Eye On Nature

Recently, on a beach on the seaward side of Coney Island in Sligo Bay, I spotted a fox coming up from the sea. I presume he was looking for food there, but what kind? - Billy Fitzgerald, Carraroe, Sligo.

Foxes frequently forage on the tideline for carrion such as dead seabirds.

ON March 29th I saw a large bird of definite buzzard type here at Clooneen, near Ballymote, Co Sligo. It had a white head and was generally of a creamy colour underneath apart from the front part of the wings. Where I used to live in Germany, buzzards were very common and I am quite familiar with the wide variety of shades and colours but this one was definitely different. It had no stripes or streaks. Checking my books I can only conclude that this was a long-legged buzzard, a bird from south-east Europe. Has he been seen here before? - Ulli and Ika Peiler, Ballymote, Co Sligo.

The long-legged buzzard has not been seen in Northern or Western Europe. However, your description could fit the booted eagle, a rare wanderer in Northern Europe, first seen from the Birdwatch Ireland hide at Rogerstown on March 5th this year.

I saw green hellebore, Helleborus viridis , growing in a disused slate quarry on the Kilkenny-Tipperary border. I have been in touch with our local wildlife ranger who tells me the plant is not native and must have been introduced. It is growing near the ruins of some miners' cottages and a long way from the nearest inhabited house. How did it get there? - Mark Roper, Piltown, Co Kilkenny.

Green hellebore is an introduced species in this country and it is a garden escape, rarely found in the wild. Webb's Irish Flora says it sometimes occurs in hedges far from cultivation. In Britain, where it is a native and grows in beechwoods, it is on the list of 100 endangered wild flowers. It could have been carried to the quarry by a seed-eating bird.

A small finch with black, yellow and white wing bars has been perching on the window of the car and flying repeatedly at the wing mirror flapping its wings vigorously; occasionally it perches on the wing mirror and bends over admiring itself upside-down in the mirror. - Heather Algeo, Killiney, Co Dublin.

This is the time of year when some birds - robins, tits, wagtails, etc. - fly at mirrors or their reflections in windows, thinking they are interlopers into their territory. This is the first time I've heard of a siskin engaging in this futile enterprise.

Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. email: viney@anu.ie. Observations sent by e-mail should be accompanied by postal address as location is sometimes important to identification or behaviour.