EyeOnNature

Readers' observations on nature

Trawling through a diary I kept as a teenager in 1959 I found that I had seen a kingfisher on the Dodder at Beaver Row, between Clonskeagh and Donnybrook. I wondered if one could still see them in Dublin today?

Ann Serff, Co Waterford

There have been kingfishers on the Dodder continuously for hundreds of years and they are still there. They are also found on other Dublin waterways.

Wandering in local woods I came across a fallen tree, underneath the trunk of which an animal had scraped a hole and was using it as a latrine. What was it?

Bernard Brewer, Tullamore, Co Offaly

It was the latrine of a badger.

A cock pheasant came to visit around my bird table in a heavily built-up area. He stayed for several hours and I was worried that next door's cat might pay a visit.

Is this normal for pheasants?

Joe Hynes, Portadown, Co Armagh

Your visiting cock pheasant probably came from a reared flock that was hand fed before being released and so got used to humans and human habitation.