Birds of a feather

Sir, – Is it my imagination or is 2014 turning out to be an exceptional year for nesting blackbirds in Dublin? At present every green space in the city centre seems to be literally hopping with recent fledglings. Walking to work early this morning, I counted 17 of them in various gardens, St Stephen’s Green and Merrion Square – and they were only the ones I saw.

On the other hand, I have not yet seen a single duckling or moorhen chick on the lake in the Green, nor do the pair of swans that successfully raised a brood of eight cygnets there last year seem to have hatched any young as yet this year. – Yours, etc,

ARTHUR BOLAND,

Greenville Place,

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Clanbrassil Street, Dublin 8.