Some snow in the Irish mountains, I knew that winter wasn't over yet back in January.

After quite an adventure where the roads were snowbound today, having to reverse down a mountain side as progress was non-grippy, slippy and, in the end, impossible.

In fact the car ahead of me had already run into troubles on the steep incline, there were patches of compacted snow and ice across the road, particularly where sunlight hadn't reached over the past few days, after all I was climbing up the northern slopes of the mountains.

An interesting sight that you often won't see in Ireland, the elusive Eurasian otter has been on the IUCN Red List for some time, classified as Near Threatened and a species in decline, Lutra lutra is one of the finest animals to see in nature.

Here as I was travelling along Ireland's River Suir in County Tipperary, I saw this busy otter swimming, diving and fishing on the fast flowing river.

It was an impressive hour, the otter would work its way upstream, then dive under water to re-emerge usually with a fish.

Here it is seen with what looks like a decent sized trout. This is a big creature, male otters can reach 1.3m nose to tail and they look impressive when you see them cutting through the water's surface.

This is undoubtedly one of the finest animals to see, along with Ireland's other elusive mammal the pine marten.

January is over, spring has begun in Ireland - according to tradition, and colour is coming back into the landscape.

Winter is colourful in Ireland, the countryside remains green all year round but at the the end of January we see the emergence of cherry blossom, snowdrops and crocus.

The snowdrop galanthus nivelis is not native, nor is the crocus (here crocus etruscus) but both will be found in gardens and the wild now, many varieties of cherry are found too although the wild cherry is native.

Today, February 1st, is historically regarded as being the first day of spring here in Ireland, spring is known as Imbolc in ancient Ireland.

February 1st is also Saint Brigid's Day, Saint Brigid is one of Ireland's three patron saints along with Saint Patrick and Saint Columcille.

Interestingly, the dandelion is associated traditionally with Saint Brigid as it flowered closest to the festival so that is what I have posted here, a bumblebee on a dandelion in Ireland.

This post marks Panoramic Ireland's 500th blog post here on panoramicirelanc.com.

A year after treatment for cancer and I am still posting of photographic adventures throughout Ireland.

The image above is of Cork, the River Lee at night and Saint Finbarre's Cathedral. I photographed this fine scene for Eater, the world's most popular food website as part of their Where to eat in 2020 and Cork was one of the few cities in Europe to be on the list. Have a look at the images and Cork article here.

Donegal is Ireland's most northerly county, its peninsulae jutting out into the North Atlantic with Malin Head being the northernmost point on the island.

And it is a scenic part of Ireland, the coast is long with rocky sections, cliffs, sandy beaches and with more than a few lighthouses it lives up to its reputation as a rugged place.

I do like photographing in Ireland in winter, the countryside is mostly empty and the weather can be fine.

Here it was a foggy day with little chance of a break in the cloud overhead so instead of heading for a big wide open scene we headed for a good little woodland where we could make use of the ethereal atmosphere that fog so often gives.

The beech trees were covered in almost luminous, bright green moss and the forest floor carpeted in red/brown beech leaves, and in between all of that the fog permeated the whole place.

Winter can be cold and monotone in places around the world, but here in Ireland it is more often than not a colourful time of year interspersed with snowy days.

Most of the time, snow is absent even in the mountains except for the rare years.

Here we have the rugged, weathered mountains of the west of Ireland and the Atlantic looking calm.

Winter 2020 is far from over, currently we are having storms but there is still plenty of time for snow like this to blanket the mountains of Ireland.

Deep snow blankets the normally grassy landscape of the Irish mountains as sunset approaches.

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Landscape and nature photography in Ireland doesn't stop just because it is winter.

Landscape photographers enjoy the winter just as much as any other season, there is always the chance of snow of course and the bright clear winter sunlight.

But even a woodland, with trees devoid of leaves can look fine in winter.