WINTER’S WILDLIFE Vintage year to get chirpy about
with
New Year’s Eve is traditionally a sober night for hardcore birdwatchers, who are limbering up for the most exciting day on the calendar.
But as the clocks are striking midnight, those diehards preparing for frenetic January 1 ‘big day’ bird races should take time to look back and toast 2023.
Has there been a more exciting year in the history of birdwatching than the one being seen out tonight, with new birds for Britain, remarkable nesting records and arguably the most unprecedented migration event in history?
Spring was a great time for twitchers. Two species never before recorded in Britain arrived just days apart – one long expected while the other was a total surprise.
The April sighting of a black-winged kite in Montgomeryshire was very much in keeping with the northerly expansion of this southern European raptor in recent decades.
Many birders, however, were left reaching for a Far East bird book to find out more about greyheaded lapwings when one turned up unannounced in Northumberland on May Day. This new arrival breeds no nearer than China and winters in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Summer saw the successful nesting of a pair of hoopoes in Britain for the first time in 27 years while news also came through that glossy ibises are breeding in the UK.
Lucky visitors to the Isles of Scilly on August Bank Holiday Monday, who were hoping to see only the UK’S second red-footed booby, were left ecstatic when it was spotted alongside a brown booby on Bishop Rock Lighthouse.
More excitement came days later when the stormy remnants of Hurricane Lee hit the UK with 60mph winds and rained down dozens of rare North American songbirds.
Over the following week, up to 80 birds representing 18 different species were found along the west coast of Britain, with the epicentre of the rarity fall-out in Pembrokeshire.
Here, lucky birders found the UK’S first Canada warbler along with only the second bay-breasted warbler, and third and fourth magnolia warblers.
Fingers crossed for another bumper year’s birding in 2024!
‘‘
Hurricane Lee rained down dozens of rare birds from North America