Michael Viney responds to queries and observations on nature.
On an isolated cliff top which I frequently visit, and where there are peregrines, I've spotted a large nest half-way up the cliff-face. There are three blue-grey chicks in the nest. Are these peregrine, raven or chough chicks? - Edward Denniston, Waterford
They are raven chicks which have not yet got their coating of brown down.
Along the coast at Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, I spotted a gannet just off the beach flying south. This is the first gannet I have ever seen in the area. Where do you think it was heading? - Mark Hackett, Arklow, Co Wicklow
Gannets have established a colony on a sea stack off Ireland's Eye, and your gannet was probably fishing.
Over the last two years I have noticed, while driving, a solitary black bird with a broad white band across the top of its head. It was always close to the same roadside hedge. - Mary P Brennan, Ballyouskill, Co Kilkenny
It was a blackbird with partial albinism, which seems to result from diet deficiency, old age, injury or shock.