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Éanna Ní Lamhna responds to your notes and queries on robins, spiders and rare moths
Éanna Ní Lamhna responds to your notes and queries on robins, spiders and rare mothsduring early morning. They eventually took off, showing, as far as we could detect, straight rather than curved necks.
Were these graceful creatures cranes or herons? They were herons, a common native species. We used to have cranes, which are much larger, but they became extinct when we drained and destroyed their marshy habitats.
However, we now have had a pair returning to breed successfully in a midland cutaway bog for the last three years, so things are looking up for them. I saw this bird in the woods near my home. It didn’t fly away until the last minute when I put my hand out to it. John Fox in Dundrum has a similar young robin that perches on his evening glass of beer.
Robins are friendly to humans because they see them as meal tickets. Gardeners are forever digging and the robins explore the exposed soil for edible invertebrates. Young robins have speckled breasts so that daddy, who is very territorial, will not see them as a threat and drive them away. In fact, he only tolerates mammy, who also has a red breast, for the length of the breeding season.
She gets her walking papers when this is over. How Ireland’s seas and rivers are becoming spaces for healing: ‘It changes how we pay attention to our bodies’This oak bracket fungus is a pathogenic polypore fungus that causes a butt rot of oaks particularly but is also known to attack birch, beech and alder. Spores enter through wounds in the bark and grow to penetrate the heartwood, resulting in a white soft-rot.
The annual fruit bodies, hoof- to cushion-shaped brackets, are typically seen at the base of the oak trees but can also form in tiers further up the trunk. Brackets can also form on roots at a distance from the infected tree, as in the image. A characteristic feature of the fungus is the presence of multiple droplets oozing or weeping from the surface of the fruit bodies.
This fungus is scarce in Ireland, with just four records listed, but it is probably under-recorded. I spotted this spider in my neighbour’s polytunnel recently. It was wrapping a bumblebee with its silk when I took a video and photos. I think it’s a false widow.
Can you confirm? This is exactly what it is. It is well able to catch large insects and has even been known to bite and kill a baby bat. It will not bite humans unless they sit on it or it becomes trapped in their clothes, and for most non-allergic people this is no worse than the sting of a nettle.
I believe this rather large moth is a Clifden Nonpareil, also known as a Blue Underwing. I think the last Irish record was recorded in 2020. I added this to the. It flew into my sunroom and settled on the floor before climbing on to the cable of my computer speakers.
It then walked on to my hand before taking off and flying outdoors again. The wingspan unopened was approximately 7cm and almost doubledThere were 14 Irish records before yours, with the most recent one in 2025. It is very rare indeed.
Please submit your nature query or observation, ideally with a photo and location, using the form below or by email toÉanna Ní Lamhna, a biologist, environmentalist, broadcaster, author and Irish Times contributor, answers readers' queries in Eye on Nature each weekUniversity is a chance to remake yourself. No one knows if you were shy at schoolActor Olwen Fouéré: ‘I firmly believe we are in the last days of the Anthropocene’Van Morrison at Electric Picnic: Not quite an old snuggly blanket, but when he’s this good he’s wonderful A Wicklow woman in Marbella: ‘I would make friends in the summer and they would then go home.
But I found my tribe’My daughter’s classmates have left for a grind school and she is desperate to join themMonday set to be dry and sunny but more autumnal weather on way
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