An old wrecked boat on a storm beach on Clare Island, off the coast of Co. Mayo.

Just a couple of months after seeing stoats for the first time in ages, I spotted another one. He was hurrying across a path as my wife and I were cycling along. It saw us only at the last second, probably because it was more concerned with the dead mouse it was carrying in its mouth. A mouse isn’t very big, but then, neither is a stoat, so it was a big meal for him. Anyway, once he spotted us, he dropped the mouse, ran back from when he came and didn’t reappear again to claim his dinner. Over the weekend, I spotted another creature not often seen (by me, anyway). I spotted this orange ladybird [Halyzia sedecimguttata]  in the shade of a huge old beech tree near Cong in Co. Mayo.