Michael Viney responds to queries and observations on nature
We had a pair of blackbirds nesting in the garden, but the cat killed the male. As both parents feed the young, will the hen be able to rear the brood on her own.
Jonathan Brennan, Celbridge, Co Kildare.
She will be able to rear some, but perhaps not all, and she will look for a new mate to have a second brood this year.
At the Seal Sanctuary, a couple of herons maintain a vigil on the pool for spare fish. Recently a young female grey seal brought up a fish and carried it carefully across the bridge of her nose to the edge of the pool to a waiting heron who deftly seized it as an offering. Apparently cooperative behaviour that I have never seen 20 years of minding seal pups.
Brendan Price, Seal Sanctuary, Garristown, Co Dublin.
I found a pure white spring gentian near Callan in the Burren on April 23rd. John Colleran, Pollardstown, Co Kildare.
A pine marten returns each year to have her litter in a hut beside our polytunnel. She is quite tame and is rearing her young oblivious of having being discovered.
Frank Noone, Delphi, Co Mayo.