Visitors are going down a storm
HOLLYWOOD’S greatest epic creator Cecil B Demille would have been challenged to conjure up such tempestuous scenes of biblical doom.
Hurricane Otto was advancing as an ominous black wall of swirling cloud, hundreds of feet high on the western horizon, gathering pace and power as it headed inexorably across the Atlantic in my direction.
Its flailing arms had already whipped up the seas and poured torrential rains across the Caribbean before roaring towards the tiny islands of Flores and Corvo, the outermost pinnacles of the Azores.
Not only would angry Otto maroon me for a week, its awesome forces also delivered some of the most exhilarating birdwatching of my entire ife.
This autumn marks the tenth anniversary of being stranded on the Azores, an event that came to mind last week when it was revealed the meteorological authorities had run out of names for this year’s hurricanes. The weathermen have worked through the alphabet before the end of September.
Climate change is certainly whipping extra zest into the Atlantic tropical storm season, throwing up increasing numbers of destructive hurricanes over a longer period.
Yet there is a windfall from these awesome natural forces, with their 100mph winds that are cooked up in the tropics, devastate the Americas and then flip back across the Atlantic to peter out over Europe.
Migrating North American birds leaving their breeding grounds in late summer can find themselves caught up in the weather movements and be left deposited on our side of the Atlantic to the delight of twitchers. Compensation for having my flight home grounded for several days in the autumn of 2010 came in the shape of a memorable array of rare American songbirds that took sanctuary in the Azores’ remote volcanic valleys.
A black-and-white warbler, American redstart, grey catbird and rose-breasted grosbeak all found themselves hunkering down on Flores to provide a dazzling surprise when the storm abated.
The most westerly islands of the Azorean archipelago are fewer than 2,000 miles from the easternmost tip of Canada, putting them in prime position to provide sanctuary for wind-blown American birds heading south in autumn.
A paper published in this month’s British Birds journal studies 24 species of landbird as candidates to arrive on our shores from North America after already being recorded on the Azores, Iceland and other parts of Europe in recent times.
Among the possible arrivals are the grandly named dickcissel, the diminutive ruby-crowned kinglet and an array of dazzling warblers, such as the prothonotary, cerulean and black-throated green.
Although factors such as the physiological limits of a bird weighing a few grams as well as the chances of being sent off kilter from a traditional migration route put the chances of reaching the UK into astronomical figures, American songbirds continue to confound.
Only last week, a species never before seen this side of the Atlantic appeared on the Scottish island of Tiree. The yellow-bellied flycatcher has delighted birders from across the country, who have made a handsome contribution to the island community for the privilege.
‘Birds continue to confound’