RARITY PREDICTOR

It is still a bit early in the year to say whether it will be as rarity-packed as 2020. But, we will have our customary guess that some outlandish rarities will turn up this month, including these three, perhaps.

TENGMALM’S OWL

The people of Mainland Shetland are probably getting sick of Tengmalm’s Owls by now (only kidding!) with different individuals appearing in the last couple of winters before this one. Will there be another of these gorgeous little (not Little) owls this year?

KELP GULL

One of the black-backed gulls, these are southern hemisphere birds. But, with records as close as northern France in February to March 2018, surely the first confirmed UK Kelp Gull is coming soon (there was a possible juvenile in February 2018, in Lancashire)…

PIED-BILLED GREBE

It feels a tiny bit like cheating to predict a Pied-billed Grebe, when there have been at least three in the country near the end of 2020. But, who knows, perhaps another will pop up, or the individual which appeared at Chelmarsh Reservoir, Shropshire, late in the year, will reappear somewhere else.