Rare glimpse of wandering albatross

SUCH may have been the sentiments of Conor Ryan of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group when he spotted a black-browed albatross from the deck of the Celtic Explorer on the Feb 29.

The research vessel was 160 nautical miles south-west of Mizen Head.

Sightings of the Ancient Mariner’s bird of ill-omen are most unusual in the North Atlantic, although another black-browed was recorded off the Kerry coast two years ago. According to Niall Keogh of BirdWatch Ireland, who was also on the Explorer, there have been several sightings of these ocean wanderers at Irish headlands in recent decades. One bird, famously, joined the gannet colony at Unst in the Shetlands in 1974 and again in 1975.