While driving in my avenue gate I spotted a very small hedgehog about the size of an avocado pear. Its prickles were soft and I turned it over to see if it was damaged. There was no apparent harm but it let out a series of piercing peeps and continued after I put it safely down in the grass. I did not know that they "spoke" at all, and I'm sure the mother could hear even if several hundred yards away. R Sterling, Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
It is likely that the mother was killed on the road and the little orphan was calling for her. Such a small hedgehog would be unlikely to survive as it would not have learned to forage for itself.
Recently while cutting silage I found a dead seabird under an ESB power line. It was a small, dark bird, about six inches long, with webbed feet, large, single nasal vent and a white rump. From a bird book it would seem to be a storm petrel. It seems to be a bit off the beaten track to arrive in a silage field in the midlands. It was ringed so I sent the ring back to the British Museum. P C Cooney, Carpenterstown, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.
The description fits the storm petrel which is certainly off its beaten path in the midlands. But these birds are sometimes "wrecked" by storms, and yours may have been blown inland by a gale. They breed mainly on islands off the west coast and on the Saltees between May and September, otherwise they spend their time at sea.
A friend and I came on some beetles in the Burren the like and beauty of which neither of us had ever seen. They were about the size of a thumb nail, with a slightly bronzed neb on the back of the head and bright, iridescent, metallic green wing cases. The first one was sitting on a hummock of plants and others were flying about low near the ground. Then we saw others leaving and entering the hummock although there was no apparent hole. Could you identify them? Honor Stuart, Goatstown, Dublin, 14.
They were chafers called Cetonia cuprea which has no common name but, if they had, might be called copper chafers. You probably came on a hatch because the larvae live in ants' nests. They enjoy sunshine and are fairly common in suitable habitats throughout the country.
Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo.