A PAPER in the current edition of Irish Birds, The Birds of the Phoenix Park, County Dublin, gives the results of a survey carried out during the summer of 2007 and the following winter. The author is Olivia Crowe.

VISIT the African Plains exhibit at Dublin Zoo and you will see scimitar horned oryx, a creature classified as ‘extinct’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

WHOOPER swans Romeo and Julietta are in the news.

FIN whales are visiting the Celtic Sea between Wexford and Youghal.

ALTHOUGH Basil Fawlty made Torquay famous, he wasn’t the South Devon seaside resort’s most important resident. That distinction goes to someone who lived a very long time ago.

ABAR-HEADED goose visits our local estuary. It hangs out with swans, gorging itself on stale bread offered by local children.

THE solstice is a time to take stock and make new resolutions.

BOOKS make excellent Christmas gifts and last Monday’s Examiner carried recommendations from the crime-thriller, vampire and general fiction genres.

WARSAW Zoo has a pair of Indian rhinos.

A CONFERENCE commemorating John Tyndall was held in Dublin last month.