My wife and I were walking in the Botanic Gardens on January 28th. We observed this butterfly feeding among the snowdrops. Is this another indicator of climate change? Claire and Séamas Cassidy
You are not the only one to have observed a flying red admiral this January. Michael Gavin found one on his venetian blind in Cork. This species is an annual migrant that arrives in good numbers from southern Europe and North Africa, mostly in May and June. They breed here all summer, laying eggs on nettles – the caterpillar food plant. The adults visit flowers to feast on nectar. The species is continuously brooded with no overwintering stage in Ireland. In fact, most migrate south again in October. But they may not all go. As our winters are getting warmer each year now, some remain behind and are known to rest without feeding for days, or perhaps weeks, in secluded sheltered locations. They emerge when it warms up a little to feed on nectar on the occasional sunny winter day.
I picked this item up on the beach in Baltray, Co Louth, shortly after high tide. It looks like an animal horn. The hole in the base suggests it may have been used as a knife handle. However, Google AI proposes it could be a prehistoric animal tooth! My money is on animal horn. What do you think? John Doherty
Oh, you of little faith in your own knowledge, even bothering to look up Google. This is indeed a horn, probably from a cow. The part closest to the head is hollow, up to about two-thirds the way up – that’s the sinus. The inner bone after that is a softer cancellous bone inside the outer shell and the final tip is solid. All that softer bone and its surrounding outer shell has been worn away over time since it was knocked or cut off, leaving what you found washed up. A knife hole? Doubtful. More likely just the inner cancellous bone deteriorating over time and leaving the hole.
RM Block
While walking along the banks of the river Nore today I saw this bird. It was about the size of a blackbird and was primarily black with a snow-white breast. It also had a brownish head and white feet. What is it? On looking through the internet images, I think it might be a dipper. Colm Costello
Yes, it is a dipper – a bird of freshwater rivers. It is unmistakable with its white throat and breast. It has dark legs and feet – it is a trick of the light that makes them look white in your picture. They feed on aquatic insects that occur on the bottom of fast-flowing shallow rivers and streams. They catch these by dipping underwater and walking along the bottom, searching as they go.
This plant appeared in our back garden in summer 2025. Can you please identify it. John Miller, Terenure, Dublin
It is Echium pininana – the Pride of Tenerife – which has self-seeded. Native to the Canary Islands, it is a garden plant here. In its second or third year, when it is about a metre high, it will produce a gigantic purple flower spike which the bees love. It sets seeds (which will travel to other gardens) and then it dies away.
I saw a washed up headless giant turtle on Portmarnock beach on January 24th. Karen Walsh
This is the remains of a leatherback turtle that died at sea. These turtles feed on jellyfish and, as they are able to regulate their body temperature, they can follow their prey into colder waters at our latitudes.
Please submit your nature query or observation, ideally with a photo and location, via irishtimes.com/eyeonnature or by email to weekend@irishtimes.com
