Eye on Nature: Your notes and queries for Ethna Viney

This coal black fungal bract appeared on a street tree during the very frosty weather. What is it?
Catherine McGarry, Templeogue, Dublin

It looks like black witches’ butter, Exidia glandulosa, which appears mainly on dead wood of broadleaf trees, particularly oak. This is the fruiting body from which the spores are dispersed, and they sometimes attach to a branch of a live tree.

Under what unusual circumstances do razor clams stand about 3cm proud of the beach surface, above the line of the extreme low water of a spring tide? We observed this on a local beach thus facilitating easy picking for a first of the season dinner which we ate and enjoyed. JS Holmes, Leenane, Co Galway

I’d be concerned if razor clams remained exposed for a length of time between tides. But obviously you ate them without any ill effects.

Just above the high-water mark I found burrowings and what might be otter spraint. It would be lovely to know if we have otters. Phillip Berman, Mweenish, Co Galway

Yes, these are entrances to otter dens and their spraint. They will need water nearby to wash salt out of their pelts.

In mid-February I saw a small tortoiseshell butterfly.
Albert Nolan, Newport, Co Tipperary

Recently I saw a small tortoiseshell butterfly flutter by my front door.
Eckhardt Schmidt, Letterkenny, Co Donegal

Second brood small tortoiseshell butterflies, hatched in autumn, hibernate before emerging in spring to mate and lay eggs the following spring.

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