Michael Viney responds to queries and observations on nature.
On April 18th, mama duck had 17 healthy, happy ducklings outside the phlebotomy department at St James's Hospital. A week later, magpies had taken nine of them. We feed the remaining eight with boiled spuds and duck food. Until they are old enough to be taken to a sanctuary we have filled basins of water so the ducklings can swim. The patients love them.
Nuala Gorman, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8
We were on the east side of Inis Mór, the Murvey, in mid-May and came across a great number of single plants scattered in the short grass. All the flowers were pure white. Could they be white gentians?
Ursula Kavanagh & Brian Caffrey,
Inis Mór, Co Galway
They are white gentians which can propagate by stolons. One sport can thus make a colony.
It is a late season for corncrakes. The first record of 2005 came from Toraigh on April 21st. By May 18th there were 35 calling birds in Donegal, 15 along the Shannon and 21 in the West. Corncrake hotline, 0509 51676.
Tim Gordon, Corncrake Field Worker, Connacht
