It's National Biodiversity Week and farmers and the agricultural community have plenty of biodiversity to admire and discover on their farms.

Throughout the week, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will announce upcoming projects, including a new peatland restoration project and a major marine scientific programme.

Over the week, the work of LIFE projects such as corncrake LIFE will be described online.

Members of the public are being encouraged to get involved by posting online using the hashtag #LoveNature.

If you are having trouble identifying a species, ecologists will be on hand to help from 21 to 23 May.

All you have to do is post a picture of the species along with the hashtag #BackyardBioBlitz.

A full list of events is available here.

World Bee Day takes place on Thursday 20 May. Natura 2000 Day takes place on Friday 21 May and the UN International Day for Biological Diversity is on Saturday 22 May.

Caution with wildflowers

Many people have been out planting wildflowers to provide habitats and food for pollinators lately. This is a great idea, but always try to use native Irish seed.

This season, it has emerged that some wildflower imports are contaminated with blackgrass seeds. Blackgrass is an invasive weed that can be detrimental on tillage farms.

If this weed is found among wildflowers, the patch should be destroyed to prevent the spread of the invasive weed before it goes to seed.