Michael Viney responds to queries and observations on nature.
On gathering up the beech leaves in the garden I didn't come across a single beech nut. Last year we had bucket loads. Dermot Ainsworth,
Kildalkey, Co Meath
Beech trees do not produce mast every year and after a good year may not do so for several years.
This time last year I regularly found large clusters of flies on the covered side of wooden boards and inside metal scaffolding poles. Also, inside every hole was at least one spider. Were these flies convenience food or just dopey?
Paul MacWhite, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin
The flies were hibernating and were probably blow flies or face flies. The spiders were availing of an opportunity.
I recently saw a bird, about the size of a pigeon, brownish in colour with a brownish breast and a falcon-type beak, pinion a magpie to the ground. I disturbed it, and the prey escaped. Was it a sparrowhawk or a peregrine?
Miriam Lee, Sandycove, Co Dublin
It was probably a juvenile sparrowhawk.