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.

IT’S a sentiment which another Harry, the regal male gorilla at Dublin Zoo, would no doubt endorse.

A CONSERVATION milestone was reached last week; two coveys of partridges, raised in captivity at Boora Bog in County Offaly, were released at a secret location in north county Dublin.