Guest blog by Amy Burns (RSPB NI Fermanagh warden)

To appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of county Fermanagh you need the summer sun to be shining high in the sky, to take a boat out on the waters of Lough Erne and set your watch to ‘Fermanagh time’!

That’s the experience I was lucky enough to have last week when the BBC Countryfile crew visited us to film for their Summer Special show.

At first…

They can eat, sleep and breed in mid-air, fly an average of 500 miles every day and weigh around the same as a Cadbury’s Creme Egg - swifts really are the superheroes of the bird world!

Now a new project to find out where they forage in Northern Ireland has taken flight, thanks to a partnership between RSPB Northern Ireland, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Northern Ireland Swift Group. In a first…

Guest blog by Kenny Bodles, RSPB NI Conservation Officer

With the recent summer sunshine, people have been flocking to the coast in their droves to enjoy the good weather and the wildlife that makes its home in our seas at this time of year.

If you’re lucky, you might see visiting tern species starting to breed in the safety of a coastal island or our largest sea duck, the eider, foraging in our coastal waters and…

Over the last few months we have been working closely with Belfast Print Workshop (BPW) to create a huge display of handcrafted paper wildflowers.

They represent species that would have been common in our countryside, such as knapweed, common poppy and yarrow, and demonstrate the beauty and fragility of nature and the need to protect it. 

Next week 1,500 of these flowers will be ‘planted’ on the front lawn at Queen’s…

We’ve been working hard for years on Rathlin Island to create habitat that’s just right for shy, secretive corncrakes. And this spring, we have some good news! Warden Liam McFaul explains all...

‘It’s been two weeks since the call of a corncrake was first reported on the island and when I went down in the evening to check for myself I heard its unmistakable call.

‘Since then, the corncrake…

At this time of year we can enjoy one of nature’s miracles every morning: the finest sopranos, tenors and baritones warming up their voices for the greatest concert on earth - the dawn chorus.

Here’s the ‘who’s who’ in the choir so you can learn to identify the singers which make their homes on your patch!

Act one: robins and dunnocks

Act two: blackbirds, song thrushes and skylarks

Access to the lighthouse and platform at the Rathlin West Light Seabird Centre may vary over the coming weeks.

This is a temporary measure due to staffing levels. We anticipate that access to all areas will be in place by the end of May.

In the meantime, a forecast of availability will be posted here. Please check before planning your trip or call the Seabird Centre on 028 2076 0062.

We appreciate your understanding and…

Guest blog by Roisin Kearney, RSPB NI Assistant Conservation Officer.

Throughout the spring and summer months, birds are busy building nests and raising chicks. We receive many queries about nest disturbance, particularly where it concerns hedge cutting. The law around nest disturbance in Northern Ireland can be a complicated business, so here is a brief Q&A to bring you up to speed.

Where does the law stand…

With devolved elections in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales happening on 5 May, we’ve enlisted our furry friend Bob to help push nature higher up the political agenda!

The campaign, which is largely run on social media, has been encouraging RSPB members and the general public to demonstrate their support for nature by ‘voting’ for Bob and asking their election candidates to pledge their support too.…

Now that spring has really sprung, it’s the perfect time to blow away the cobwebs and get outdoors!

Our events calendar kicks off with a nature treasure trail at Portmore Lough – perfect for all the family and a great way to work off some of those Easter eggs!

As part of our ongoing 50^th anniversary celebrations, this event (and lots more) will be totally free for RSPB members! Visit http://www.rspb.org.uk…

April marks one year since the official opening of Belfast’s Window on Wildlife (WOW) – our nature reserve nestled in the bustling Harbour Estate.

This unique place was created back in the 1970s when material dredged from the Lough was pumped out to allow larger vessels to dock. The area was quickly reclaimed by nature and more than 100 species have now been recorded at the site!

We began managing the…

As our 50^th anniversary celebrations continue, check out some of the memories our members have shared with us about RSPB NI over the past five decades - and add yours too!

It was about 1987 and I was about 12 years old and just getting interested in birds. By chance I bumped into a local Young Ornithologists’ Club (YOC)  group at Scrabo Tower.

I walked over and asked could I join the group. A kind man named Jimmy…

Excitement is building for the re-opening of one of Northern Ireland’s most iconic tourist destinations, the Rathlin West Light Seabird Centre!

