UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert - 25 July 2008
July 25, 2008
This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert for Friday 25 July 2008, issued at 1800 hours and published in association with Rare Bird Alert Pagers (www.rarebirdalert.com) and utilising information gleaned from BirdGuides (www.BirdGuides.co.uk), Regional Birdlines, local email groups and websites and individual observers.
With temperatures remaining high in the south (up to 82 degrees fahrenheit), the switch from NE to SE winds has failed to yield a noticeable arrival of new birds. However, returning waders are still the main event, and Black Terns (both adults and juveniles) have increased. Common Crossbills continue to arrive in numbers, with 100+ now present in Alice Holt Forest (Hants).
In Salop, a HOOPOE is present at Bishop’s Castle, in fields west of the A488 near Ransfords Equestrian Centre, whilst in the English Channel, an adult SABINE’S GULL in breeding plumage was seen from a boat for five minutes south of Seaton (South Devon).
PECTORAL SANDPIPERS remain near Darfield (South Yorks) at Edderthorpe Flash (with 3 Ruff), Gibraltar Point NR Jackson’s Marsh (Lincs) and at Holland Haven NR scrape (Essex) (view scrape from public hide, accessed from car park - £1 per hour), with the adult WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER still on Cley NWT North Scrape (Norfolk). Many adult CURLEW SANDPIPERS are now appearing, with 3 far inland at Broom GP (Beds) for an hour or so this morning, along with a few WOOD SANDPIPERS.
The first-summer drake Hooded Merganser of unknown origin remains at Radipole Lake RSPB (Dorset)
The long-staying male RED-BACKED SHRIKE remains in Sea Palling (Norfolk) whilst in Lancashire, the long-staying RED-BILLED CHOUGH remains at Warton Crags LWT.
The GLOSSY IBIS continues at Marshside Marsh RSPB, 3 miles NE of Stockport (Merseyside), with the rehabilitated COMMON CRANE still at Caerlaverock WWT (Dumfries & Galloway). In Orkney, the summer-plumaged WHITE-BILLED DIVER remains off St Margaret’s Hope pier in Water Sound.
Sadly a Dark-breasted Barn Owl found incubating eggs in Norfolk has been found dead. Whilst carrying out routine ringing of Barn Owl boxes in East Anglia, Colin Shawyer, of the Wildlife Conservation Partnership, caught a remarkably dark female which was already ringed. Amazingly this turned out to be a Dutch ring, and even more surprising was the fact that this bird was incubating three eggs. The bird was originally ringed (with ring 5377733) on 4th June 2007 as one of six chicks in a nest at Bingerden, near Doesburg, Overijssel, Netherlands (a detailed article on this occurrence can be found on the BirdGuides website).
In IRELAND, the first-summer drake KING EIDER remains at Lady’s Island Lake (County Wexford), at the south end at Rostoonstown, whilst a GLOSSY IBIS is still at Ennis (Co. Clare) feeding along the River Fergus in Willow Park.
UK400 Club Rare Bird Alerts
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