Weekly birding round-up: 23 - 29 Mar 2021
Another week, another rare thrush hits the headlines… at the opposite end of the country to the preceding week’s belated news from Kent, but similarly after the event. We’ll be needing to get used to this, for surely in the wake of an autumn that featured such strong arrivals of rarities from east and west, there will have been other birds that flew under our radars in this strangest of winters, but of whom news will, in the fullness of time, emerge…
You don’t need me to tell you that Dusky Thrushes are rare beasts on these shores but, for the record, with just 16 birds accepted to the end of 2019, they’re definitely one of the choicer of the rare thrush offerings to make it to Britain. Belated news, this week, came of a bird seen in Fraserburgh (Aberdeenshire) ‘in February’.
That’s all a bit vague, but what’s a fact is that if Dusky Thrushes are rare in a British context, they’re decidedly rarer still in mainland Scotland – to the end of 2019, Scotland had enjoyed four of the British total of 16 birds, all of which had been in Shetland. (And the last of which, seen by two lucky observers within a literal stone’s throw of my kitchen window in December 2018, we don’t speak about…)
This latest report then, were it to be accepted in due course, would constitute a mainland Scottish first…
The week was drawing to a close on 29th and, for a moment at least, it seemed like Dorset birders could be reasonably pleased to have the recent second-winter Laughing Gull back at Lodmoor RSPB. That would, after all, be a good bird on any day.
What then would a Desert Wheatear at the same site at this stage in the year’s proceedings be? An absolute belter, that’s what. Discovered around lunchtime, this first-winter female bird continued to show throughout the afternoon until dusk – the first bird for Dorset in a long time, coming almost a quarter of a century after the county’s last bird, which was, coincidentally, also a March bird, a first-winter male that spent 5th-6th March 1997 at Studland Heath.
March really isn’t a time of year to expect a Desert Wheatear - this week’s bird is only Britain’s seventh March record, after all – but just maybe it’s the time of year to go looking for one in Dorset. In 2046…
Doubtless to the immense relief of all of those who’ve been waiting, the settled Northern Mockingbird notched up another week of being obliging in Exmouth (Devon), remaining present and showing well in its favoured gardens until 29th.
We began the headlines with belated news of a big bird, and it seems neatly fitting to close them with one too, albeit only very slightly belated, and not a bird we were hitherto unaware of…
Good news came from Ireland this week when we learned that the settled Belted Kingfisher, last reported from Dunboy (Co.Cork) on 5th had, on 20th, been seen there again.
What was otherwise a very peaceful week for seabirds was, of course, still a top drawer offering insofar as it once again featured the first-winter Double-crested Cormorant seen near Ballylongford (Co.Kerry) on 25th.
Just one White-billed Diver was reported in recent days, this being off Papa Westray (Orkney) once more on 26th.
A solitary Little Auk was noted from Lewis (Western Isles) on 23rd.
I’d already seen images of one of three Great Shearwater that arrived around Shetland birder and pelagic fisherman John Lowrie Irvine’s vessel, the Zephyr off the west of Ireland on 20th, so it wasn’t such a surprise to learn that one had also been seen from the RV Celtic Explorer as she plied her trade over the Porcupine Bank off Co.Cork on 25th. It may seem an unlikely time of year for them, but these will presumably be non-breeding birds doing what shearwaters do best, which is to say, wandering the ocean. The Celtic Explorer crew also logged a Pomarine Skua on 25th for good measure.
An adult Long-tailed Skua wraps up the seabirds section – present at Belfast International Airport (Co.Antrim) on 24th-25th.
Our faithful cadre of overwintering Glossy Ibises continued to keep up their end of the birding bargain this week, with the highest count, of four birds, coming once more from Fremington Pill (Devon) on 29th.
In Cambridgeshire, the recent trio were again reported from Earith on 27th-29th. Single birds remained anchored at Otmoor RSPB (Oxfordshire) on 23rd-29th, Thrapston GPs (Northamptonshire) on 23rd-29th and, down on the south coast, at Stanpit Marsh (Dorset) on 23rd-29th and once again at Dungeness (Kent) on 28th-29th. A bird was seen in flight over Muskham GPs (Nottinghamshire) in the evening of 29th.
Our weekly paddle on the rarity duckpond begins with The Goose Formerly Known As Canada. The interior Todd’s Canada Goose in Lancashire was again seen at Banks Marsh NNR on 27th, while another possible bird was reported from Aberdeenshire at Rattray Head on 23rd. On North Uist (Western Isles), the two hutchinsii Richardson’s Cackling Geese remained present on 27th.
