Eye On Nature

I am mystified by a strange animal visitor over the winter. It made a nest on top of a fully covered water holding tank, between the aeroboard cover and the galvanised lid. The nest was composed of its own droppings, a big pile, each more than three-quarters of an inch long, with a terrible musky smell, as if this was its system of central heating. Could it be a mink? Last summer a stoat-like animal dragged a three-quarter sized rabbit screaming into the furze and wilderness that surrounds our lawn.

Tom Casey, Shelmallere, Co Wexford

The size and odour of its scats indicate that the tenant on the water tank was indeed a mink. A mink is up to twice as long and five times heavier than a stoat; and mink scats are much longer than those of the stoat. Both prey on rabbits.

On March 16, my son and I saw in Glenealo, above Glendalough, what seemed to be frog spawn. What puzzled us was the size; it was the collected in heaps about the size and appearance of a large jellyfish, say 12 inches in diameter. I have never seen frogs in that area or altitude; it was open mountain at about 500 metres. The ground was wet and there were a number of specimens grouped together over a distance of a few yards.

Bob Curran, Dalkey, Co Dublin

It was certainly spawn: frogs breed in European mountains as high as 3,000 metres. The ground was probably much wetter when the frogs spawned and a flash pool had since drained away. The spawn must be ejected into water where it swells into large clumps. This swelling takes place so quickly that the male must shed his sperm precisely as the eggs are laid or the eggs will not be accessible in the mass of jelly.

Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. e- mail: viney@anu.ie