Giving Nature a Home in Northern Ireland

Guest blog by Jonathan Bell, RSPB NI Head of Land and Sea Policy


The recent publication of the UK Committee on Climate Change report on land use change and climate change is very timely given the recent resumption of the Northern Ireland Assembly and its promise to step up efforts to tackling climate change.

The draft ‘New Decade New Approach’ deal states: “The Executive will introduce legislation and targets for reducing…

Guest blog by RSPB NI Head of Species Anne-Marie McDevitt


While house sparrows were perched in top spot in the Big Garden Birdwatch in Northern Ireland in 2019, here we take a look at other less usual visitors that you might be lucky enough to see in your garden during the Birdwatch at the end of January – among them redpolls, goldcrests, siskins, bramblings, fieldfares, redwings, waxwings and sparrowhawks.

So what…

With flocks of godwits and wintering wildfowl at Belfast WOW, fulmars returning to the cliff stacks on Rathlin, yellowhammers feeding on wild bird cover and red kites roosting in Co Down, there are plenty of winter spectacles to marvel at across Northern Ireland at this time of year.

Up on Rathlin Island, the last few grey seal pups are graduating from the island’s rocky beaches and winter is beginning to take its grip…

Guest blog by Katie Gibb, RSPB NI’s Conservation Officer for the Antrim Plateau


I have always considered myself a waterfowl biologist. Duck was my first word (it is, of course, a family joke that my parents misheard me!)
My obsession for them guided me towards a career in ornithology. My master’s thesis was centred around them, and at two different universities I have managed to get the title of ‘resident duck nut…

RSPB and consumer product company SC Johnson have teamed up to take action on the serious issue of marine plastics. Through a programme of community clean-ups across the UK, we are planning to conduct a series of volunteer days during 2019 and 2020.

RSPB NI, with the support of the local community group - Friends of Whitehouse Lagoon - is organising the first of the Northern Ireland events at the Whitehouse Lagoon Newtownabbey…

Guest blog by Matthew Tickner, RSPB Northern Ireland ecologist

One of the sounds that enlivens autumn in Northern Ireland is the noisy communing of brent geese on the coasts. Their calls, playing out around our sea loughs at present, are unlike those of other geese, but are rather difficult to describe: perhaps guttural, perhaps braying or ‘cronking’, possibly trembling, or sometimes described as sounding like a mob of…

Guest blog by Emily Hunter, RSPB NI Nature Protection Policy Officer

The Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has launched a consultation on an Environment Strategy for Northern Ireland – this will be Northern Ireland’s first long-term strategy to help protect the environment and restore nature.

With our environment in crisis, it’s clearly needed. The UN has warned that we…

Guest blog by Brad Robson, RSPB NI Site Manager (West)

Autumn is my favourite time of the year. If there was any heat in the summer, it has now gone. As the greens fade to warm orange, light yellows and rustic brown, the cooler air carries the sounds of nature across the lough.

This is the time for birds to be on the wing travelling across the expanse of land and sea to winter destinations, mild climates and abundant…

Guest blog by Laura Smith, Portmore Lough Warden

Anyone who has popped along to our Portmore Lough reserve will have noticed a few positive changes since last year.

Last autumn, we carried out work to expand and enhance our open water and wet grassland habitats at the reserve. We wanted to create more breeding and foraging habitat for our key wetland bird species, as well as to improve the viewing experience for our visitors…

Guest blog by Hilda Doherty, Visitor Experience Officer at Belfast's Window on Wildlife


At the RSPB we’re mostly known for our work with birds, but we often host bat walks too and are helped out on many occasions by our friends in the NI Bat Group.
It’s easy to see why people are fascinated by bats. Their unique wing structure along with their light weight enables them to go to places that other land-based mammals…

Guest blog by RSPB Rathlin Island Warden Liam McFaul


Rathlin is Northern Ireland’s only inhabited offshore island and while the population of us living there is quite small, the number of corncrakes is worryingly low – with just one male bird heard calling over the last few years.
So it’s fantastic now for us to be able to confirm that there are two pairs of corncrakes on the island.
A male has been heard…

For many of us, June signals the start of the summer.
You may have plans made and holidays booked, but hopefully you'll have time to visit our reserves over the summer months.
A great way to take in our reserves is to sign up for one of our events. On Saturday past we hosted a Summer Walk at our Belfast Window on Wildlife (WOW) reserve, and the next WOW event takes place on Saturday 6 July, when we’re hosting our Terrific…

Guest blog by Katy Bell, RSPB NI'S Pettigoe Project Officer (CABB)