Just one Black Brant was reported in recent days, seen on North Bull Island (Co.Dublin) on 27th-29th. Possible Grey-bellied Brants continued to be of interest at Lurgangreen (Co.Louth) where, on 25th, four birds were again seen, with three of them remaining to 28th.
There may have been rarer quackers seen lately, but really this week belonged to Ring-necked Ducks, with nearly 40 birds recorded nationwide. It’s been a really strong winter for the species, and they’re not moving on just yet. Multiple birds were, again, seen at several sites – both Llyn Pencarreg (Carmarthenshire) and Dozmary Pool (Cornwall) scored four birds, on 23rd-26th and 23rd-27th respectively; three birds remained on Tiree (Argyll & Bute) on 24th; and duos were noted at any number of localities – at Radley GPs (Oxfordshire) still on 24th-29th; Talley Lakes (Carmarthenshire) on 24th still; and in Ireland at Tacumshin (Co.Wexford) on 24th-29th and Cloonfinnan Lough (Co.Leitrim) on 27th.
Green-winged Teals just crept into double figures for another week, with 12 birds logged in recent days – single birds at Saltholme RSPB (Cleveland) on 23rd-25th still; on Shetland at Sweening on 23rd-25th; on North Ronaldsay (Orkney) on 24th-27th, and at Tain Links (Highland) on 24th; at Blennerville (Co.Kerry) on 24th-29th still; in Dorset at Longham Lakes still on 25th; on 26th at Loch of Kinnordy (Angus) and South Uist (Western Isles) again; on 28th-29th at North Cave Wetlands YWT (East Yorkshire); on 28th at Ardmhor on Barra (Western Isles), with two birds still present there; and on 29th at North Duffield Carrs (North Yorkshire) still.
Two recent drake American Wigeons remained available this week, at Port Clarence (Cleveland) still on 24th and on Larne Lough (Co.Antrim) still on 27th, with an additional bird seen in Shetland at Loch of Spiggie on 27th-29th.
Somerset scored a solid county bird on 29th in the form of a drake Blue-winged Teal at Steart WWT – while Somerset has enjoyed 10 accepted birds to the end of 2019, this is the first example for almost a decade since the last, a drake that spent a little under a week at Ham Wall RSPB in April 2012.
In Ireland, the first-winter female Bufflehead was still to be seen this week on the lake near Nohoval (Co.Cork) on 27th.
Ireland also held onto the two first-winter female King Eiders at St John’s Point (Co.Donegal) on 25th, while the first-winter male bird remained in Shetland’s Vaila Sound on 23rd.
Scotland again offered a duo or rare scoters, with the drake Black Scoter still present off Embo (Highland) on 27th, and the drake White-winged Scoter once more seen from Eastfield (Lothian) on 28th.
Both of the latter sites featured Surf Scoters again this week – the four birds remaining off Embo on 27th, with one still present on 28th; and a drake once more from Eastfield on 28th. Elsewhere, two were noted from Llanddulas (Conwy) on 27th, with one bird still present there on 28th also.
Keeping up our increasingly regular feature of concluding the quackers with an iffy Hooded Merganser, a drake appeared on Hornsea Mere (East Yorkshire) 25th-29th. While afforded the optimistic suffix of ‘elusive and wary’, it also comes with the caveat that a ringed bird was present there during spring last year…
On the subject of wary birds, but in this instance one without any taint of wire-hopping, we conclude with our honorary wildfowl, the Pied-billed Grebe still present in Lancashire at Bantons Lake on 25th-27th.
We returned to our usual recent triumvirate of shorebird species this week…
Starting in Scotland, the first-winter Spotted Sandpiper remained at Culzean Bay (Ayrshire) on 24th-26th.
Heading to Ireland, in Co.Wexford the pair of Long-billed Dowitchers were still present at Tacumshin on 23rd-25th, with one bird again seen there on 27th-29th.
Finally, at Killongford Pools (Co.Waterford), the Lesser Yellowlegs was still to be seen on 24th and, in Devon, the English wintering bird remained at Aveton Gifford until 28th.
Pick of the week’s gulls has to be Cornwall’s latest American Herring Gull, the first-winter individual still present in recent days at Newlyn harbour on 23rd-29th. At the opposite end of the country, a probable second-winter bird was seen frustratingly briefly on North Ronaldsay (Orkney) on 26th.
