Michael Viney responds to queries and observations on nature
A wild duck nesting in the garden flew to the pond with something in her beak. She hit this object repeatedly with her beak. I went to have a look and found a newly hatched but dead duckling on the bottom of the pond.
Rudolf Heitzel, Kilkenny
The duckling may have been damaged when hatched, and the duck was getting rid of it.
I have just seen one dunnock get its bottom into the air, whereupon another seemed to groom around the first dunnock's bottom. Then the picking dunnock bumped the other with its chest.
John O'Donoghue, Blackwater,
Co Wexford
The male pecking the female's cloaca is part of the mating ritual. Pecking can make the female eject any sperm inserted by another male and increase the current male's share of paternity. The bumping completed the job.
While playing golf at Rathfarnham, I saw a crow attack a squirrel.
Terrence Doyle, Dundrum, Dublin
Crows often attack squirrels that may be threatening their nests.
