A rare bird usually found only in the Americas has been spotted in the Boyne Estuary near Drogheda.
According to Mr Dick Coombs, countryside bird survey co-ordinator with Bird Watch Ireland, there has been only one other recorded sighting of the short-billed dowacher in this State and that was 15 years ago.
"It's not unlike hundreds of other wading birds that can be seen on the estuary, so it's difficult enough to pick out".
Mr Coombs believes the bird was blown off-course on its way south from Canada to the Caribbean and may have been in the Mornington area for a number of months before being spotted.
