I enclose a photograph of a pupa (above) discovered on an old broom handle left out in the rain. Its "house" was knocked off. It had eaten a hollow in the wood to make what looks like a chipboard "house". It had a leaf-like marking on its back. (The "house" or cocoon was about 4.5cm long and the shiny black pupa about 3cm long).
Anne Marshall, Ballyconneely, Co Galway
The cocoon was indeed made of chewed up wood dug out of the broom handle in a very clever, oval shape which just fitted the pupa. It could be the pupa of one of the wood-boring beetles, perhaps one of the longhorn beetles such as the wasp beetle. There are borings visible in the broom handle. Keep an eye on it until it hatches out and see what emerges.
While at work as a night watchman I hear curlews which I haven't heard since schooldays. On my way to work in the evening and returning in the morning I have encounters with wildlife. Coming home recently an owl flew across my path, and one late evening a four-footed thing passed in front of me just like a streak. Along near the mill-race a bird with whitish plumage rose from along the bank. It must have been a crane.
Hugh Kennon, Whitecross, Co Armagh
The heron is called a crane in many parts of Ireland. Encounters like these with shy animals and birds are the rewards of being abroad early and late when others are not.
Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. e-mail : viney@anu.ie