Environment

Eye on Nature: Your notes and queries for Ethna Viney

Razorbills, crossbills, daddy-long-legs and May bugs

Birds of a feather: a razorbill, like the one Flor O’Donoghue saw, with a puffin. Photograph: Warren Price/iStock
Birds of a feather: a razorbill, like the one Flor O’Donoghue saw, with a puffin. Photograph: Warren Price/iStock
Ethna Viney
Sat May 28 2016 - 01:00

I saw a bird on Carrowniskey Beach recently that looked like a puffin, but I thought they were found on the islands off the Kerry coast.
Flor O'Donoghue
Castlebar, Co Mayo

It is a razorbill, a member of the auk family, like the puffin. The razorbill is a common breeding species all around the coast, where it nests on cliffs. It was out of its habitat on the beach. Puffins are also found on the islands off the Mayo coast in summer, but they disperse to the ocean for the rest of the year.

I'm sending you a photograph of a mystery guest at our bird feeder. Can you identify it?
Alan Lund
Dublin 8

It is a crossbill, a member of the finch family, which is resident in conifer forests in some areas, such as Wicklow, but is a regular passage migrant.

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Some secondary students were afraid of daddy-long-legs and thought they had a poisonous bite. Is this true?
Albert Nolan
Newport, Co Tipperary

In this country it is the name given to the crane fly, which does not have fangs. Elsewhere it applies to a cellar spider, 'Pholcus phalangioides', which has a poisonous bite.

Following last week's photograph of pied-wagtail chicks, can I ask you to publish a reminder that a licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service is required to photograph nests in the Republic.
Pat Mullen
Co Louth

Under the Wildlife Acts 1976-2012 a licence is required to film or take photographs at or near a nest containing eggs or unflown young. All birds, their nests and eggs are protected apart from a list of 13 – mainly several members of the crow family, some gulls, wood pigeons, bullfinches and starlings. If a bird nests in your garage, shed or boiler room, you can ask your local NPWS conservation ranger for advice.

Photographs of the May bug beetle, aka the cockchafer, were sent by Edward Carey of Enfield, Co Meath; Dominick Lewis, who saw one at Cabinteely, in south Dublin; and Dermot Wilson of Blessington, Co Wicklow.

Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, F28 F978, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address