Grey phalarope

Apparently there was one of these up at the Loch of Strathbeg a couple of days ago, so I got out my Dad's old bird book to have a look at the picture and find out some more.  It seems that they are small waders in the same family as the sandpiper; they breed in the high Arctic - Greenland, Svalbard and Bear Island, and Iceland. They spend winters out at sea.  Around our coasts, they are usually seen after storms – about 200 a year, according to the RSPB.