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LOCAL MEGA – ROSS’S GULL in Lancashire

An adult ROSS’S GULL is present at Marton Mere LNR, just east of Blackpool (Lancs), showing well from the Fylde Bird Hide. The bird was first seen shortly after 12.30 and is still present at 2.20pm.

ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS

From the M55 junction 4 follow diversion then signs to Blackpool Zoo. Once here, use the car park and walk east to the mere; DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH THE CARAVAN PARK.

LGRE Tours in Year 2008

I have just returned from my 24th tour of Israel and was very pleased to see an excellent turn-out of up to 220 birders to the annual Spring Bird Festival in Eilat, including 80 birders from Britain and several from Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Finland and from Sweden. It was great to see the return of some old stalwarts, in particular Dick Forsman, Per Alstrom and David Cottridge.

Although migration these days is nothing like that of previous decades, it was still extremely enjoyable, with northerly winds on some days providing us with excellent opportunities for raptor watching, with morning tallies totalling some 18,000 Steppe Buzzards, 37 Steppe Eagles, 250 Black Kites and 9 Egyptian Vultures, with a scattering of Osprey, Lesser Spotted Eagles, Booted Eagles and Pallid Harriers.

The highlights included the overwintering first-year ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARD (my first in the Western Palearctic and 829th species overall), 3 superb CASPIAN PLOVERS and a fabulous BLACK BUSH ROBIN, whilst of the 203 species we recorded during the week, standout birds included 3 GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOOS, huge migrating flocks of both BLACK and White Storks, 2 SOMBRE TITS, 3 SYRIAN SERINS, good numbers of migrating LESSER SPOTTED EAGLES in the North, Wild Mongeese, Water Buffaloes, White-tailed Sea Eagles, EASTERN IMPERIAL EAGLE, 15 PYGMY CORMORANTS, 7 BLACK FRANCOLINS and 600+ Common Cranes at the Hula, large flocks of migrating European Bee-eaters and 20+ LITTLE GREEN BEE-EATERS, 6 FAN-TAILED RAVENS, STRIATED HOUSE BUNTINGS and several SAND PARTRIDGES at En Gedi, some excellent passage PALLID HARRIERS, up to 8 GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULLS, Sooty Shearwater, Greater Sand Plover, Striated Heron, Western Reef Egret, Little Gull and WHITE-EYED GULLS on North Beach, huge flocks of northbound wildfowl, especially Garganey, 6 OLIVE-BACKED PIPITS amongst large numbers of Tree and Red-throated Pipits, many Common Quail, male NAMAQUA DOVE, male RUPPELL’S WARBLER, 13 BIMACULATED LARKS, WHITE-TAILED PLOVER, male HOODED WHEATEAR, 17 TEMMINCK’S HORNED LARKS, 5 LICHTENSTEIN’S SANDGROUSE, Richard’s Pipit, 3-4 ARABIAN WARBLERS, WHITE-CHEEKED TERN, 3 EASTERN MOURNING WHEATEARS, large numbers of CREAM-COLOURED COURSERS, STREAKED SCRUB WARBLER and a displaying male McQUEEN’S BUSTARD at Nizzana and a singing male LONG-BILLED PIPIT near Bet Shean.

Although forthcoming trips to Corsica, Kuwait, Italy and Eastern Turkey are now completely full, I do have limited availability on trips to Spain, Madeira, Majorca, Sicily, Cyprus, Scandinavia, Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauretania. Email me for information

Rare Bird Alert Email group

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Just a reminder to say that applicants to the above email group will NOT be accepted if they do not supply information that allows me to identify them. You must mark clearly on the application your real name or a recognisable email address. Several applicants are currently pended because they have not supplied the security information I require. This is a closed group of a sensitive nature and as such all members have to be honorous in their intentions and be a trusted member of the birding community. All fully paid-up members of the UK400 Club Online Website are automatically eligible for membership, as well as any other regular contributors to the website, such as photographers, regular bird news providers and such like. It is a Bird Information ONLY email group and is not a debating forum such as is this UK400 Club general email group.

