Rarity Round-up
The best rare birds seen all around Britain in October
The best rare birds seen in the UK and Ireland during October
COMING UP ROSES A jam-packed month included a potential UK ‘first’ and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak
We had all known for months that Hallowe’en 2019 was going to be a momentous day for the UK. But, with Brexit put off for at least a while, no one had anticipated the shocking events of the night of 31 October. It was then that the bird news services and social media broke the revelation that the large, odd, raggedy pipit which had been residing in a field in Sennen, Cornwall for nine days, had been calling in a manner identical with Paddyfield Pipit!
No, it is not a bird you will find in the Collins Bird Guide, and it is a species that no one would have predicted could have migrated far enough to come anywhere close to the UK. But that is what we apparently had in that soggy field (shared with an American Buff-bellied Pipit, from thousands of miles in the opposite
direction). Poo samples have been collected, and with luck, DNA analysis will reveal the truth by this time next month. Watch this space.
The crazy pipit was the final culmination of an incredible month of rarities in the UK. August was great, September was better, but October was so full of high quality rare birds that we can only scratch the surface here. Indeed, we don’t have time to talk about another
potential first for the UK (when a seemingly over-eager team of birders tried to finish their Shetland break with a claim of a Yellow-streaked Warbler, which consensus concluded to be the similar, but much more expected, Radde’s Warbler). Or the moribund (then dead) Least Bittern in Ireland. Or, the flocks, yes flocks, of White-rumped Sandpipers in the Outer Hebrides. Or a host of other rare birds... Let us, instead, crack on with the main stories. Brace yourself!
There in black and white
The shocks came from the start, with photographs of a Black-and-white Warbler behind a fruit-guarding net on
St Martin’s, Scilly taken on 2nd. Remember this small island, it will feature again, soon… This is one of the most desirable of the American ‘wood warblers’ which occur on this side of the Atlantic, partly because of its rarity,
partly its humbug pattern and partly its endearing nuthatch-like behaviour. The previous accepted record was in September 2011 on St Mary’s Scilly, and this was the first since 1996; so you can understand birders’ frustration that the St Martin’s bird soon vanished.
On the same day as the B/W Warbler, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo appeared on St Mary’s and perhaps the same bird was seen again on 6th, then hung around for an exceptional further 10 days (American cuckoos are notorious for arriving moribund and succumbing very quickly).
But the North American bird par excellence was the Common Nighthawk which was near Ballymena, Co. Antrim. We don’t cover too many birds in Northern Ireland, here, but this is UK Bird Sightings, so why not? And what a glorious bird! It stayed from at least 5th to 17th, delighting all comers. But there was a twist in the tale, as on 19th, the very same bird was photographed over Bushy Park, London!
In the same week, Red-eyed Vireos also came from ‘over the Pond’ in exceptional numbers, as did American Black Terns, with birds in Ireland and a juvenile turning up at Longham Lakes, Dorset.
On 6th, potentially the UK’s fourth ever Rufous-tailed Robin was seen on Fetlar Shetland, but promptly disappeared.
Rose-tinted spectacles
In the second week of October, birders’ attention turned once more to St Martin’s, Scilly, where the 13th saw the discovery of a delightful first-winter male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (present to 15th). St Mary’s had already had a brief Swainson’s Thrush as an indicator that North American birds were coming. And further north, on North Uist, Outer Hebrides, a Myrtle Warbler turned up (at Callanish on 15th).
The Red-eyed Vireo invasion reached the east coast of England with a popular bird at Easington, East Yorkshire.
Meanwhile, nearby, a great Snipe was at Kilnsea (13th). And while we are in the east, there was a Two-barred Greenish Warbler at Orford, Suffolk, on 13th.
Of course, the Northern Isles were far from missing out, and highlights up there included a male Siberian Rubythroat on Fetlar, Shetland, and a couple of Brown Shrikes (on Fair Isle and at Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland), with a third found dead on North Ronaldsay, Orkney.
Lincs Bobolink
The third week of the month had some drama of its own (apart from the mad relocation of the nighthawk)! Firstly, again on the east coast of England, a Bobolink was a Lincolnshire first on 18th at Theddlethorpe Dunes. Then on 22nd photographs were taken of a kestrel with pale claws at Fraisthorpe, East Yorkshire, which was considered to be a juvenile Lesser Kestrel. Confusion reigned as to how many kestrels were being watched in the area and of which species, in the following days, but these birds are more subtle than you expect!
Meanwhile a Chestnut-eared Bunting on St Mary’s Scilly, was all too brief and just gets a passing mention here…
Steller ending
And so we come to the final week or so of October. The potential Paddyfield Pipit has already had a mention, but there were a couple of other exceptional species during this week.
A Tengmalm’s Owl was seen at Forsinard, Highland, if briefly and at night. But the stand out ‘other’ bird was a first-winter Steller’s Eider on Westray, Orkney.
November is bound to be a tad quieter! Isn’t it?