I saw three white birds flying up the Blackwater River near Fermoy. My first thought was that they were swans, but they were too small for adults and any cygnets I have seen retain a brown or greyish plumage until they are fully grown.
They also appeared to lack a long neck.
Peter Langley
The birds you saw were little egrets. These former visitors are now breeding in the south of the country.
I received oak galls from two different correspondents last week : from Peter Jankovsky in Stillorgan, who found them on oaks in Blackrock, and from Brigid Scanlon in Enniskerry, who found them on oaks in Bray.
They were knopper galls caused by a tiny wasp (Andricus quercuscalcis) which has recently invaded Ireland. It arrived in Britain from the continent in the middle of the last century and reached this country about a decade ago.
The knopper gall wasp has a complicated reproductive cycle of two generations in the year and requiring two different oak trees. Eggs are planted in the catkin of the turkey oak in spring; they hatch and the resultant asexual females lay in the acorns of the pedunculate oak in autumn.
Several eggs are laid and the galls can smother the acorns.
Eye on Nature is edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. Observations sent by e-mail should be accompanied by a postal address.
E-mail: viney@anu.ie.