EYE ON NATURE

Q: WE have several lovely wild cherries in our garden. In mid-April I observed a blue tit flitting among the branches, with another tit close by. Several times he pulled off a whole blossom and faced the other tit, shaking the blossom to and fro, and then dropped it. Was this a display ritual?

Last autumn a large beetle, a cockchafer I think, flew into my workshop, hit the light and landed upside down on my bench. He was brown underneath gorgeous metallic green wings. In the small crevices and folds of his underbody tiny mid-brown insects, almost like fleas but much smaller, moved about freely. Were these likely to be parasites?

Harry Bond, Killuran, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

A: You were privileged to see a rare view of blue tit courtship ritual. Male birds often offer nest material to the females during the pairing-off season, and blue tits play chasing games also as part of this ritual. But giving flowers (perhaps as nest material) is a new one. Your beetle was the dor beetle, Geotrupes stercorarius, similar to the chafers and also known as the "Lousy Watchman" because it is often infested by mites.

Q: ON March 26th I saw a red admiral butterfly which lacked lustre. Could it have over-wintered or was it an early migrant? We had southerly winds then for more than a week.

Joseph Kelly, Blackrock, Co Dublin

A: Red admirals have always been late spring and summer migrants to Ireland and Britain but sightings have been made as early as late March. However, of late, it has been thought that in mild winters some of them over winter in the southern part of both islands, either as pupae or as hibernating butterflies. The lacklustre appearance of yours could indicate over-wintering here as a butterfly rather than a wind-borne journey inwards. I had a report of a pristine red admiral in mid April in 1995, and this year I had what looked like a newly-minted one in my garden on April 1st. In these instances they might have over-wintered as pupae.