IN May, this column celebrated the extraordinary lifestyle of the red-necked phalarope. After years of research, ornithologists thought they knew almost everything about the strange ways of this little wader but they were wrong. A phalarope from Shetland has confounded everybody by travelling 16,000km on migration. It’s not just the distance covered which is astonishing but the bird’s destination.

ACCORDING to last Monday’s Irish Examiner, birdwatchers from far and wide travelled to Kylemore Abbey, County Galway, to see a rare American visitor.

THE little Kerry bog pony, which has itself been saved from extinction, is now doing its bit to aid the survival of some bird species.