Weekly birding round-up: 20 Dec 2017 - 2 Jan 2018
Welcome back everybody, to the first Rarity Round Up of 2018. Appropriately, for those of us carrying a few extra Christmas pounds courtesy of days of unaccustomed rich food, this is a bumper edition of the Round Up covering the two week period from 20th December to 2nd January.
Think of it as the rarity equivalent of opening the fridge door at the moment – you’ve got the memories of the Christmas week itself, one or two leftovers from then still (just about) within their best-before date, and the first fresh nibbles of the New Year.
(And possibly one or two ill-advised remnants that should have been chucked out a while ago…)
2017 was a great year with some properly startling rarities – what will 2018 bring us? Stay posted and we’ll keep you in the loop… But for now, here’s the last Round Up of the closing days of 2017.
We should, perhaps, have seen this one coming as, after all, if ever there was a midwinter American wader with past form it was always going to be a Killdeer.
The Fortunate Isles had a particularly fine autumn this year, proving to a new generation of birders that one writes Scilly off at one’s peril, so it was fitting that the final top drawer new rarity of 2017 for Britain and Ireland as whole should be found on St Mary’s in the early afternoon of 29th. (In a chicken field, no less, meaning that my Shetland chickens need to up their ante in the future - Buff-breasted Sandpiper just doesn’t cut the mustard compared to a stripy plover companion…)
This was, of course, far from the first Killdeer to be found on Scilly – this latest individual being the 11th record since the first one for the archipelago was shot on Tresco on 14th January 1885. I say 11th record but that understates Scilly’s dominance where Killdeers are concerned – with roughly 20% of all British records hailing from Scilly alone – as those ten past records actually involved 13 birds… There have even been multiple arrivals in the past, with two birds on St Martins in the winter of 1963/64, and three birds on Bryher and St Mary’s on 11th-21st December 1979. 1979 was a particularly productive year as the final tally for Scilly was no fewer than four individuals…
However, since the heyday of the late 1970s and early 1980s things have quietened down somewhat, with just two subsequent records – on St Mary’s on 15th-26th November 1989, and St Agnes on 4th-10th November 2002. This latest dandy individual was, then, somewhat overdue and will be a welcome arrival for one or two more recent Scilly listers, albeit a short-staying one as it was nowhere to be seen on New Year’s Eve and latterly.
2017 closed with one last handsome passerine offering to brighten the final week of the year. A midwinter Desert Wheatear is always a pleasure – and a male individual is a tremendous early Christmas present.
For local birders and, indeed, anyone prepared to travel for such a winter warmer, the male found at Whitby (North Yorkshire) on 23rd, and still present there on 2nd January, will have been a most pleasant surprise – like finding a green triangle in birding’s tin of Quality Street – and the perfect way to end the old year and usher in the new.
The north of England was clearly the place to be at the end of December as the very last BB rare of the year was found in Northumberland in the closing hours of daylight left to us in 2017 on 31st – an adult Ross’s Gull half a mile north of Boulmer (Northumberland) at Longhoughton Steel, representing the ninth record for the county.
Unlike the North Yorkshire Desert Wheatear, this last offering from the north wasn’t so obliging, as it’d drifted on by the morning of New Year’s Day. These dainty little gulls are deservedly popular when they hang around – and are the rarer option compared to their Ivory Gull Arctic counterpart - so I’m sure I’m not the only birder out there hoping that what remains of the winter will prove to be one of those years that sees multiple records of them.
In a good year Ross’s Gulls can turn up pretty much anywhere on the British or Irish coast – I remember my first way back in February 1995 at Slapton Ley (Devon) – and January is the prime time for their arrival, so eyes peeled and fingers crossed, people…
We’ll kick of the main proceedings with predictable peacefulness amongst the seabirds at the time of year, and not a great deal to report all told.
