2007 HAMPSHIRE BIRD REPORT
February 17, 2009
The standard of this annual bird report just keeps getting better and better and considering this is one of the first to appear for 2007, its editorial team and production consultants need to be congratulated. The quality of the colour reproduction throughout the report is first-rate and liberal and the cover portraits of Farlington Spotted Crake and Calshot Hoopoe are particularly well chosen and extremely pleasing to the reader.
For me, this is a report with only few faults and a testimony to the very hard work and effort that Alan Cox (editor) and Keith Betton, John Clark, Pauline Cox, Jason Crook, Richard Ford, Paul Norris and Russell Wynn (the Editorial Team) have put into this production. Furthermore, it is lavishly illustrated with some beautiful vignettes, kindly provided by Dan Powell, David Thelwell and Rosemary Watts.
It is a top-notch publication of 238 pages length and records the ornithological results of a team of over 300 contributors (listed on pages 7-10). Alan Cox provides the review summary (pages 11-21) which highlights the fact that 257 BOURC species were recorded in the county during 2007 and that GREATER YELLOWLEGS (the only county addition of the year) represented the 365th species to be recorded.
The Systematic List of species is provided on pages 22-177 and boy is this exhaustive and comprehensive. For each species of wildfowl, we are given an easy-on-the-eye chart highlighting all of the WeBs peak counts at each individual location (complete with totals) and we are treated to a detailed summary of breeding numbers and very useful historical data (particularly in the case of the scarce and declining Bewick’s Swans and Eurasian White-fronted Geese). The sole record of an adult Greenland White-fronted Goose at Farlington Marshes on 6 November was an intriguing occurrence, whilst the regularly returning adult Red-breasted Goose was well documented. I was particularly pleased to see that the national cull of Ruddy Ducks had not had any effect on the Hampshire population of this delightful oxyura and that Goosander had experienced another good breeding season in the New Forest.
Common Quail were scarce in 2007, with just 12 calling males in what is traditionally the species’ ‘best’ county, whilst Hampshire received a vagrant Cattle Egret, a peak roost count of 237 Little Egrets, 4 Great White Egrets, an adult Purple Heron, a Black Stork, a Black Kite, Northern Goshawks consolidated their presence in the New Forest with 12 territories now occupied, a Corncrake, a Kentish Plover, an adult American Golden Plover, a Red-necked Phalarope, the regular Gosport adult Ring-billed Gull, an adult Caspian Gull, 2 White-winged Black Terns, 4 Hoopoes, a European Bee-eater, a Red-rumped Swallow, 3 Richard’s Pipits, a Bluethroat, an Aquatic Warbler, a Marsh Warbler, a Barred Warbler, two Western Subalpine Warblers, 2 Rose-coloured Starlings and a ship-assisted White-throated Sparrow. Its most famous rarity of the year however was the Finnish-ringed juvenile White-tailed Sea Eagle that survived to overwinter in the Shipton Bellinger area which is given adequate treatment (with photographs) on page 64.
Most intriguing was a record of a Red-billed Chough in Cholderton Park on 10 April – the first occurrence in the county since April 1941.
I found the Systematic List an absolute delight to read, highly informative, crammed full of important information and extremely interesting, and particularly useful for studying the trends in more frequent species such as Woodlark, Nightjar, Dartford Warbler, Hobby and Wood Warbler.
Pages 178-180 incorporate that highly important ‘escape section’, whilst pages 187-198 incorporate Duncan Bell’s Ringing Report for 2007. There is an excellent survey summary of breeding Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers whilst Jason Crook has published (pages 203-206) a superb and exhaustive account of the first Greater Yellowlegs for the county. David Thelwell provides an enchanting review of the birds of Timsbury village (1966-2006) and there are further interesting papers on Bar-tailed Godwit migration (pages 215-225) and Southampton Water Turnstones (226-233).
This is a brilliant report in every sense of the word and one that took me over five hours to extract important records for my Master Database. No wonder British Birds has consistently voted this report as one of the best bird reports published in Britain. Pure class.
For further information on how to purchase a copy of this magnificent report, simply email alanfjcox@compuserve.com for details. Like most county bird reports these days, it has a limited production run, concentrating on members of the Hampshire Ornithological Society (http://www.hos.org.uk/)
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