The marsh fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) is one of three fritillary species we get in Northern Ireland. It is much smaller than the other fritillaries, the dark-green and silver-washed, and is much less common. This species has declined rapidly across Europe and is classed as vulnerable. It is a Northern Ireland Priority Species and is protected under…

Guest blog by Neal Warnock, RSPB NI Conservation Advisor

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This Sunday is World Curlew Day. For many of us, the thrilling bubbling call of this wonderful wader is something we never hear at all; or it’s something that our parents’ generation might speak about hearing in years gone by.
In Northern Ireland, we’ve lost more than 80% of the population since 1987, with Fermanagh and the Antrim Hills the last remaining…

Guest blog by Hazel Watson and Ric Else, RSPB NI visitor experience staff at the Rathlin West Light Seabird Centre


You might expect Rathlin Island to be a peaceful and quiet place, but out at the western end of the island - where thousands upon thousands of seabirds crowd on to the cliffs - it is anything but!
You’ll find the approach to the cliffs is generally quite serene, with meadow pipits peeping as they flit past…

Guest blog by Claire Barnett, RSPB NI Conservation Team Leader


So the results are in and we can now say that house sparrows are still perched at number one as the most-spotted birds in Big Garden Birdwatch 2019 - both in Northern Ireland and across the UK.

Thanks to you, we had more than 7.5 million birds (including 1.2 million house sparrows) counted throughout the weekend at the end of January, with almost half a million…

Guest blog by Roisin Kearney, Conservation Officer at RSPB NI


This International Women’s Day, I thought it would be good to shine the spotlight on some of the brilliant women who work for RSPB NI. Our work to help save nature in Northern Ireland wouldn’t be possible without the wonderful women who contribute so much.
As you may or may not know, the RSPB was originally founded by a group of pioneering women…

Guest blog by Monika Wojcieszek, RSPB NI Tern Conservation Officer


Bird migration is one of the greatest spectacles of nature.
Each year, millions of birds across the planet embark on a journey looking for food, breeding grounds or milder climate.
Arctic terns have the longest known migration in the animal kingdom. This small, gracious bird, weighing about 100g, travels on average an astonishing 71,000 kilometres a year…

Guest blog by Belfast WOW volunteer Derek Polley


There are many things to love about being a volunteer at a reserve: introducing children to the wonders of nature, recruiting members, observing and counting birds, helping out with maintenance and drinking tea. Recently at Belfast’s Window on Wildlife (WOW) we have had a further delight when we spotted colour ringed black-tailed godwits and were able to record the details…

Guest blog by Joanne Sherwood - Director, RSPB NI

For me, Big Garden Birdwatch means fun, family time and good-humoured competition.
It also means contributing to an important citizen science project to understand what is happening to our garden birds.
When the weekend comes along at the end of each January, I take part in the Birdwatch along with my husband and my son (pictured, below).
We get out the binoculars and the…

Guest blog by Robin Brown, Portmore Lough volunteer

It’s just over a year since our volunteer Robin Brown received the President's Award at the RSPB AGM in London.
At that stage, Robin had dedicated 5,000 hours as a volunteer co-ordinator at our Portmore Lough reserve in County Antrim, so it was a fitting recognition for his outstanding contribution to our work. Robin received the award from RSPB President Miranda…

Guest blog by Laura Smith, RSPB Portmore Lough Warden


Autumn is well and truly underway at Portmore Lough nature reserve.
The leaves on the trees have turned various shades of golden brown before falling and lining the boardwalk.
On the lough, the whooper swans noisily herald their arrival from Iceland. Along with flocks of greylag geese, they will spend the winter grazing on the fields around the reserve, returning to…

Guest blog by Ian Enlander, RSPB NI volunteer


Autumn is synonymous with migration - a time of change both in our weather but also in our birdlife. As Belfast Window on Wildlife’s breeding terns fly off in search of another summer, a great range of water birds, especially ducks and waders, believe it is worth flying here to escape the harsh winter conditions that engulf their breeding grounds.

Think of the WOW reserve…

Guest blog by Phil Carson, RSPB NI Policy Officer (Sustainable Farming)


Northern Ireland and farming are intrinsically linked.

Representing 70% of land use, agriculture has had a monumental impact on the identity of the countryside and the people here. It directly employs 5.7% of the population and contributes more than £2 billion to the economy every year. It plays a fundamental role in binding rural communities together…

To mark International Bog Day (July 22), we hear from our three RSPB NI Co-operation Across Borders for Biodiversity (CABB) project officers.
CABB is a five-year European-funded conservation project that spans Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland and will improve habitats for birds, butterflies and other species, restore blanket bog and help produce drinking water at a lower cost.


Katy Bell - RSPB NI…