With no sightings of any Cornish Pacific Divers now for three weeks, it falls to Orkney and Shetland to provide us with our only diver interest of the past fortnight – the adult White-billed Diver once again seen off Burray on Christmas Day and again on New Year’s Day. On 2nd one was seen in Orkney off South Ronaldsay again whilst one of the Shetland regulars was once more in the Bluemull Sound that day also.
Devon and Cornwall served up a procession of Pomarine Skua sightings: one off Exmouth (Devon) on 22nd-24th was followed with two off Dawlish Warren NNR on 29th, three there on 31st and one still on 1st-2nd, with a single bird noted from Berry Head on 30th and one off Broadsands on 2nd; and, in Cornwall, one seen from St Ives on 27th was followed with sightings of a single bird from Newlyn and Mounts Bay on 29th-31st. A further individual was seen off Portland (Dorset) on 1st.
Little Auks meanwhile continued to figure in the news in extremely modest numbers, with a predictable northern bias to our sightings: the only Irish record of the fortnight, at Islandmagee (Co.Antrim) on 20th began proceedings; thereafter single Scottish sightings came from Sandhead (Dumfries & Galloway) on 23rd, Boddam (Aberdeenshire) on 24th, Troon (Ayrshire) on 24th and 31st, and Loch of Skaill (Orkney) on 29th-31st, with four logged from Lossiemouth (Moray) on Boxing Day. English birds were noted on Christmas Day, with two seen off Flamborough (East Yorkshire) and, on 27th, comfortably the most southerly record of the fortnight in the form of a single bird seen off St Ives (Cornwall). The new year started with three seen off the Orkney mainland at Holm on 1st and two off Lamb Holm on 2nd.
The festive fortnight saw strong continuing numbers of Cattle Egrets logged across the region, and nowhere more so than in the south-west and, in particular, in Somerset where a once unthinkable flock of them continued to tough out the winter – peak count from Sharpham Park was 31 birds on New Year’s Day. That alone would be sufficient cause for midwinter optimism where the species’ prospects as a British breeding resident are concerned, but once you factor in the numbers seen elsewhere the future for them is looking pretty rosy as things stand – other sizeable west country flocks peaked at 20 birds in Cornwall at Helford on 2nd; and a settled flock of seven birds at South Huish Marsh (Devon) on 21st-1st January.
In all, around 80 birds were recorded in Britain and Ireland in the past two weeks, with multiple birds at far-flung stations as well as in their south-westerly heartland – three were at Killag Bridge (Co.Wexford) on 26th-2nd, and parties of four birds were noted on 1st on Anglesey at Malltreath and on 1st-2nd on the Isle of Wight at Brading Marsh RSPB. Unthinkable numbers just a handful of years ago – we live in changing times.
Great White Egret were once again strongly represented, albeit as mobile as ever and any overall tally for the fortnight must, inevitably, involve duplication as well as birds overlooked now the novelty of white herons is wearing off with the general, non-birding, public in the wake of the past Little Egret colonisation. If birders don’t find them for themselves, I suspect we’re less likely to get a well-meaning tip-off nowadays in many parts of the country. Some 150 birds were reported from around 50 counties in the past fortnight – another truly eye-watering tally that must bode well for further breeding successes in the coming months, not least on the Somerset Levels where the period’s peak tally was logged: 10 birds at Shapwick Heath NNR on 20th.
Poole Harbour’s (Dorset) diminished Spoonbill population remained more or less constant across the period, with daily sightings of small parties from various locations and the occasional bigger flock count never exceeding the 30 counted off Arne on 22nd. Some 30 further birds, nationally, mostly comprised small parties at best but mostly singletons or duos – nine at Isley Marsh RSPB (Devon) on 30th was the peak count away from Poole Harbour. Otherwise our birds were all scattered across the English south coast, with the only exceptions being the Welsh and Irish individuals still at the National Wetlands Centre WWT (Carmarthenshire) until 1st and Cromane Point (Co.Kerry) still on 29th.
