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Displaying items by tag: brown booby

Bangor Marina is not the only spot on the island of Ireland that welcomed an unusual winged visitor this week – as locals in Greystones were treated to the sight of a sea bird usually found in the tropical Atlantic.

As RTÉ News reports, the large male brown booby who landed at the beach in the Co Wicklow town this past Tuesday (14 July) was the first recorded signing of the species here.

However, it was later reported that the bird appeared was suffering from exhaustion, likely a result of being blown so far off course by an Atlantic storm, and died in the care of a wildlife rescue centre in Kildare.

Niall Hatch from BirdWatch Ireland commented: “To see one in Europe is really unusual … There’s a record from 2016 on a boat offshore from the Skellig islands but no one got to see it.”

And this bird may not have been alone in his long-distance travels across the Atlantic, as suspected sightings of his fellow brown boobies have been on the rise in waters off southern England and the continent.

RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.

This story was updated on Sunday 19 July.

Published in Marine Wildlife
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Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.