While sitting in the garden one sunny morning, I observed a blackbird with its wings and tail outspread on the warm clay. I was fascinated and watched him for quite a while. Was he sunning himself?
- Jean Hackett, Foxrock, Dublin 18
Blackbirds, thrushes and robins all sunbathe in this way on a very hot day.
I go swimming in the morning before work in a pool in a protected area of Dusseldorf where there are a lot of ducks, geese, and other birds. On one morning recently I saw something falling from the roof of the five- to six-metre high administration building and found a female duck on the ground calling. Her ducklings were lined up on the flat roof, and were jumping. They just were somewhat stunned for a few seconds, shook themselves and stood up. The lifeguard insisted that it was all right, it had happened before. Have you ever heard of this?
- Helen Timmins, Dusseldorf, Germany
In Greenland, where the barnacle geese lay on cliff ledges, their goslings leap more than 150 metres to join their parents on the ground.
Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, 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.