Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda
From Wikipedia: Scheuchzeria palustris (Rannoch-rush,[2] or pod grass), is a flowering plant in the family Scheuchzeriaceae, in which there is only one species and Scheuchzeria is the only genus. In…
Pádraic Fogarty lists the North Atlantic right whale or Nordcapper (also known as the Northern Right Whale) as one of the mammals extinct in Ireland since human habitation here: Regularly…
One of the themes I have found emerging from my project of blogging about species extinct in Ireland since human habitation is how hidden much of this biodiversity loss is.…
It’s a while since I posted a Blogging the Octonauts post (here is another one). To recap, the Octonauts is a children’s TV show based on the rather more whimsical…
From Pádraic Fogarty’s Whittled Away: Spotted crake Probably common up to the mid-nineteenth century, there was a record of them breeding on the once extensive marshes around Dundalk, Co. Louth,…
From Pádraic Fogarty’s Whittled Away: Osprey Breeding in inland lakes including Lough Key in Roscommon in 1779 but no records thereafter, save for the odd vagrant. Given its relatively abundant…
Not that St Francis (of Assisi), but t St Francis of Paola patron of the Calabria region, boatmen, mariners, naval officers. This is one of Liszt’s “Deux Légendes”, the first…
Another day, another extinct species. And another evocative common name (and again a translation of the formal name), this beetle is, according to the RedList No 1: Hydraena pulchella The…
Séamus Sweeney 