Two queries: Is the fruit of laurel edible? It is more profuse this year than I can ever remember. Secondly, this year I watched what I believed to be wild strawberries from flower to fruit. The fruit reached a good size of 812 mm, and I watched for ages for the berries to ripen - to turn red. Eventually I lost patience and ate them, white but delicious. Do some strawberries stay white?
F.J. Fitzsimons,
Drumbarton, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan
The fruit and leaves of laurel are poisonous; they contain prussic acid. I have never seen or heard of ripe, white, wild strawberries. The only pale-coloured berry of the Rubus family is the cloudberry which is amber-coloured. It is very rare, being found in one location in the Sperrin Mountains, and the fruit is more like a raspberry in form than a strawberry.
A male robin has been visiting our cottage, flying in and out the open windows for the past week. If we close the windows he comes and looks in the patio door or taps on the windows; very charming except for bird droppings on the furniture. Will this continue, and if so, how can we discourage him and get a fresh aired house again?
Paula Gilvarry,
Knocknahur, Sligo.
He is probably coming in to chase the robins he sees reflected in the windows, who have, he thinks, invaded his territory. Try hanging cut-outs of a hawk in the windows and that may deter him.
In early August, at about 10.30 in the evening, on the beach at Spanish Point, I saw a strange animal. We were going fishing on a night with almost full moon. The beach is big with a stream down the middle, and the animal (a little bigger than a cat) came running down the stream. I thought it was a big cat except its legs were moving very fast, but the animal itself wasn't moving too fast, and it had a long, fat tail. It continued down the stream and went into the sea. I wondered if this was a sea otter.
Andrew Mullaney (aged 13), Donnybrook, Dublin, 4.
It was an otter also going night fishing. Otters that live on the coast (and there are many along the western shores) fish in the sea as well as in lakes and rivers. But when they emerge from the sea they must wash themselves in fresh water to remove the salt from their fur. Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. e-mail: viney@anu.ie