Rarity Round-up
The spring rarity circus has hit the country, with stilts aplenty, a UK first and some great rare birds
The best rare birds seen in the UK and Ireland throughout April
REGULAR READERS MAY remember that last year was firstly a year of ‘firsts’, new birds for the UK, and secondly, a year of rare thrushes. Well, this year, the opening up of the main spring migration season, ie the coming of April, brought a bit of both. The first for the UK was a Red-winged Blackbird, found by Simon Davies of the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory, Orkney, on 29 April (staying to mid-may). It was a brown and streaky (but very handsome) female, quite unlike the black males with a splash of red and yellow on the forewing which form the immediate mental picture on hearing the bird’s name; and so potentially a very bizarre and confusing sight on a Scottish island! Red-winged Blackbird is a member of the icterid family, a New World group, that includes birds such as the New World orioles, grackles, cowbirds, meadowlarks, oropendolas, caciques, and, of course so-called ‘blackbirds’. It is not closely related to our Blackbird (a thrush) nor to our Redwing (also a thrush), although the Orkney bird, with its pale supercilium and streaked underparts looked more like the latter than the former. They are extremely common birds across much of North America, renowned for their wonderful voices featuring on the soundtrack of many American movies and TV programmes, and also for their wintering flocks which may number in the millions! If accepted, Red-winged Blackbird will join Bobolink, Brown-headed Cowbird and Baltimore Oriole among the icterids on the British List. There have been claims of the related species, Yellowheaded Blackbird, in the past, which have been ‘dismissed’ as escapes. And now, on to rare thrushes. Of the 11 accepted records of Hermit Thrush in the UK, all bar two were in October. The first ever UK Hermit Thrush was on Fair Isle on 2 June 1975, and there was one on the same island on 13-16 May 2014. So, the finding of a Hermit Thrush, on the island of Noss, Shetland, by the warden Craig Nisbet on 19 April, was an extremely rare event, both for its timing and its location (being the first Shetland Hermit Thrush away from Fair Isle). Hermit Thrushes are North American birds, one of the Catharus thrushes, which are small (notably smaller than a Starling) highly migratory
thrushes, with the bulk of their breeding populations in Canada. Continuing the thrush theme, a bird which is nearly as rare as a Hermit Thrush, at least in recent years (with fewer than 30 accepted UK records, but only three this millennium), is the Rock Thrush. Unlike Hermit Thrush, though, Rock Thrushes come from this side of the Atlantic and primarily turn up in spring, including five birds which have been here in April. However, Rock Thrushes are still very rare birds, especially males. So, when a lovely male turned up on St Martin’s, Scilly, on 10 April, it was quite a find! This was the first twitchable male in the country since the mid-1990s, so it proved popular in its stay until 15 April. The Rock Thrush was found four days after the very long-staying Blue Rock Thrush (which wintered at Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire) reappeared, presumably on its southward migration, at Beachy Head, East Sussex, for one day only (6 April).
Rare hangers-on
Away from thrushes, the rarest birds of April were all familiar favourites, including the Shetland Killdeer (last reported on 5 April); Pied-billed Grebe at Loch Feorlin, Argyll (into May); Royal Tern on Guernsey (into May); and American Coot on North Uist, Outer Hebrides. While on the ‘mega’ theme, as well as the area of the Outer Hebrides, mention must be made of a bird reported in April but having been found dead on St Kilda on 26 March, an Allen’s Gallinule. This colourful little African gallinule is a partially migratory species which has been described as the only bird with a wholly sub-saharan range in Africa to have occurred in the UK. The previous two accepted records were both of exhausted, moribund birds, on at Portland, Dorset in 2002 and one 100 years earlier on a fishing boat off the Suffolk coast. Even if one ever occurs alive again, it will almost certainly be another sorry tale…
New rare and scarce birds
April always sees a surge in rare and scarce species. In recent years, this has started to include a newly-traditional surge in Black-winged Stilts. This year saw the trend continuing, with birds present at comfortably more than a dozen sites across the country in April, many of them records of multiple individuals. Up to five birds at Slimbridge WWT, Gloucestershire could well have been the five (and later six) which were at March Farmers, Nene Washes, Cambridgeshire on 29 April (a new county record count). With so many multiple occurrences, there will doubtless be breeding attempts at multiple localities, which will, with luck and discretion, remain secret until fledging occurs. This seems to be a species which is starting to establish a foothold as a regular breeding species in the UK. Other classic April movements saw about 20 sites hosting Red-rumped Swallows, mostly in the southern half of the county, but with a few Yorkshire birds. The inland site of Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, had its fourth Red-rumped Swallow in the last eight years. Subalpine Warblers are another ‘expected’ April bird, and there were at least 11 seen during the month. Similarly, there were eight or so Alpine Swifts in UK and Ireland (including six in the UK), although some of the birds reported on different days in the South East, especially Kent, midmonth, could have been the same individuals. Other ‘noteworthy’ rarities during April included a smattering of Iberian Chiffchaffs; a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos, in gardens in Melrose, Borders and Petersfield, Hampshire, and a
first-winter American Herring Gull at Livermere Heath, Suffolk. On the subject of North American gulls, Bonaparte’s Gull had another good month, including individuals at Farmoor Reservoir, Oxfordshire, Blashford Lake HWT, Hampshire, Abberton Reservoir Essex, Longham Lakes, Dorset and Loch of Strathbeg, Aberdeenshire. Savi’s Warblers were singing at Minsmere, Suffolk (from 19th) and Hickling Broad, Norfolk (from 20th). Final mention must go to the spectacular male Pallid Harrier which has taken up territory at Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire. A male was seen flying north at Grimston, East Yorkshire, on 23 April and was perhaps the same bird that was first seen at Dunsop on 26th. This magnificent bird was particularly popular, not least because, come May, it started performing skydancing displays. These may not have impressed any female Hen Harriers which may still hang on in this district, but they certainly impressed the viewing birdwatchers. But that is a story for the next issue’s rarity roundup, which covers the month of May.