Observations on Nature
Swimming with the mallard in Marlay Park, Dublin, is another kind of duck. The drake has a green head, white chest and russet-brown body. Its bill is similar in colour and shape to a mallard's.
Niall Watts, Dublin.
The description is not that of any of the duck species, and it sounds like a mallard hybrid. Mallard ducks are well-known rapists and have produced a multitude of hybrids. As it is the female ducks that choose the mates by their colouration, and as a female mallard is unlikely to mistake another drake for a mallard, this sounds much more like the progeny of a rape.
Today we spotted what we think is a wheatear hopping along our newly dug ridges and were wondering if they are common around here. We have never seen them on Inishlyre before.
Rhoda Twonbly, Inishlyre, Co Mayo
Wheatears are common along the western seaboard generally in isolated areas. They like short grass and rocky areas, and they nest in holes in scree or rocks and in old rabbit burrows. The eat insects, larvae and worms and occasionally seeds.
Send observations on nature to Michael Viney, Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo.