Eye on nature

The little insect in the enclosed film case is about two millimetres long, white, with whiskers (and alive when he left). This is one of the bigger ones that frequent our rattan bookcase, where some old books are stored, and have now begun to wander further afield. Bit of a nuisance, really.

Tommy Higgins, Walkinstown, Dublin 12.

Most people with old books become familiar with booklice, or psocids. They're harmless, not lice at all, and feed on microscopic fungal moulds that grow in damp conditions on glues and pastes. Needless to say, they thrive in many Irish homes. Pesticides won't achieve much (they'll recolonise), and using a hair-dryer on the books won't change the climate. Better get used to dots that move around on the page.

Two early-November sightings on our farm. First, a swallow flying close to the ground in a fairly strong westerly wind. And then, this morning, three very colourful sparrow-sized birds eating seeds from a thistle along a fence-line. I'm almost sure they were little buntings, but my book says they're very rare this far south.

Norman Stanley, Grange, Edenderry, Co Offaly.

The swallow was leaving it late to head for Africa. The little buntings, if that is what they were, belong in the glades of Scandinavian conifer forest and have wandered very rarely to Ireland, mainly between September and November. Streaky-backed buntings can be a difficult group. The colourful head-pattern of the little bunting is certainly distinctive, but such vagrant rarities don't often travel in threes.

We have had several visits to our garden nutfeeder this year from an albino greenfinch (photograph enclosed). We have had the information verified by the RSPB in Northern Ireland.

Canon Kenneth Ruddock, Ahogill, Co Antrim.

A greenfinch with a white-dappled head is certainly highly unusual. Such aberrations of pigment in garden birds, blackbirds and sparrows among them, have sometimes been blamed on an over-dependence on artificial garden foods. But albinism is also seen in swallows, starlings, rooks and other birds that don't eat peanuts.

Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. E-mail: viney@anu.ie