuries old. One excavated sett in England revealed 879m of tunnels, 50 chambers and 178 entrances!
With kind permission of the Irish Wildlife Trust
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There are over 600 different flowering plants in the Burren in County Clare.
There are over 600 different flowering plants in the Burren in County Clare.
English Name: Burnet rose, Scotch rose Botanical Name (Latin): Rosa pimpinellifolia (R. spinosissima) Irish Name: Briúlán Order: DICOTYLEDONES Family: ROSACEAE Brief Description: Very spiny, deciduous shrub, usually c. 0.5m tall; flowers solitary, white, cream or pink; hip black with persistent crown of sepals.
Carsten Krieger
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Kerry Cow
Kerry Cow
Black and white photograph of the Kerry Cow. Kerry Cows are derived from the Celtic Shorthorn cow and was brought to Ireland 2,000 years ago making it one of the oldest breeds in Europe. It is a black cow that grows a heavy coat over winter, it has horns, but was considered in the past to be a very gentle breed. It was dominant in Ireland until the end of the eighteenth century. Kerry cows are hardy, easy to calve and their milk suitable for making into cheese and butter. Although Kerry Cows do not produce as much milk as modern varieties, they are important as they hold genetic material that makes them adapted for extensive farming conditions and may be resistant to some disease that our modern highly selected breeds are not. It is essential that these breeds are conserved, as they will be needed in a return to more extensive farming practices. Farmers under the REPS scheme (the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme) can receive a grant for farming with breeds that are in danger of going extinct, such as the Kerry Cow.
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Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera)
Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera)
Colour photograph of the Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) wild flower found on the grassland dunes of Bull Island, Dublin. This spectacular orchid resembling a bee is quite difficult to locate on the dry grassy dune edges it favours, yet can often be only inches from a well-trodden path. The bee orchid has a basal rosette of several unstalked grey-green oval leaves and an erect stalk from 15-50 cm high carrying from 2-7 flowers. The bud is light and prominately green-veined, opening with three crisp pink sepals framing the flower. Each flower has two small side petals, spear-shaped, and the large incredible bee-mimic lower lip. This is velvety brown and patterned with yellow markings to resemble a bee and attract a pollinator, although the flower has the ability to self-pollinate. Seed is prolific, fine and dustlike, but can take up to eight years to produce a flowering stem. Flowers: June-July
By kind permission of Dorothy Forde
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Pollardstown Fen
Pollardstown Fen
Picture of Pollardstown Fen. Blue sky with clouds, yellow /orange vegetation of long grasses, rushes and darker coloured shrubs. Large pool at the bottom of picture. Pollardstown Fen is the largest fen of its type in Ireland, reaching 220ha in area. It is now a Nature Reserve and a Special Area of Conservation. The fen began its development 12,000 years ago when a depression in the land surface flooded with water and debris from melting ice. Over time, plants grew and died in the depression forming layers of peat. Generally, this process would continue to form an acidic peat bog, which gets all its nutrients from rainwater, with no contact from groundwater. But Pollardstown fen is fed by 40 calcium rich springs from the Curragh sand and gravel aquifer, making a very different and rare environment. The fen is a glimpse back into Ireland past, holding thousands of years of information in its peat, but also as a picture to how the raised bogs that covered most of the central plain would have once started life.
With kind permission of the Irish Wildlife Trust
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St. John's Wort
St. John's Wort
St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum). A yellow wild flower plant, the flowers are about one inch across, with black dots along their edge. Its medicinal properties have been long recognised for wounds and nervous illness. It flowers from June to September, and its Irish name 'Lus Eoin Bais' reflects when it first appears mid-Summer.
With permission of Paula O'Regan
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Burren Pavement
Burren Pavement
The grey limestone pavement of the Burren with its characteristic karstic feature of clints and grikes. Grikes are the deeply eroded gullies of the limestone, which provide a home to a wide range of plants from ferns to flowers. Clints are the higher block like structures of the limestone. The surface of the limestone is not completely smooth. This has been caused by weathering of the limestone by the wind, rain and sea since the last ice age, creating small depressions in the surface of the limestone. Limestone was created under a warm tropical sea teeming with small, shelled creatures approximately 370 million years ago. As these creatures died their remains fell to the bottom of the shallow sea, to be compressed over millions of years, by their own weight and masses of sea water. Today these sea creatures provide us with one of the most spectacular landscapes in the word.
With kind permission of the Irish Wildlife Trust