Michael Viney responds to reader's queries and observations on nature.
In the Burren, the blue gentians are in full bloom. I saw my first pair on April 1st west of Mullaghmore. Previous earliest sightings were on April 8th.
PJ Curtis, Kilnaboy, Co Clare.
Another observer sent a photograph of Burren gentians taken the previous week.
I heard the cuckoo on March 30th at Lower Lough Mask. Is this very early? Ray Mc Manus, Co Galway.
The cuckoo generally arrives in the second half of April. The earliest officially recorded Irish arrival was March 18th at Wexford in 1986. Previously the earliest record was April 2nd, but in the first Eye on Nature column in April 1988, a Kerry observer saw the cuckoo on March 31st.
I saw two blue tits "wrestling" on the grass while a third hovered overhead. The victim, a juvenile, soon died. Do I have a psychopath in my garden?
John Hurley, Sligo.
Blue tits are very aggressive birds, but the victim could not be a juvenile as the young birds achieve adult plumage by three months and start breeding at one year. The battle probably arose because it was being evicted from a nesting site.
• Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. E-mail: viney@anu.ie. Observations should be accompanied by postal address.