Eye On Nature

Today I was delighted to see a flock of birds, eight in all, with the same quick way of moving as the blue tit. They were about the same size as the blue tit but longer in the body and with a distinctively long, narrow tail. The chest was pinkish-buff and the back brown/black like a sparrow, but as they moved you had the impression of two black stripes running the length of the body up to the head to the eyes. Their call was very like stonechats and they kept up a constant chatter. Katherine Daly, Donnybrook, Dublin, 4.

They were long-tailed tits, found in woodland, hedgerows and gardens. They travel in flocks in winter and feed on insects and spiders.

Martins burrow in sand banks or turf banks if they are high enough. Someone said that they have disappeared, but this is not true. I watch them every year in the bank where we used to cut turf in the 1940s. Last year I counted 10 pairs. But the bog-lark, an riamhog, has become very rare, at least in this area. Sean McElgunn, Cavan.

Sand martins are regular summer visitors from southern Africa but their populations suffer severe crashes from time to time. They were plentiful in many areas last year. Your bog- lark, also known at one time as the tit-lark, is more commonly now called the meadow pipit. It is common all over Ireland but in the central counties numbers have declined because of changed land use and the loss of vegetation on hills and moorland.

My last two red squirrels have disappeared. The pine martens have increased in the woodland. Could that be the reason? Sandy Perceval, Ballymote, Co Sligo.

Pine martens would certainly prey on red squirrels, but the availability of food could also be a problem for them. Red squirrels are adapted for conifer forests and can feed for most of the year in the tree tops on catkins, green cones and later on ripe cones. Unlike grey squirrels, they cannot eat acorns because of the tannin content. In deciduous woodland, tree seed is seasonal and most of it falls to the ground in autumn, so they must ground feed for much of the time and store surplus for use later. Ground feeding exposes them to more risk and sometimes they have a food crisis.