One of my joys used to be watching the beautiful black-headed gulls of Lough Gara. This year when the silage fields were mown I suddenly realised there was something missing - no gulls exploring the stubble behind the tractor. My neighbours agreed: the wheelauns had gone. And then no fewer than five mink had been seen on the islands that were their main nesting place. Most of Lough Gara is supposed to be a wildfowl reserve - don't we need a bounty on mink?
Felicity MacDermot, Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon.
This episode is typical of the damage mink do to colony-nesting birds like the black-headed gulls. Of all possible ways of removing mink, trapping is the most effective, but bounty schemes have never worked satisfactorily. Sadly, except where rare species call for exceptional protection, we have to leave nature to adjust to our newest feral predator.
On a warm and sunny evening earlier this autumn, I saw a large bat feeding vigorously around a large sycamore tree. As he fed he was dive-bombed by some swallows and later by a pair of wagtails.
Martin Delaney, Birr, Co Offaly.
One of the reasons bats generally avoid feeding by day is to avoid being killed by hawks, but this episode seems to find the bat itself being mobbed as a possible predator.