Spring Migrants

A few more migrants have been arriving on the UK south coast this morning, with the first small wave of NORTHERN WHEATEARS, several WHITE WAGTAILS, BLACK REDSTARTS and a few HOUSE MARTINS. More SAND MARTINS are now penetrating inland but incoming COMMON CHIFFCHAFFS are still slow in arriving in numbers. BARN SWALLOWS are also very scarce.Many immature GLAUCOUS and ICELAND GULLS are migrating north, along with a major first thrust of intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and 1 or 2 GARGANEYS are scattered about.

The odd LITTLE RINGED PLOVER and numerous Eurasian Curlews, Ringed Plovers, Common Redshanks and Oystercatchers are now arriving at breeding sites inland, and large flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing are returning north. SISKIN and BRAMBLING numbers still remain high and many gardens still have their LESSER EDPOLLS of many weeks at the Nyger feeders.

Black-crowned Night Herons

The only reliable way of separating North American (hoactlii) and European Black-crowned Night Herons is on the bare part coloration in full breeding plumage (from mid April through late May). Hoactlii has much duller bare parts. Rather off-pink in colour (often described as ‘salmon-pink’, whilst nominate nycticorax has strikingly reddish legs (and lores) during the courtship period.

he differences in the pale forehead width and supercilium are highly variable between individuals and can not be used as a reliable feature for separation.

At Edinburgh Zoo in Lothian, there was a free-flying breeding colony of BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS (of the North America hoactli form) from 1951 until 2004, peaking at around 64 birds in 1982. The last known surviving bird from that
colony was a multi-coloured ringed bird still present in June 2007. However, during 2000-2004, a number of young fledged from nests and were not ringed. It is possible that some of these birds still survive in the UK.

I am indebted to Stephen Welch and Ian Andrews for much valuable information and to other North American correspondents who very kindly responded to my information regarding racial identification.

Whilst there is every possibility that the current Lancashire adult may be of the form hoactli (and therefore likely to be a surviving Edinburgh Zoo bird), this cannot be proven at present. This individual does have very pale pink bare part colouration.

Tenerife Trip Report

Although primarily arranged with the vagrant Tricolored Heron in mind, this was my 4th tour of the Canary islands and my second concentrating solely on Tenerife. It was my first ever winter trip however. Tenerife holds five Canarian endemics – Bolle;’s Pigeon, Laurel Pigeon, Tenerife Goldcrest, Tenerife Robin and Blue Chaffinch; two Macaronesian endemics – Berthelot’s Pipit and Atlantic Canary; and one species which is largely confined to Macaronesia – Plain Swift.

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Rare Bird Alert issue 6

To Read The Full Issue Right Click and Save As to Download

Issue 6 - 2008

This is the British Birding Association Rare Bird Alert for Monday 10th March 2008, issued at 1700 hours and published in association with Rare Bird Alert Pagers (www.rarebirdalert.com) and utilising additional information gleaned from Birdguides, the Regional Birdline network, local email groups and websites and individual observers. All Irish rare bird news is by kind courtesy of John Coveney and BINS

One of the most intense storms of the winter arrived over Southern Britain overnight,
bringing heavy rain and gale force winds (reaching 95 mph on the Isle of Wight, 82 mph
on the Mumbles, Swansea and 77 mph on Scilly). Coinciding with high spring tides, the
south coast took some battering, particularly Devon and Cornwall. Despite its potency,
few birds of interest arrived in its wake, with seawatching in Dorset and South Devon
yielding little more than a handful of Balearic and Manx Shearwaters, Pomarine Skuas
and Sandwich Terns.

Download the full report Issue 6 - 2008

Latest Updates

Download the latest UK YEAR LISTS here, available to both non members and members alike.

Lee’s diary notes covering February 9th – 12th available in the members area.

UK county lists updated to March 6th 2008, please log in to download.

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