Michael Viney responds to queries and observations on nature.
I saw rooks digging up hoary plantains (Plantago media) on a school playing field, eating the roots and leaving the rest. Is this characteristic rook behaviour?
John Feheny, Cork
From June onwards, earthworms and leatherjackets are scarce in the surface soil. Rooks will eat available vegetable matter and even dig out potatoes.
On a walk along the canal at Oldbridge, we spotted several hundred dead and dying bees on the ground.
M MacSweeney, Drogheda
The bees would appear to have suffered from one of the bee diseases, or from pesticide.
I saw a large, brownish-grey fly about 20mm long. My small guide lists Tabanus sudeticus as occurring in the UK, and a European guide I have shows only one large horsefly - T. bovinus - and does not list T. sudeticus.
Dave Perry, Schull, Cork
The horsefly, T. bovinus, is found in the south of England and on the continent, but T. sudeticus is common in these islands. Unlike the cleg, the horsefly makes a sound when approaching.
