Michael Viney responds to queries and observations on nature.
Our birdfeeder is visited by a variety of tits - great, blue, coal and, occasionally, long-tailed. At present we have had a bird which looks like a cross between a coal and blue tit. It has the head of a coal tit and a buff breast, but its back is like that of a blue tit. Is it possible to have a cross-breed?
Robin MacDermott,
Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare.
There are geographical variations in the coal tit when the back, especially, can vary from olive to slate-grey. The Irish and British races are more olive than grey and closer to that of the blue tit. And all coal tits have two white wing-bars.
As I approached the practice bunker of my local golf club, a flock of screaming magpies stood around it. When I got close, the birds flew up into the nearest tree. I then noticed an injured magpie in the bunker sand which scrambled into the hedge. Were the screamers attacking or protecting the injured one?
Michael Carroll,
Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.
The fracas probably started as a territorial dispute, and the row gathered onlookers; magpies seem to enjoy a fight.
• Michael Viney welcomes observations at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo; e-mail: viney@anu.ie. Include a postal address.