I saw a flock of birds on the seaweed-covered rocks at low tide in Dun Laoghaire harbour. The majority were greyish brown all over, very nondescript and about the size of small blackbirds, with grey bills, grey or black legs and bright black eyes. There were a few black ones among them with purple/green sheen on their backs and bright yellow bills.- Peggy Cruickshank, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
They were starlings. The nondescript ones were juveniles and those with the yellow beaks and black, glossy feathers were adults in breeding plumage. Very soon their beaks will become grey again and they will revert to their normal spotted plumage.
I saw a most exotic bird on our boreen outside Schull in west Cork. It had very distinctive black-and-white striped wings, a rosy pink underside and a pink crest. I'm sure it was a hoopoe. My book says that they are regular visitors to the south of England. I wonder whether they often make it to Ireland. - Margaret Newcombe, Schull, Co Cork
Hoopoes are regular visitors to the southern coastal counties of Ireland and sometimes to other coastal counties. Most reports are in spring but they have also been seen at other times of the year.
Recently, while on a visit to Gran Canaria, I was pleasantly surprised to see our native blackbirds in full song there. They continued to sing during the hours of darkness, which intrigued me. - T.F.Nally, Glenageary, Co Dublin.
Your blackbirds were the native Canary Island birds. Blackbirds are found all over Europe except in the far north of Scandinavia, and on the western Mediterranean coast of North Africa.