I saw a large black animal lope along the lawn. It had an elongated back, a long tail and a pointy head. Later I was told that it was a pine marten. Then I discovered a pile of wing feathers and other feathers that could have belonged to a pigeon. It couldn't have been due to our cat, which kills small birds. Now I'm wary of going out in the garden and accosting the pine marten. Could it attack a human?
Vera Hughes
Moate, Co Westmeath
First, the passing pine marten is probably long gone and would only defend itself if you attacked and cornered it. It had nothing to do with the feathers. This sounds more like a sparrowhawk catching, plucking and eating a pigeon and carrying the remains away to eat in another place.
I'm sending you two photographs of the first frogspawn of the year, in Newry Forest, on the Wicklow Way, in mid-February. One shows a large mass of spawn. Is this the work of a colony of frogs rather than a single one? In my second photograph the spawn in the water looks cloudy. Is it from a different type of frog?
Jim Walsh
Rathfarnham, Dublin
The spawn on the grass in the puddle could come from several frogs that converged there. Frogs do not live in colonies. The cloudy spawn is from an ordinary frog but is unlikely to be viable.
I saw the jellyfish in my photo on the beach at Rocky Bay, in Co Cork. What species is it?
Joe Foley
Carrigaline, Co Cork
It is the barrel jellyfish, Rhizostoma pulmo.
Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address
