Eye On Nature

A hawfinch (photograph above) graced my garden for several days after April 23rd. Of four nut feeders, he always went to the one that has a perch. Apparently the others did not offer him enough room for manoeuvre.

Paul Higgins, Longford

Formerly, hawfinches were regular winter visitors to the eastern parts of the country but they have since become rare, although 10 years ago a major influx occurred in autumn. You should notify the Irish Rare Birds Committee at BirdWatch Ireland, Ruttledge House, 8 Longford Place, Monkstown, Co Dublin.

Recently we have had a visitor to our attic which we have identified as a pine marten. We feel honey is the draw as we have hives in the roof space at the corners.

Don McCarthy, Blackwater, Co Clare

Pine martens are the only small mustelids that are omnivirous, and are known to eat fruit; otters and stoats are carnivores. Co Clare is a stronghold for pine martens.

This week I found a dead stoat or weasel, badly damaged. I wonder what killed it. It had a long body, white underbelly and small head. I think we had a nest of them around last year. I saw a few playing.

Eithne Moffatt, Cootehall, Co Roscommon

It was a stoat; there are no weasels in Ireland. It was probably killed by a bird of prey, such as a hawk, its most usual predator.

All day yesterday a hen blackbird was outside a long, narrow window about 18 inches from the ground at the front of our house. She flew up every few minutes against the glass as if attempting to fly in, fell in a heap on the grass and after regaining her composure, tried again. We removed a vase of dried grasses from the window sill and put a board over the lower part of the window, but she continued her efforts. The mad bird is still there today. Paul Dixon, (e-mail address)

This deluded blackbird sees her reflection in the glass and thinks she is driving off an intruder. Such territorial behaviour is not, it seems, a male prerogative.