Eye on Nature: Your notes and queries for Ethna Viney

I watched a pied wagtail catch a large dragonfly on the wing. The bird landed, stood on the insect's back and plucked off each wing. Then it folded the body, manoeuvred it into its beak and flew off, presumably to a nest of young.
Michael Hegarty
Moycullen, Co Galway

I took a photograph of two insects. They stayed together for hours.
Horst Stieglitz
Louisburgh, Co Mayo

They are a copulating pair of the largest of our crane flies, Tipula maxima, recognisable because of their wing patterns. Their eggs hatch into the larvae called leatherjackets, which are a bane of lawns.

I heard what I thought was a jay, but I have never seen one in this area. Then I got a good view of the bird, with its blue-flashed wings and brilliant white rump patch.
Jim O'Brien
Kiltimagh, Co Mayo

Jays may not be in your exact location, but they are found not far away, to the east and west of Kiltimagh.

Cycling home from my local shop, I saw a bird on the road. It allowed me to get within inches of it. Thinking it was injured, I got a cloth to lift it on to the verge, but it flew away, seemingly with something in its beak.
Laurence Speight
Derrygonnelly, Co Fermanagh

It was a male sparrowhawk, probably with part of a kill in his beak.

Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, F28 F978, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Please include a postal address