Plenty of hoopla about Hoopoes as they treated birdwatchers in 2015

Birdwatchers will remember 2015 as the year of the hoopoes. 

A few of these glamorous birds turn up here annually but, this summer, they arrived in force. Not since 1965 has there been such an invasion. The birds probably got lost while migrating from Africa to mainland Europe. Having overshot the runway, some landed in Ireland.

Hoopoes tend to be loners. Reports of two or three birds together raised hopes that some of the visitors might nest, adding an exotic new species to the Irish breeding list.