Last seen in the county on 17th at West Bexington (Dorset), this week the recent second-winter Laughing Gull reappeared where it was first found, at Abbotsbury Swannery, on 24th-25th and then was back at Lodmoor RSPB on 29th. Not the only highlight at Lodmoor that day, it has to be said…
A couple of Bonaparte’s Gulls provided further Nearctic variety – Gloucestershire’s recent first-winter bird was again seen this week, at Frampton Pools on 26th-29th; and, in Ireland, the second-winter bird was again seen in Wexford harbour (Co.Wexford) on 27th.
Ireland once more was the place to be for Ring-billed Gulls, with all but one of the week’s birds recorded there again. The exception to the rule was an adult bird logged at Seton Sands (Lothian) on 26th. Meanwhile, in Ireland, settled adults remained at Blennerville (Co.Kerry) on 24th; Enniskillen (Co.Fermanagh) on 25th-26th still; Carrickfergus (Co.Antrim) still on 25th; and at Blackrock (Co.Louth) again on 27th. A second-winter individual was still present in Co.Limerick at Foynes on 25th.
Numbers of Glaucous Gulls began to fall this week, with around 20 birds logged over the course of the days – a drop of around a third on the numbers of the prior period. Most were singletons, with the exceptions being duos in the Western Isles seen on South Uist on 24th and Lewis on 27th. Iceland Gulls too were seen in somewhat smaller numbers than of late, though around 75 birds noted nationwide was still an appreciable overall haul – of which the five birds still present in Scrabster harbour (Highland) on 26th were the best single site tally.
Finally, adult Kumlien’s Gulls were again seen in Ireland at Omey Island (Co.Galway) on 26th and Blennerville (Co.Kerry) on 27th-28th.
Good news came this week from the Western Isles’ most remote outpost, St Kilda, from where we learned, on 23rd, that Snedge, their resident female Snowy Owl, had toughed out another Atlantic winter and was alive and well still.
While predicting the coming week’s rarities is a dark art that’s more often miss than hit, just occasionally the planets align and a prediction goes from the fervid depths of your own correspondent’s imagination to actual, living reality. And so it was this week, with the arrival of an Alpine Swift at Fife Ness (Fife) on 25th.
More to follow, surely…
Speaking of which, Hoopoes clocked in on St Martin’s (Scilly) and a Pembrokeshire garden near Crymych, both on 29th
In Somerset, the three recent Penduline Tits were seen intermittently this week at Weston Airfield, being logged there on 23rd, and again on 26th and 28th-29th.
Wintering warblers were knocked down the passerine pecking order a little this week by the report of an Iberian Chiffchaff in Hampshire at Manor Farm CP on 25th. It’s a sobering reminder of the passage of time that the first Iberian Chiffchaff for many of us, the lingering bird on Portland (Dorset) in spring 1999, feels like only yesterday. That bird arrived in late April, and that’s typical of many of the 80 accepted British records to the end of 2019 – April and May being the peak months for arrival. March birds are not, however, entirely without precedent – two scraped in during 2017, one found in Kent at Seaton GPs on 30th March, and the other in Somerset at Yate on 25th March. This week’s report would, were it confirmed, equal that earliest ever arrival… and would be only the second accepted record for the county, following Hampshire’s first, a bird found in the more typical time zone of 10th-17th May 2009 at Brockenhurst.
Moving to commoner warbler fare, the male Yellow-browed Warbler remained at Watermead Lake (Buckinghamshire) on 24th-29th, while the West Sussex individual was again seen at Patching sewage works on 25th-29th.
Two of our wintering contingent of Dusky Warblers crept into the current week, being seen once more at Ainsdale NNR (Merseyside) and Nunnery Lakes NR (Norfolk), both on 23rd; the Ainsdale NNR individual again popping up on 26th, and the Nunnery Lakes NR bird again on 29th. Belated news this week related to another bird, present at Cotswold Water Park (Wiltshire) since 17th January, last seen in early March.
In Cheshire, the possible first-winter Eastern Yellow Wagtail remained at Frodsham Marsh on 24th; and the confirmed bird was once more seen at Prestwick Carr (Northumberland) on 28th. A Blue-headed Wagtail brought spring colour to Southease (East Sussex) on 29th.
