Reader's observations on nature.
Last year and again this year, when on a pilgrimage to Lough Derg, I observed young bats crawling on the porch walls of the smaller church, and dead and dying in the gully traps on either side of the porch. I noticed a contraption designed to trap midges about 40 yards from the door of the chapel. Surely bats are expert at dealing with midges?
Jim Madden, Banagher, Co Offaly
We watched a quivering female dunnock crouch and expose her rump to a male which pecked at the cloaca and then danced in a circle around her. He made no attempt at mating.
Paul Brannigan, Dundrum, Co Down
This is part of the mating ritual of the dunnock. Pecking the cloaca can make the female eject sperm inserted by another male and increase the current male's share of paternity.
I swam over a large and scary jellyfish in Tramore Bay. It was about two feet across, had a white crown and was brown farther down. The flat tentacles were thin, and three or four feet long.
Ray Cullinane, Tramore, Co Waterford
It was a lion's mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) and its sting is very poisonous.