Recently a short-eared owl settled on a fence post 40m from me and then on the ground close to the shore. The last remembered local sighting, in The Rosses, was accidentally shot in 1944.
Martina Sweeney, Maghery, Co Donegal
I watched a group of six crossbills (both male and female) feed on the cones in Scots pines close to our house in the Glens of Antrim. How rare are they?
Brian Scott, Cushendall, Co Antrim
There are several local populations on this island, one in north Antrim.
I encountered a massive wasp-type insect flying near my house. It was yellow and black with yellow eyes, long yellow antennae and trailing its hind legs behind it.
Ivan Gillespie, Bun Beag, Co Donegal
It was a female wood wasp, also called a horntail, a sawfly with a trailing ovipositor. She lays her eggs in tree trunks where they take two or three years to mature before they emerge.
I discovered that my nasturtiums were covered with tiny green and yellow caterpillars. They ate their way through most of the leaves then disappeared.
MaryJo Sullivan, Drogheda, Co Louth
They were the caterpillars of small white butterflies.
Michael Viney welcomes observations at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. E-mail : viney@anu.ie. Include a postal address.