Rathlin Island is Northern Ireland’s only inhabited island and is also home to one of the UK’s largest seabird colonies.

The RSPB NI Seabird Centre has undergone major refurbishment and will re-open on Thursday, 24 March - just in time for the Easter holidays…

You’ve probably never even heard of an ocean quahog but these amazing creatures are just one of the species which will be protected if proposals for new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in and around Northern Ireland go ahead.

Ocean quahogs are large clams which can live for over 500 years. The population in the proposed Outer Belfast Lough MCZ is around 220 years old, surviving both World Wars and witnessing the…

There will be no post-Christmas blues in the RSPB Northern Ireland office because we have lots to celebrate in 2016 – our golden anniversary year!

The Ulster Society for the Protection of Birds was formed in 1921 and focused its efforts on bird protection rather than habitat restoration, installing perches for tired migrating birds at Maidens Lighthouse in Larne and appointing watchers on Rathlin Island and Strangford…

With reports of single swifts still being spotted in the skies across the UK, check out this guest post from Ciaran McLarnon, our volunteer urban nature advisor - 

Swifts are one of our most charismatic summer visitors. Every year, they fascinate us with their fast paced, acrobatic flight and their distinctive screaming calls, as they zoom above us in our towns and cities.

These birds spend almost their entire lives…

Guest blog by Benjamin Weigelt, Portmore Lough residential volunteer

For me as a foreigner in the UK, it was completely different to come here as it was my first time visiting Northern Ireland.

It was actually the first time I had ever flown in a plane. Despite some difficulties at the start of my trip (I missed my flight from London!) everything has turned out just great.

The first few days I started my volunteering…

They came rushing into the room in their wellies with bags full of beautiful autumn leaves they’d collected in the nearby park.

The pupils from Ballydown Primary School in Banbridge are great young advocates for nature and I recently had the pleasure of meeting them at the School of Education at Queen’s University Belfast, where they helped launch a new report into how ‘connected’ children in Northern Ireland are…

The Farming Life and Danske Bank Awards are the highlight of the farming social calendar in Northern Ireland, celebrating excellence in the industry across a range of categories.

For the second year, RSPB NI sponsored the Wildlife Friendly Farmer of the Year award and we were overwhelmed by the number and quality of entries.

It was heart-warming to meet so many farming families who are serious about wildlife conservation…

Very often in conservation, it can feel like the bad news flows thick and fast. Thinking about red kites, we've had many reports in the last year or so of dead birds, setting the reintroduction of this species back as every bird is precious.

Every now and then however, we get some good news! And last week, we were thrilled to see the re-release of an injured red kite back into the skies of County Down.

The female…

Last week, organisations from all around the UK came together to launch the Response for Nature. The document sets out the steps we need government and environmental organisations to take in order to save nature in Northern Ireland.

On Tuesday 13 October, we, along with our partners in nature conservation and representatives from government and the private sector, gathered at Belfast WOW to hear what was detailed in…

As temperatures plummet and the days darken it can be tempting to nestle down indoors and dream of sunnier times ahead.

But as the weather changes and the leaves sport stunning shades of russet and gold, our Portmore Lough nature reserve outside Aghalee, County Antrim is at its most magical.

Winter migrants are on their way, including goldeneye ducks from Russia and redwings from Scandinavia. Last year the first whooper…

Driving home from a lovely stroll along the Lagan towpath the other day I noticed a sure sign that summer is nearing an end.

Perched neatly on a telephone wire (like this little fellow) were about a dozen swallows, almost as if they were queuing for their long journey back to warmer climes!

By this time of year our swifts have already departed for the southern hemisphere, a mammoth 6,000 mile journey during which…

Craic, ceol agus caomhnú (fun, music and conservation)

On Saturday 8 August, we, along with 170 other people, pitched our tents for the most westerly Big Wild Sleepout in the UK.

The setting for this magical night was the Ulster American Folk Park, where the journey of Irish emigrants from Ireland to America is brought to life. Campers were given exclusive access to the museum after hours to pitch up and enjoy…

Summer is supposed to be the season for spending time in the great outdoors, soaking up the sunshine. Well over the past few weeks we’ve certainly been soaked – unfortunately just by torrential rain and gusty winds!

But spare a thought for the wildlife that can’t stay cosy indoors with a cuppa, especially garden birds like robins which may still be trying to raise chicks. With that in mind, why not set yourself…