Eye on Nature: Your notes and queries

An animal often appears at my mother's house, on the slopes of Sliabh an Iarainn, in Co Leitrim, around 7pm. Nobody has been able to identify it.
Grainne Ni Neill
Kildare Street, Dublin

From your photograph, it is a wallaby escaped from an owner. A couple of years ago one escaped in Co Tyrone, but I think it was recovered.

I saws an oval yellow creature on a delphinium leaf at Russborough. It had three dark lines and a rim of dark dots at one. Is it an insect?
David Howell
Firhouse, Dublin

It is the pupa of a ladybird.

A grey squirrel ran across my garden clutching a ripe strawberry. Clearly it had crawled under the protective net to get it. I should have left it some cream.
Henry Halliday
Belfast

At 3.30am I heard the haunting sound of an owl flying over our house. Surprisingly, it was calling in an urban area.
Eamon Flanagan
Rathfarnham, Dublin

Probably a long-eared owl.

Michael Viney welcomes observations at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address