EYE ON NATURE

Q: Every morning I feed the residents of my rookery with a bowlful of bread in order to count them for the IWC winter garden bird survey. I have approximately 30 rooks and 30 jackdaws. Recently, on a very stormy morning, not one rook came to feed, only jackdaws. Could you offer any explanation for this? There were some rooks present at the top of the trees, but there they stayed.

Paul Higins Longford

A: On a very stormy morning, most of the rooks had probably moved to a more sheltered place. Those few that remained would not have felt capable of driving the jackdaws or of competing with them.

Q: I read somewhere that storks were once resident in Ireland. Is this true? Are there any plans to bring back lost birds such as the bittern?

James O'Leary, Stillorgan, Co Dublin

A: Storks, both white and black, are resident in central and eastern Europe, and white storks are found as far west as eastern France and the Benelux countries. They are very rare vagrants to these islands but in the 1970s there were sightings in five consecutive years. They are mentioned as being summer visitors in medieval manuscripts, but the information is not precise. Bitterns have not bred in Ireland since the middle of the last century, but they are found in Southern England. They are occasional winter visitors to this country.