Recently I noticed a great traffic of flying insects passing the gable of my house, and I spotted a dense mass hanging on the branch of a flowering currant. They were black and not much larger than a house fly. Do you think they will go in a few days?
Jack Fallon
Boyle, Co Roscommon
They sound like a swarm of honeybees that were collecting while outriders found a new home for them.
At the back of the beach at Newcastle I saw a young cuckoo with two meadow pipits close by. All three seemed to be waiting to be fed.
Paddy Demery
Kilcoole, Co Wicklow
The young meadow pipits were lucky that they hadn’t been shouldered out of the nest by the cuckoo.
Some insect has been busy excavating a hole in an elm log. When I turned the log over a neat 8mm hole had been bored into the underside, with sawdust on the ground. Is it a variety of wasp? I haven't seen any insect yet.
Brian Corrigan
Nenagh, Co Tipperary
The wood wasps bore into pines. This is likely to be the larva of one of the wood-boring beetles that attack decaying hardwoods.
Larry Dunne of Rosslare Harbour, in Co Wexford, sent a photograph of a black-headed gull that was eyeing the remains of his sandwich in Carne car park.
Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, F28 F978, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address