Glossy Ibises meanwhile, felt like they were on the march into Britain and Ireland again. Some 20 birds were logged in the past fortnight, with birds penetrating as far north as Orkney and deep into Ireland too. Starting in Scotland, one was at Salen (Argyll & Bute) on 21st-31st; what was presumably the bird seen in Orkney at Tankerness Hall on 26th was on South Ronaldsay on 27th; one was on Tiree at Cornaigmore (Argyll & Bute) on 26th-1st; and one was on South Uist at Kilauly on 1st.
The sizeable Irish contingent came in the form of sightings from Belmullet (Co.Mayo) and Lough Beg (Co.Derry) on 23rd; three birds at Castlefreke (Co.Cork) on 24th rose to five there on 27th-30th, with four still there on 1st-2nd; one was at Lough Boora Parklands (Co.Offaly) on 26th; and one was seen at Inishmore (Co.Galway) on 29th. On 2nd another was in Co.Tyrone at Strabane.
English sightings meanwhile came from Brading Marsh RSPB (Isle of Wight) still on 24th-2nd; from Essex at Old Hall Marshes RSPB on 24th, Abbotts Hall Farm EWT on 28th and West Mersea on 1st; again at Ham Wall RSPB (Somerset) on 26th-2nd; at Kingsmill Lake (Cornwall) still on 30th-1st; and in Devon at Colyford again on 30th and at Black Hole Marsh on 1st.
The adult Common Crane remained on the Western Isles at Berneray, North Uist until 2nd, while the flock at Eldernell (Cambridgeshire) peaked at 34 birds on 21st.
Now this was starting to feel a whole lot more like winter – flotillas of rare quackers to work our way through, and a handful of rare and scarce geese too for good measure. Let’s start with them…
The Goose Formerly Known As Canada had another quiet spell in the past fortnight, with just the one interior Todd’s Canada Goose seen again at Alturlie (Highland) on 20th.
The week before Christmas proved fruitful for Snow Goose sightings in Aberdeenshire: a white morph was at Loch of Strathbeg RSPB on 20th; a blue and a white bird were at Loch of Skene on 21st (with the white bird there again on 1st); a white morph passed over the Ythan estuary on 22nd; and a white bird was again at Meikle Loch on 24th. The white individual was noted again on North Uist (Western Isles) on 24th also.
Our tally of Black Brants was a tale of two halves in some quarters: in Dorset, a bird was seen again in the west on the Fleet on 23rd-24th, with one further east at Studland on 20th and at Middlebere Farm in Poole Harbour on 25th-28th; and in Norfolk sightings came again at Cley on 20th-26th and then Holkham on 28th-31st and Salthouse on 1st. One further record came from Gosport (Hampshire) on 22nd.
And so to ducks, and where better to start than with a plethora of American Wigeon - the female remained at Grimley (Worcestershire) on 20th-2nd, and elsewhere it was all drakes… at Grindon Lough (Northumberland) on 20th still; Dundrum (Co.Down) still until 1st; Clachnaharry (Highland) again on 22nd-31st, with further Highland sightings coming from Tain Links on 24th-2nd, South Kessock on 27th-28th, Caol on 28th-2nd, and Udale Bay RSPB again on 2nd; at Rutland Water (Leicestershire) again until 2nd; at Matford Marsh RSPB (Devon) on 25th-31st and Exminster Marshes RSPB on 2nd; and again on North Uist (Western Isles) at Loch an Duin on 1st. On 2nd one was in North Yorkshire at Wheldrake Ings YWT.
Green-winged Teals roared comfortably into double figures with around 13 noted in the past fortnight – all singles apart from the two birds seen again at once at Oare Marshes KWT (Kent) on 23rd, with one or other of them present there until 29th at least. Elsewhere records were well spread – English birds seen at Ashleworth Ham NR (Gloucestershire) on 29th-31st; Saltholme RSPB (Cleveland) on 29th-1st; and again at Leighton Moss RSPB (Lancashire) on 1st-2nd, with a further probable bird seen on 20th at Clifton GPs (Worcestershire).
