Not an ideal day for it...but this year's @ucddublin.bsky.social orchid monitoring team are hard at work, tracking long term population dynamics in our Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) population! @ucdsustainability.bsky.social @noeleensmyth.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

We had a lovely, and productive, few days last week at the @ucdearth.bsky.social writing retreat, in the gorgeous Belfield House @ucddublin.bsky.social. Thanks to all who attended for making it so pleasant! @jonyearsley.bsky.social @taradirilgen.bsky.social @hollyenglish.bsky.social

Come and join us on Tuesday night for a great programme of music...Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Tickets available on www.nch.ie

A belated happy #worldbeeday! These ladies were out to mark the occasion yesterday! I'm very grateful to work alongside a super team of researchers, and colleagues throughout the Irish Pollinator Research Network, on these important organisms! #biodiversity #agriculture www.stanleyecoloylab.org

UCD campus is looking great in the sun this week. Lots of evidence of implementation of the #pollinatorplan @ucdsustainability.bsky.social @ucd-chas.bsky.social #biodiversity

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is in full flower in hedgerows around the country at the moment, really living up to its Irish name - Sceach gheal (meaning "bright thornbush"). Flowers for pollinators now, and berries for birds later. #biodiversity

It's a good time to be a bee in the Irish countryside (Co. Louth this evening)...hawthorn is out, road verges are full of bush vetch, and oilseed rape is in flower #pollinators #farmland

It's always a joy to be in the Burren, this time with our Masters in Environmental Resources Management students. Plenty of Gentians about! #fieldwork #botany #ecology @ucd-chas.bsky.social

Here's @ucddublin.bsky.social campus looking gorgeous in the morning light today. We're lucky to have some nice woodland walks on our doorstep.

It's always a delight to see my favourite monoecious plant (Hazel, Corylus avellana) coming into flower. Here are the male and female flowers side by side. A sure sign spring is on its way! #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Congratulations to all speakers at our @ucdagfood ESRM postgrad research day today. From bees and trees to soils, roots, birds and so much more...it's a great way to stay in touch with all the great work going on in the labs and offices around us!

Just at the end of my favourite (work) day of the year....the Irish Pollinator Research Network meeting. A super bunch doing really important research, and supporting the exciting next phases of @PollinatorPlan. Thanks to @jimcarolan.bsky.social and @taradirilgen.bsky.social for hosting us this year

Here's a Great Yellow Bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus) from Greenhills in Dublin in the 1920s at @NMIreland yesterday. This is significant as the bee is sadly no longer found anywhere in Ireland except NW Mayo #beedecline

Reduced amounts of natural forest (due to cocoa cultivation) in landscapes in Ghana is associated with reductions in abundance of many insect orders, but not flies! Great stuff led by Richard Boakye! link.springer.com/article/10.100… @researchireland.bsky.social

Yep. That's what pollination all boils down to. Thanks Paul CaraDonna for a great talk on how macronutrient profiles of bumblebeee differ among species and life stages. #BES2024

You've gotta love a BES poster session. Our poster on nectar robbing is surrounded by climate resilience in chameleons, bank vole energy expenditure, butterfly fish behaviour, olfactory cues for long-tailed tits and pine marten response to noise. Ecology is great! #BES2024