I took this beautiful photo on Christmas Day as I was walking by the river Suir in Thurles, close to my home. Is the head not as white because swans duck their heads under water for food and our rivers are not so clean? Teresa Whelan
You have sent a lovely picture of a mute swan in glorious sunshine with a perfectly resplendent gleaming head. No problem there, either with the swan or with the waters of the Suir. What you are referring to is something different altogether. Whooper swans are overwintering visitors that come to us from Iceland. They sometimes arrive with rust-coloured stains on the feathers of their neck and head. These stains are caused by a high concentration of iron oxide in the water and soil around their breeding grounds where they feed. They are not harmful and will wear off.
We saw this beautiful wild goat on the Scalp in Wicklow last weekend. How old do you think it is? There was a younger goat as well. Alex Gibbons (10), Bray, Wicklow
It is a fine-looking goat with a magnificent set of horns. Both male and female wild goats in Ireland have permanent horns, and those of the male are much larger than those of the female. They grow throughout life, but growth slows down each year in winter. This slower growth produces a thicker band called a growth ring each year. I cannot count the ones on your photo; you will have to get nearer next time. Survival is high until the seventh year of life, but it could be even older than this.
RM Block
I found this colourful winged creature, about 1cm in length, stuck inside the petrol cap of my brand-new Hyundai car. Is he a native, or might he have come in from South Korea like the car? Rodney Devitt, Sandymount, Dublin
In keeping with the principle of Occam’s razor, which encourages people to keep things simple with the least number of assumptions when there are two competing solutions to a problem, I would say the car acquired its insect passenger here in Ireland. This is a green lacewing fly – Chrysoperla carnea – which overwinters here as an adult. Green lacewings do occur in Korea, too, so there is indeed the possibility that it could be an import.
I found these red berries on oak leaves near Gartan in Donegal. Can you tell me what they are? Tom Hannigan
These are not berries at all but galls. They are caused by tiny wasps of the species Diplolepis quercusfolii. The mated females lay their eggs in the plant tissues of the oak leaves, and it is the activity of the grub in the growing plant tissue that causes these red galls to form. Adults emerge in winter and continue the life cycle by asexually laying on oak buds. From the galls caused by these, more wasps emerge, which will mate and lay eggs on the oak leaves, causing the red galls and thus continuing the cycle.
We found this fabulous amber-coloured jelly on the branch of a tree in Abbeyleix bog. Can you tell us about it? Peadar Lynch
This is a mature specimen of Exidia recisa, the amber jelly fungus or willow jelly. The young fruit bodies are typically shaped like inverted cones, sessile or on short stems, mostly hanging from the side or underside of dead willow twigs and branches, in marshes. At maturity they are variable in shape, up to 3cm across, and contain numerous white spores that are curiously sausage-shaped. Exidia recisa is common and widely distributed in Ireland and Britain and is found mainly in winter.
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