Scottish individuals were noted on 29th at Loch Spynie (Moray); on 30th on North Uist at Loch Sandary; on 31st-1st again on Tiree at Loch a’Phuill (Argyll & Bute) and on 2nd at Loch Gruinart RSPB; and on 31st-2nd on Orkney at Loch of Skaill. Meanwhile in Ireland sightings came from Blennerville (Co.Kerry) still on 20th, Inch Island (Co.Donegal) on 22nd, Ballymena (Co.Antrim) still until 1st and, on 2nd, at The Gearagh (Co.Cork).
Good numbers of Ring-necked Duck were rewarding the freshwater faithful, with a good scattering of males and females seen across the region. Remaining in Ireland to begin with, we find females still at North Slob WWR (Co.Wexford) until 1st, and again at Cloonee Lakes (Co.Kerry) on 25th; and drakes at Loughrea (Co.Galway) again on 26th and, on 30th, at Ballyalia Lake (Co.Clare) and Ashton’s Callows NR (Co.Tipperary).
The female remained in Wales at the National Wetland Centre WWT (Carmarthenshire) until 1st; in Scotland, drakes were seen at Carlingwark Loch (Dumfries & Galloway) on 26th-27th and Milton Loch (Dumfries & Galloway) again on 27th; and in England drakes were seen in Somerset at Shapwick Heath NNR on 26th-2nd and, in Essex, at Old Hall Marshes RSPB on 22nd, Abbotts Hall Farm EWT on 28th and on 29th at Abberton reservoir.
The drake Lesser Scaups remained in Cornwall at Dozmary Pool and in Somerset at Chew Valley Lake until 1st and 2nd respectively.
A female Ferruginous Duck was again seen in Somerset at Shapwick Heath on 26th-27th.
The fortnight was all about female King Eiders, with the long-staying queen again at Ynyslas (Ceredigion) on 26th-1st, but augmented by a courtly train of further sightings: queens were seen at Castlegregory (Co.Kerry) on 28th and Aberdyfi (Gwynedd) on 1st, whilst on 2nd Scottish Natural Heritage seabird surveyors in Shetland seemed to be having a golden afternoon, finding not only one bird at Mid Yell but another later on off Whalsay. I wonder how many go overlooked generally amongst distant Eider rafts?
The Cornish female and juvenile drake Surf Scoters remained at Porthpean (Cornwall), and had their numbers swollen by the arrival of a second juvenile drake on 30th-1st. Elsewhere, starting in Scotland, two drakes were off Kirkwall (Orkney) on 29th, single drakes were again in Largo Bay (Fife) on 21st and off Musselburgh (Lothian) on 26th-1st, and the drake was once again seen in Shetland on 2nd in the Bluemull Sound. Two drakes were seen in Wales off Llandulas (Conwy) intermittently throughout the period while, in Ireland, the drake was again at Ballyvaughan (Co.Clare) on Christmas Day, and the female or first-winter drake was once more off Ballinskelligs (Co.Kerry) on 27th. On 2nd a drake was off Laytown (Co.Meath).
Co.Kerry had far rarer fare on offer though on 28th again, with the drake Black Scoter once more noted off Rossbeigh.
Another honorary waterbird inclusion for the Pied-billed Grebe again in Shetland on 28th at Spiggie. Will it be seen in 2018?
Oh, and finally, the less said about the presumed escape Hooded Merganser at Drakelow Wildfowl Reserve (Derbyshire) on 1st the better. I’ve made a new year’s resolution to be all Zen about the damn things…
A few latterly familiar faces continued to crop up sporadically, at least, in the past fortnight’s shorebird sightings with, in addition to the obvious Killdeer icing on the cake, a handful of further possible interest to add a little spice to proceedings.
