Ireland scores regional second

IN terms of rarity value, perhaps the biggest news in December came rather on the late side and concerned a White-chinned Petrel photographed some 240 km west of Co Galway on 15 September. The Western Palearctic’s second record – following one over Scapa Beach, Mainland Orkney, in May 2020 – it is just the third for the North Atlantic as a whole. ■