Recently you wondered where all the birds have gone.
I think I may have them. Today I sighted around the birdfeeder: two wrens, three blue tits, three goldfinches, innumerable chaffinch, two male bullfinch on thistles, one greenfinch, a coal tit and a great tit (I think) and, in the pine above, two goldcrests. Does one human being have the right to such riches as she sits at her desk supposedly working?Grace Wells, Glenaskeogh, Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary
Just outside Louisburgh there is a beach called Doughmakeon. In the sandbank you can see a band of black material full of shells. Is this a prehistoric midden? It is constantly being eroded . . . pity!Bernard Shea, Longford
It is not necessarily prehistoric. It could be only a few hundred years old.
I have had two reports of large strandings of by-the-wind-sailors (Velella velella) in the last week of November, one in Tramore, Co Waterford and one near Loop Head, Co Clare. These are very late strandings, which usually occur in late summer and early autumn.
