Eye on Nature: Your notes and queries for Ethna Viney

I’m sending you a photograph of a small snail that was stuck to my south-facing front door (with a matchstick to show the scale). What is it? Martin Scanlon Athlone, Co Westmeath

It could be an early stage of a garden or other common snail.

My lawn has a number of holes like the one in my photograph. The stone in the photo was pulled out. There were about a dozen around the garden, mostly the same size. Could crows have done this? John Glendinning Kinsale, Co Cork

They are holes dug by a badger searching for earthworms and insect grubs such as leatherjackets, the larvae of crane flies – the daddy-long-legs.

I’m sending a photograph of another shell from near Loop Head, not far from where I found the ocean-quahog shell that I asked you about on January 23rd. Dixie Collins Kilkee, Co Clare

It looks like a common otter shell, Lutraria lutraria.

Are there any red squirrels in Mayo? I was driving home from Galway with my 16-year-old daughter when an animal ran across the road outside Partry, near the Doon river. She was sure it was a red squirrel. Eamonn Carolan Brackloon, Co Mayo

Yes, there are some in Mayo, including in Brackloon Wood, near you. They could well be in the woods near the Doon river.

We saw an albino cock pheasant in Broadford, Co Limerick, with four normal cocks, but now he is on his own. John and Helen Pierce Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo

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