Rarity Round-Up
A Western Palearctic ‘first’ topped a stellar list of extreme rarities in September
The best rare birds seen in the UK during September
Well, September turned out to be a quite spectacular month for rarities. Sorry, non-sports-fans, but like the football, which kicked off this month in some style, the only thing missing was the crowds. Continuing COVID-19 restrictions meant that there couldn’t be the ‘expected’ numbers of birders, twitchers and tickers flocking to see the amazing rarities on offer, particularly on the Scottish islands, where the bulk of the amazing offerings were to be had.
Indeed, let us start with one such island, Tiree, Argyll, where, on 15th, long-time UKBS correspondent John Bowler looked out of his Balephuil sitting room window into his garden, to see a first for the Western Palearctic ( let alone the UK) looking back at him. It was a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, one of the challenging Empidondax genus of notoriously difficult tyrant flycatchers, but, thanks to its yellow belly, not one of the hardest to identify.
Concerns for the island community in the current climate of caution, meant the news was slightly delayed in its wider release, but the first visitors were soon at the site, enjoying ridiculously close and wonderful views.
But, by the 20th, the Tiree community was no longer welcoming incoming birders, so its activities over the last few days to its last date of 23rd, were somewhat obscured.
But, by this time, most birders’ attention had been utterly distracted by the arrival of a Tennessee Warbler on the altogether more accessible Shetland island of Yell, at Burravoe! Though hardly in the same league of rarity as the Tiree flycatcher, having had four previous records (all on Scottish islands), this little beauty was the first in the UK since 1995; and all North American ‘wood warblers’ have hugely charismatic appeal to British birders. Found on 29th, it was still present until 4 October, delighting allcomers who had the time and patience to enjoy this very pretty bird.
Mega heaven
But these two North American beauties were just the tip of a glorious iceberg
dripping with rarities. To start near the beginning, a firstsummer Semipalmated Plover was found on North Ronaldsay, Orkney (an island which had a particularly ‘hot’ autumn), on 7th. Like Tennessee Warbler, this North American Ringed Plover lookalike has only been recorded four times previously, in the UK!
Skipping many a juicy rarity (with the briefest mention of the flock of five Blue-winged Teals appearing on the Outer Hebridean island of Barra), the third week of September saw a Brown Shrike in Norfolk (at Warham Greens; just the second for the county), from 18th, where an Arctic Warbler also turned up to please some of the shrike’s admirers.
This was the week that the Derbyshire Bearded Vulture, complete with truly convex regrown tail, started planning its escape from the Peak District, and was seen over Thornton, Leicestershire (20th).
But it was the next week (the week of the Tennessee Warbler) when things started to get really frantic on the rarity front. A Two-barred Warbler turned up at Budle Bay, Northumberland on 29th (into early October, when another of these very rare and tricky Greenish-alike warblers was found in Fetlar, Shetland).
The now-wandering Bearded Vulture was later seen over Norfolk, initially by BW’s very own James Lowen (of Beyond Birdwatching fame). Meanwhile that other huge rarity, Blackbrowed Albatross was seen of the east coast of England at several sites ( plus another or the same bird seen off Hurlstone Point, Somerset, on 29th).
Finishing touches
Fair Isle, Shetland, pulled in a White’s Thrush (26th) as well as a Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler, 27th ( both of which were harbingers of things to come in early October). Within a couple of days, Hornemann’s Arctic Redpolls were becoming a feature of the Shetland scene.
A Swainson’s Thrush trapped at Birsay, Mainland, Orkney, was retrapped on 30th! But it was a thrush from the east which set birders’ hearts a fluttering and imaginations flying. Siberian Thrush was the bird in question, and a mainland GB bird, no less, at Kilminning, Fife. Yes, it was a first-winter female, but with only a dozen previous UK records, and only two on the British mainland ( both in Norfolk), this was something special. Luckily, it stayed into October, but remained a very elusive bird!
So, there we have it, a host of megas with barely pace to mention the juvenile Sora found on Lundy, Devon on 12th and possible Bermuda Petrel, Whitechinned Petrel and Brown Booby.
Seek these out in the site-by-site guide to the rest of the UK Bird Sightings which follows. And watch this space for summary of an even madder October of insane rarities!