What are these heart-shaped flowers? Readers’ nature queries

While wandering in the woods by Lough Erne I spotted the beautiful red, heart-shaped flowers in my photograph, which were perfectly timed for Valentine's Day. They were growing on fallen branches.
Emer O'Shea
Ballyshannon, Co Donegal

It looks like scarlet elf cup or cap, 'Sarcoscypha coccinea', and the time and location are right. There have only been a few reports in the National Biodiversity Data Centre records, in the midlands.

Can you identify a shell I found on Clogherhead beach, in Co Louth?
Matthew Geraghty
Ballincollig, Co Cork

The shell is the test of a sea potato urchin, 'Echinocardium cordatum'. They are common all around the coast but are fragile and so get broken easily. They live in sandy bottom from the lower shore to deep water. When alive they are covered with fine spines and look like a hairy potato.

Scaled-down rock wall for Doonbeg golf links attracts more objections

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Putting interconnector underground not possible, says Eirgrid

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How I saved a pigeon’s life

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Michael Viney: How ancient is the Thallabawn shipwreck?

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Sad to see this poor bird, not long dead, in the "long acre" on a country road near Borrisokane, in Co Tipperary.
Mary Doorley
Bray, Co Wicklow

The barn owl was probably struck by a vehicle.

I stapled progressively larger pieces of cardboard over an old cat door, but each was ripped open by a pine marten (cat crainn), seen eventually by the back-porch light.
Mike O'Connor
Ennistymon, Co Clare

I wonder what makes the marks that I've photographed in the sand on Bunduff strand, in Co Sligo. Maybe a bird looking for food. I've seen them a few times this winter.
Heather Wood
Cliffoney, Co Sligo

Puzzling, but I’ve seen similar marks on our strand where they were made by an otter eating a fish it had just caught.

Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, F28 F978, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address