Eye on Nature: Your notes and queries for Ethna Viney

I saw six cormorants fishing together at Westport Quay. Is this unusual?
Tony Kirby
Westport, Co Mayo

I saw a large flock of cormorants in Dún Laoghaire Harbour. Why this gathering?
Sarah Hayes
Monkstown, Co Dublin

Cormorants nest in colonies, and in winter they gather in estuaries near their nesting sites.

I'm sending a photograph of a bird that was recovering from hitting the window again. We have a nest of sparrowhawks and another of kestrels 200 yards away. A pair of buzzards raised one chick this year. In the woods here we see merlin, peregrine, hen harrier, woodpecker, owls, tree-nesting ravens and a heronry every year, plus woodcock and snipe.
Sandy Perceval
Tubbercurry, Co Sligo

A wildlife sanctuary indeed. The disgruntled bird looks like a juvenile female sparrowhawk.

I have been feeding a robin for over a year, and he comes up to me quite unafraid. For a few months last year a second robin was there, and one would feed the other. Now I've got three robins in my garden; two come to me but the third is shy.
Mary Scarlett
Tullamore, Co Offaly

Recently, in bed after lights out, I heard the whine of a mosquito. In the morning, as I looked out at snow on Knocknashee, I spied another one.
Gerry Brannigan
Collooney, Co Sligo

I saw about 200 dark geese flying south in V-formation. Where could they be going?
Peter McCloskey
Clogherhead, Co Louth

They were brent geese moving south to fresh feeding grounds in Dublin Bay.

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