Just two Great Grey Shrikes were reported this week, these being the recent bird still present at Capel St Mary (Suffolk) on 23rd-27th, and the regular bird at Crabtree Hill (Gloucestershire) on 29th again.
The first-winter male Rose-coloured Starling was still present at Eyemouth (Borders) on 25th-27th and had found his voice, being heard in song there.
Moving on to buntings, in Surrey the first-winter male Rustic Bunting remained at Thursley Common NNR on 23rd-29th, and was again heard in song there. Also trying out his voice was one of the two Little Buntings also present at Thursley Common on 23rd-29th; elsewhere, the recent bird remained in West Sussex at Warnham LNR on 23rd-29th; the wintering individual last reported from Langford Lowfields RSPB (Nottinghamshire way back on 23rd December was again seen there this week on 26th-29th, and heard in song on the latter date too; and a final bird was found on Portland (Dorset) on 28th.
We end this section where we began, with a scarce southern early harbinger of spring – in this instance, a flyover Serin at Hook (Hampshire) on 27th.
The recent Walrus continued to delight Welsh locals this week, being seen near Saundersfoot at Monkstone Point (Pembrokeshire) still on 23rd and then, after going AWOL for a few days, turning up on the lifeboat slip at Tenby on 27th-29th.
Also still present this week were some of the recent Large Tortoiseshells that have emerged from hibernation on Portland (Dorset), with several insects again noted there on 27th. Further insects were seen in recent days further along the south coast, and as far north as Norfolk for good measure – at Rowland’s Wood (East Sussex) on 21st; in Kent at Darland Banks KWT on 23rd and Felderland on 25th; and a locally popular individual in Norfolk at Kelling Heath on 23rd-25th. Keen-eyed observers checking locations in the coming warm days from which Large Tortoiseshells were reported in 2020 may well have their diligence rewarded…
Mixing things up for yet another week overseas, we’ll start for a change in Turkey, where all sorts of stuff was going on in recent days. Or, to be a little more specific, a first, second and third national record of three different species were found near to the Lebanese border at Milleyha on 26th alone – somebody was enjoying a day to remember. The birds in question were Turkey’s first Dunn’s Lark, second Greater Hoopoe-Lark, and third Spotted Sandgrouse - a seriously impressive haul.
It turned out to be quite a week for Western Palearctic national firsts. In Romania, the country’s first documented Armenian Gull was found on 25th at Navodari…
…while in Poland, the country’s first Black-throated Accentor was seen at Miaczyn on 25th-26th. Polish birders continued to be spoilt by the lingering drake Baikal Teal at Popowo Koscielne on 23rd.
Denmark held onto both the drake Stejneger’s Scoter still off Zealand at Rorvig on 23rd, and the female Pine Bunting still present on 23rd also at Rodhus; the Sandhill Crane was seen again, at Hostemark Skov on 27th; and gilded the lily further with a Black-winged Kite near Augustenhof on 28th.
In Holland, a first-winter Ross’s Gull was present at Scheveningen on 25th-26th.
Belgium’s recent meena Western Rufous Turtle Dove remained at Heist on 23rd-28th.
In Germany, the settled White-headed Duck remained at Quecksee on 23rd-26th, and the Pygmy Cormorant was still present at Dubbelausee on 28th.
In France, the lingering Pygmy Cormorant was still to be seen at Marias de Buisson Gros on 26th, while a Sociable Lapwing was present at La Bûchetière on 26th also.
Another Sociable Lapwing was seen in Spain at Laguna del Hoyo still on 24th-28th, while two Lesser Flamingos remained this week at Laguna de Fuente de Piedra on 23rd still.
Last, but by no means least, the Western Palearctic’s fourth Swallow-tailed Kite was still present this week in the Azores on Sao Jorge on 25th.
If ever there was to be a week of two halves, weatherwise, it looks as if the coming one is set to be just that – kicking off with some light, balmy southerlies kissing England, but finishing with some truly snorty northerlies for everyone by the close of the weekend to come.
Given half a chance, the dying days of March and the first week of April can deliver the goods, with double figures of historic Alpine Swifts, and half a dozen Great Spotted Cuckoos and Scops Owls apiece on the books, not to mention rarer fare still – single Crested and Calandra Larks, for example.
The intense northerly flavour of the days to come feels depressingly dominant, though. If we’re to have a really leftfield, longshot punt this week, how’s about a storm-driven Brunnich’s Guillemot…
Jon Dunn
30 March 2021
Many thanks to all this week's contributors for your photos and videos
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