New species at the bird table

BECAUSE of the increasing emphasis on the importance of bio-diversity in our countryside, a lot of attention is paid to species that are endangered.

But we should not forget that, as some species diminish or even disappear, others arrive to take their place.

I will always remember the excitement of the day, some time in the early ’90s, when I drove over the bridge across the River Blackwater outside Youghal and spotted a pair of little egrets on the mud flats. I nearly crashed the car because I knew what these little white herons were — I’d watched them before in North Africa — but they were virtually unknown in Ireland at the time. Now they are a relatively common breeding bird.