A pair of swans led their nine healthy cygnets upstream today. Incredible to have raised so many. Carmel Ni Shúilleabháin, Co Kildare
Swans on a good territory, with a male that’s on the ball as a defender of his family, can raise a large clutch but nine is indeed exceptional. The mean number of eggs laid by Irish mute swans is five-six, although they have been known to lay up to 11. The young stay with their parents until next spring when they will have acquired their adult white plumage. They will then be driven away by their formerly loving parents.
I came across this fungus while walking along a cliff at Old Head, Westport, Co Mayo. Have you any idea what it is called? Liam Stewart, Co Dublin
It is a waxcap and further consultation with mycologists Hubert Fuller and Tom Harrigton produced the following information: “This is Hygrocybe punicea, the Crimson Waxcap. Brilliantly coloured, these are a spectacular group of fungi, forming a very important component of the biota of grasslands, particularly those that are nutrient-poor and unfertilised. With some other fungi they constitute a suite of mushrooms that are excellent indicators of high-conservation-value grasslands. This particular one is widespread, but occasional, on heaths and unfertilised grassland in Ireland, appearing through autumn into early winter. I suspect that your correspondent found it on Old Head, Louisburgh and not Westport.”
READ MORE
This is a photo of a growth/gall in a young ash tree in my garden in Rathfarnham. I have many of these trees but this is the only one affected. Michael Walsh, Dublin
This is a gall caused by a gall mite Aceria fraxinivora. Gall mites are extremely tiny plant feeders, often about 0.5mm in size. They are members of the Arachnid group, which includes spiders and mites, and are small enough to pierce and feed on individual plant cells in the flowers of the Ash tree, causing the surrounding cells to enlarge and multiply to form the gall. These galls are irregular, woody encrustations, green at first and gradually turning to brown and black. They remain on the tree for up to two years and are sometimes called Cauliflower Galls.
We saw a cormorant and a heron having a heated standoff on the Dodder recently. The cormorant tried to come over to where the heron was. Then the heron flew around the cormorant until it went back to its own side of the weir. Hugo Lee, Stillorgan
On the face of things cormorants are usually sea birds and herons are birds of fresh water. However, there is overlap of territory as both species feed on fish inter alia – the cormorant diving for them while the heron stalks its prey in shallower water. Whether the water is fresh or salty, the fish are still very palatable to them. There has always been a cormorant in residence on the lower Dodder as well as frequent herons. Interesting to see that they have claimed specific parts as their own and defend as no-go territory for the other.
Is this little fellow a field mouse? We met him on a country lane in Wicklow recently. Suzanne Bennett
It is a bank vole. These small mammals first arrived in Ireland from the banks of the river Rhine in packaging around the giant turbine imported from Germany, when the electricity generating station at Ardnacrusha in Co Clare was being established in 1926. They have since spread across the south and east of the country. The National Biodiversity Data Centre has just one 2018 record for Co Wicklow. Now it will have two, if you send it in.
Please submit your nature query or observation, ideally with a photo (NOT a video) and location, via irishtimes.com/eyeonnature or by email to weekend@irishtimes.com