Starting then in Dorset, we find the first-winter Stilt Sandpiper still on Brownsea Island on 20th-28th, and the first-winter Lesser Yellowlegs still at Lodmoor RSPB on 21st-29th.
The late Temminck’s Stint remained a more or less daily occurrence in West Sussex at Pulborough Brooks RSPB until 2nd. A further probable individual was reported from Flint Castle (Flintshire) on 1st.
Further east still, in Kent, the adult Long-billed Dowitcher was still to be found, intermittently, at Oare Marshes KWT on 23rd-1st.
Moving into the somewhat more ephemeral, reports of a possible White-rumped Sandpiper at Pennington Marshes (Hampshire) on 22nd and a possible Pectoral Sandpiper at Titchwell RSPB (Norfolk) tantalised but didn’t firm up into anything more concrete. More tangible, perhaps, was another candidate longipes Siberian Oystercatcher seen on 30th-31st at Holy Island (Northumberland). I have a feeling that, with these more on our collective radar in late 2017, we’ll be seeing an increase in putative examples of longipes in years to come.
Your Glaucous and Iceland Gullscontinued to provide the usual, though still not exceptional, winter diversions the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland throughout the festive period. Numbers of both remained solid, with around 80 of each logged, respectively. Four Kumlien’s Gulls
What were, definitely, picking up a head of steam however were Ring-billed Gulls, with 16 individuals recorded in the past fortnight. We’ll start in their Irish heartland, where adults were logged on 20th at Tralee (Co.Kerry) and still at Blackrock (Co.Louth); on 21st at Castletownbere (Co.Cork); on 22nd-2nd again at Drimnagh (Co.Dublin); on 27th-2nd at Blennerville (Co.Kerry); on 27th-31st at Limerick (Co.Limerick), with a second-winter there too on 28th; on 28th-30th again at Doorly Park (Co.Sligo); on 31st again at the famous Nimmo’s Pier (Co.Galway); and on 1st-2nd at Bray (Co.Wicklow). A further first-winter bird was at Cuskinney Marsh (Co.Cork) on Christmas Day. English birds comprised the adult still at Blashford Lakes HWT (Hampshire) throughout the fortnight, an adult at Southport (Lancashire) on 27th, and first-winter in Cornwall at Newquay on 31st-2nd. In Wales, the adult was once again at Llys-y-Fran reservoir (Pembrokeshire) on 30th while, in Scotland, an adult was on Strathclyde Loch (Clyde) from 23rd-2nd.
A possible adult American Herring Gull was seen on Scilly on Tresco on Christmas Eve.
The adult Forster’s Tern was once again on Mutton Island (Co.Galway) on 22nd.
There were ifs, buts and maybes a-plenty amongst our sightings of scarce and rare raptors as 2017 closed out. With December peppered with potential rarities that proved, ultimately, to be escapees - White-crowned Black Wheatear, Bufflehead, and Hawk Owl being particularly notable – there was a certain dreadful inevitability to the revelation that the white Gyr found at Hurworth Burn reservoir (Co.Durham) on 18th was, in fact, neither a Gyr nor of wild origin – still present at Hurworth Burn on 20th, it turned out that this was an escaped albidus Siberian Goshawk… A disappointment compounded on 30th at Buckton (East Yorkshire) when a probable grey morph Gyr proved to be an escaped hybrid falcon.
Sticking with that theme of mild discontent, a report of a Black Kite on 21st, present for several weeks at Yealmpton (Devon), drew a blank on 22nd – or rather, no sign of said species but a Red Kite there instead…
An unconfirmed report of a male Montagu’s Harrier came from West Moor (Somerset) on 22nd.
