What’s this growth coming from a damp wall in Swords?
Mike McNamee
Nothing good, that’s for sure, growing as it is out of the base of an electric socket into which the washing machine is connected. This is Peziza – a cup fungus – that grows on water-saturated substrates, and its presence is a warning sign of extremely damp conditions. It can grow up to 5cm in diameter and sometimes appears overnight. While Peziza fungus itself does not destroy wood, it thrives where water ingress or high damp levels exist. If you want to continue using the washing machine safely, find out where all the wet is coming from and fix it.
On the Burrow Road in Rosslare Strand on Easter Sunday in the early evening, this vividly yellow bird appeared at our bird feeder. It seems too yellow to be a greenfinch or even a yellow hammer. Can you identify it?
Louise and Paul
Following consultation with BirdWatch Ireland, it seems most likely that it is an escaped canary. A male greenfinch in breeding plumage would have a bigger bill, and characteristic plumage in the form of a dark shadow around the eye. Domestic canaries are of course members of the finch family and can vary in size, form and colour as a result of breeding.
RM Block
I spotted this well-camouflaged crab spider on a marigold flower with its unfortunate victim, which was paralysed or dead.
Paul Walsh, Cabinteely, Dublin
Crab spiders are deadly predators. They can change their colour to match the flower they are hunting in, so that they are even more unnoticeable. They seem to know that insects will be visiting seeking nectar, or indeed pollen as well, as in the case of this visiting bee. They position themselves well away from its business end and sink their fangs into its head. The venom thus injected kills immediately and the spider feeds on the soft parts of the bee which it then sucks out.
I came across seven of these bugs in one big plant pot inside my greenhouse in Co Kerry. What is the best thing to do with them? Please advise.
JJ Home
Most likely, leave the poor creatures be. These insects (not bugs!) are rove beetles and belong to the same group as the devil’s coach horse. As well as occurring in open grassland and moorland, they can occur where there is compost and leaf litter, which is probably why they were in your greenhouse. Adults feed on fly larvae, so, on the basis that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, leave them to keep down the number of herbivorous flies in your glasshouse. The National Biodiversity Data Centre has three Irish records for this species, one of which is from Tralee, recorded in June 2022.
We observed a small flock of swifts feeding before sunset on Easter Sunday around the edge of a raised bog near Cootehall, north Roscommon. We were concerned about how early it is and whether they will survive.
Jonathan Cassidy
These were not actually swifts, but house martins – the earliest of our summer visitors. It would indeed be very early for swifts as it is usually May when they arrive. Swifts are completely black birds with long powerful scimitar-shaped wings. The house martins are pale on the undersides and they have very short forked tails. They are so-called because they build nests of mud on the outsides of houses – up under the eaves or in the point of the gable. Like swallows and swifts, they are aerial feeders but they will be able to find enough insects to keep them going, particularly around wet boggy areas.
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