Eye On Nature

One afternoon some time ago I noticed hundreds of crows settle down in a field next to my garden; the field was black with them. They were all facing a row of pines along the roadside and were completely motionless, soundless and not picking at the ground. They were there about one-and-a-half hours before they moved off. We used to have curlews, corncrakes and cuckoos around this area, but sadly no more. I miss the cry of the curlews and snipe. - Mary B. Martin, Castledermot, Co Kildare

It was a pre-roost gathering of the rooks. They can remain quite still before they take off for the roost, usually for about 20 minutes; an hour and a half was a long waiting period.

I have a female blackbird and her mate living in my garden for the past three or four years. She has hatched out several families and is very tame, especially when she is incubating her eggs. When I bring food to the bird table I whistle for her and she flies to me from wherever she is. I stay and talk to her while she eats, as my presence keeps the big birds away. She makes a clucking sound as she eats. How long do blackbirds live and is it unusual to have one as tame as this? - Doreen Geehan, Malahide, Co Dublin

Blackbirds are usually very excitable at the approach of humans: you must have been very gentle with her. Black- birds can live quite long lives; the oldest on record is 16 years, but they may live even longer.

The mallard community which inhabits the canals and waterways of Galway have been busy pairing off for the breeding season. Watching them the other day, I was surprised to see that one drake had contracted a foreign alliance. His companion was not a mallard but a diving duck of some other species. She was constantly startling him by suddenly disappearing, only to pop up in front of him or on the other side. Is this unusual and what would result if the union proved fertile? - Eamon Joyce, Galway.

Hybridisation occurs sometimes among all ducks and especially mallards, even in the wild, and the progeny is fertile. This is strange because it is the female duck that chooses her mate, not the other way around, and it is the varied plumage of the drakes of different species, and their different displays, that avoids hybridisation. The mallard drake's plumage is very distinctive.

Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, West- port, Co Mayo. email: viney@anu.ie Observations sent by email should be accompanied by postal address as location is sometimes important to identification or behaviour.