We have an asylum of cuckoos here in Tullaher in west Clare. I counted three on April 29th and photographed two together on May 2nd with a meadow pipit. John, Kilkenny
Great to have a situation where you can use the collective noun for cuckoos. This pair was being mobbed by the brave meadow pipit who was trying to drive them away. The hawk-like appearance of the cuckoo triggers the mobbing response in small birds. Often several small birds, perhaps even of different species, will gang up and chase a cuckoo as they would any bird of prey. When the cuckoo does succeed in laying an egg in the nest of the meadow pipit, it doesn’t recognise it as that of another species and the parenting response kicks in.
I was wondering if you could identify this well-camouflaged moth seen in a garden in Ballyvaughan, Co Clare. Michael O’Loghlen
This is not a moth at all, but a male orange-tip butterfly – a real harbinger of spring. These are white butterflies, with the male having orange tips on the forewings. Both sexes have this combination of black and yellow scales on the underside of the hindwing, which give the butterfly a mossy appearance and help it to blend in with the vegetation it frequents. It seeks out the cuckoo flower both as a source of nectar for the adult and as a larval food-plant on which the mated female will lay its eggs.
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Well done to the quarry operators in Ballisodare, Co Sligo, who leave this “mountain” of sand untouched during the nesting season. Frank Carter, Sligo
These are the nesting burrows of the sand martin. This is one of our earliest summer visitors. They nest colonially in tunnels in sandy cliff faces, like in this quarry.
I spotted this cowslip on the regularly cut grass verge above Nutgrove Shopping Centre in Rathfarnham, Dublin. A little unusual in suburbia? Nigel Burgess, Dublin.
There would be far more of them if the verge was not so regularly cut. Where “No mow May” is observed, plants, whose seeds are part of the seed bank of the area, are able to germinate and flower. There are many cowslip sites in Dublin’s suburbia where the soil is dry and sandy, especially along former esker ridges such as that in the Greenhills area. Mowing encourages plants that grow from the bottom, such as grasses and rosette plants like daisies and dandelions. By ceasing the mowing for at least the month of May, an amazing biodiversity of flowers that grow from the top occurs and provides nectar and pollen for flying insects.
I was doing some gardening and cleaning on April 25th when I spotted this fly in my home in Edenderry. I took a photo and checked with AI, which told me it was a St Mark’s fly which comes out for two weeks a year around this time and coincides with St Mark’s Day on April 25th. I didn’t know such a saint’s day existed. John Kenny
There have been a lot of these flies around this year. They are large black hairy flies that fly around in groups, particularly when the sun is shining. They attract attention because they look as if they have a big, long sting coming out of their underside. This is just their legs, however, which they hold together as they hover in the air. The males flaunt themselves in the hope of attracting the females, who sit on the grass below watching proceedings. If one flies up to join them, she is seized by a male, and mating takes place in the air.
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