Rough-legged Buzzards, while not numerous this winter, at least (for the most part) avoided the putative pitfalls this past fortnight – a report of one at Whetmead NR (Essex) on Boxing Day was followed on 29th by the adult seen again in Cambridgeshire at Thorney and a juvenile at Copmanthorpe (North Yorkshire); on 30th-31st the recent bird at Capel Fleet (Kent) was reported once more; and on 30th one was in East Yorkshire at Driffield.
With reports of Snowy Owls straying down into the northern US states again this winter, hopes are perhaps high that we might get one or two windblown stragglers. Two were seen during the past fortnight: one on Eday (Orkney) on 20th, and another at Carrowmore Lake (Co.Mayo) on 31st.
In the absence of the much-anticipated Christmas American Robin, we’ll have to make do with somewhat less rarified passerines for this first Round Up of the new year, and kick off proceedings with the first-winter Barred Warbler just about creeping into the fortnight at Titchfield Haven NNR (Hampshire) still on 20th.
Alas, sad news to report from Howler Monkey Island (Devon) – the Paignton Zoo Yellow-browed Warbler there was found dead on 29th. No Howler Monkeys have been implicated in this… yet. Other, extant, Yellow-broweds were again on Portland (Dorset) until 1st and, elsewhere in the county, at Durlston CP again on 23rd and at Blandford Forum on 24th; in Falmouth (Cornwall) again on 27th; and on 1st, starting the new year with a local bang for their finders, at Fairlop CP (London) and Wallingford (Oxfordshire). On 2ndone was on Tresco (Scilly).
A Pallas’s Warbler was heard on 21st in Norfolk at the Sandringham estate. Not the safest place for any kind of bird to hang around, one hears, though I’m told the environmentally-conscious Meghan Markle is having an improving effect on Prince Harry where the urge to shoot birds for fun is concerned…
(In an entirely unrelated tangent, I’ve just remembered there’s a petition on the go to ban driven grouse shooting. Not that there are any grouse in Norfolk, of course, but there are, occasionally, Hen Harriers, so the train of thought isn’t entirely tenuous after all. Do please sign up to it if you haven’t already. The grouse-shooting industry has blood aplenty on its hands, and it’s high time this ‘sport’ was outlawed once and for all).
The first-winter male Penduline Tit at Plock Court Wetlands (Gloucestershire) remained throughout the period, being seen daily until 2nd. Happily, my prediction in the last round up that there might be another in the offing proved accurate – another male was seen on 20th at Dunstable sewage works (Bedfordshire).
The Richard’s Pipits at Flamborough (East Yorkshire) and in Suffolk at Chelmondiston were both seen again on 22nd. Another was at Kynance Cove (Cornwall) on 1st, with one at Windmill Farm CWBPS on 1st.
Great Grey Shrikes were still fairly subdued this past fortnight with not as many wintering individuals to be seen as in some recent years. The bird seen recently at Crabtree Hill (Gloucestershire) was still present until 2nd; that at Prestwick Carr (Northumberland) until 26th; and the bird at Cropwell Bishop (Nottinghamshire) still until 30th. In Surrey, one at Ash Common on 22nd was joined on 28th by a second bird; one was at Thursley Common NNR on 31st again. One was in Somerset at Berrow on 22nd; one was in Wareham Forest (Dorset) on 28th at Great Ovens Hill; and one was in Oxfordshire on 31st at the magnificently-named West Ginge Down.
Our quiet winter for Waxwings trundled along again in recent days, being the usual story of one halfway-decent flock (35 birds in Aberdeen (Aberdeenshire) on 1st) amidst a dribble of further records of single birds or very small flockettes indeed. Of the 80 or so birds in all tallied this past fortnight few seemed to linger, with no reports on subsequent days from anywhere except Aberdeen and St.Leonard’s-on-Sea (East Sussex), where a single bird stuck around until 28th.
The first-winter Rose-coloured Starling remained at Easington (East Yorkshire) on 2nd; another was in Cornwall at Mullion on 2nd also.
In Devon, the male putative Italian Sparrow was still at East Budleigh until 31st at least.
An unseasonal Hoopoe was seen in flight over the River Waveley on the Norfolk/Suffolk border south of Harleston on 30th.
Crowd-pleasing Parrot Crossbills continued to show this past fortnight at a number of now-familiar sites, and few more besides. Birds were seen again between 26th-2nd at Santon Warrn (Norfolk), peaking with 16 birds there on 1st; at Upper Hollesley Common (Suffolk), peaking with six birds there on several days between 20th-1st; Wishmoor Bottom (Berkshire) daily held 16 birds until 1st, with a peak of 21 there on 22nd; Howden reservoir (Derbyshire) still had as many as 12 there daily until 1st; and three birds remained at Broxbourne (Hertfordshire) until 2nd. 10 probable birds flew over High Lodge (Suffolk) on 28th, with a probable female seen in Houghen plantation (Norfolk) on 31st.
The exilipes Arctic Redpoll remained at Hazelwood Common (Suffolk) until 2nd, while Shetland rarity-finder extraordinaire Brydon Thomason got himself a proper white Christmas in 2017 when he found a hornemannii Arctic Redpoll beside his home at Halligarth on Unst on Christmas Day. I’d take that over snow any day…
Cornwall’s Nanjizal enjoyed one final fling of 2017 in the compact form of a Little Bunting there again on 29th.
And that was your year, that was.
The Dwarf Bittern remained on Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) until 1st at least; two Hoopoe Larks were still at Punta Pesebre on 26th.
I’ve been fortunate to see some super birds in great places this year. Pied Thrush + Serendib Scops Owl (Sri Lanka), Indian Courser (Nepal), Firethroat (China) the best, joined in Dec by this Dwarf Bittern, my only W P lifer of 2017. Keep watching until it catches the fish! pic.twitter.com/6mEhVKw2vX
— David Walsh (@DavidWalsh22) December 31, 2017
In Portugal a Sociable Plover remained at Lagoa dos Salgados on 27th, whilst a Pallas’s Warbler was at Fonte Benemola on 27th-29th. Another Sociable Plover was in Spain at Embalse de Aqueva on 21st-22nd. We’d all love another one of them in the UK sometime soon…
And so too where the settled American Royal Tern in the Channel Islands is concerned – seen once more on Guernsey on 27th and off Alderney on 29th. Ditto the Black-shouldered Kite still at Lauwersmeer (Holland) on 23rd-1st – one finally crossing the Channel would have a much better feel-good factor than some recent British raptor sightings we could care to mention…
A Greater Yellowlegs was in Sweden last week at Skintebo on 22nd-26th, while Finland enjoyed a Eastern Black Redstart on 26th-31st in Helsinki.
We finish the further afield summary with the quite improbably far away Kuwait, where the Grey-throated Martin was once again seen at Jahra Pools NR on 27th.
A new year, and a new bout of gazing into the rare bird crystal ball to see what the coming week might hold. I’ll start with some comfortable balls that are easily swatted away – based on both the past fortnight’s birds and previous years’ statistics, the first week of January is, invariably, a fruitful week for anyone hoping to find a Glossy Ibis or a rare-ish duck – say, a Lesser Scaup or a King Eider.
So far, so predictable… Erring a little further into the realms of pleasant fantasy, the coming week is prime time for Ross’s and Ivory Gulls, with past records of both species nudging double figures for Britain and Ireland. Either of these charismatic larids would be hugely welcome, particularly if it’s found early enough in the day (or sticks around for longer still) for birders to connect with it.
This week also marks the 21st anniversary of one of the more remarkable rarities of living memory – the Naumann’s Thrush that frequented South Woodford on 6th-11th January 1997. All the more remarkable still when one considers that the first, present on 19th January – 9th March 1990 was almost a stone’s throw away at Woodford Green. Lightning isn’t said to strike twice, but who’d say no to a third bite at that particular cherry?
Jon Dunn
3 January 2017
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