Rarity Round-up
There were some fine rare birds to liven up the darkening days of November in the UK
The best rare birds seen in the UK and Ireland during November
In October, arguably the biggest story was the discovery of a Whiterumped Swift in East Yorkshire, which after its surely inevitable acceptance, will be a new bird for the British List. In November, swifts once more hogged the headlines. The biggest excitement was about another small, southern swift with a white rump, in north-east England: a Little Swift at Hartlepool Headland, Co Durham. Things swift-related were already pretty much on fire, by the middle of the second week of the month, with Pallid Swifts popping up at more than 30 sites in the UK, particularly along the east coast of England. There were even multiple records at some sites in Yorkshire and Suffolk. A Pallid Swift was at Hartlepool Headland (10th), being enjoyed as such, when the Little Swift appeared, feeding near it: two rare swifts
in one field of view, both showing exceptionally well; what a sight! The Little Swift was seen going to roost, sheltering on the front of nearby house, and was watched leaving its resting spot in the morning. Luckily, for those who turned up to twitch it, it performed for a good few hours on 12th before it disappeared for good. It was the first ‘twitchable’ Little
Swift since one at New Brighton, Wirral, for a week in June 2012. There have only been about 30 Little Swifts ever recorded in the UK (with about half of them seen during this millennium), so the excitement generated by the Hartlepool Headland bird was understandable.
Odd owl
Weirdest rare bird story of the month belonged to a bird which has technically occurred more times in the UK than Little Swift, but with most of these records being in the 19th Century! The story concerned a Tengmalm’s Owl, and was based around a photograph of the bird in question, perched on a loo seat of a non-birder (some time around 2 November), which was copiously covered in what was presumably owl poop. The owl was apparently residing in the aforementioned outhouse, somewhere
in Orkney (the traditional ‘hotpot’ for this immensely rare owl, with six of the eight UK records of the bird since 1950). There followed inevitable jokes about Tengmalm’s Owls appearing in northern bogs, keeping it suppressed so as not to flush the bird, and so on... But, whether the bird was genuine or not will only be properly resolved at a later date. Suffice to say that there are many birders who are still smarting over the suppressed Tengmalm’s Owl present at Spurn YWT, East Yorkshire during March 1983 (and possibly present since January that year).
Best of the rest
Back in the ‘real world’ of rare birds, an exceptionally showy first-winter male Pied Wheatear (6th to 9th) at Meols, was the first ever occurrence of the species in Cheshire. Other Pied Wheatears were on Foula, Shetland (4th; a first-winter female) and a female at Trevose Head, Cornwall (11th to 16th; only the third Cornish record). Meanwhile, DNA analysis confirmed what had been suspected, that the presumed Stejneger’s Stonechat from Salthouse, Norfolk, was indeed of that species. And while we are still in the realm of all things ‘chatty’, what appeared to be an Eastern Black Redstart was present at Maidens, Ayrshire, on 13th to 17th (though initially reported as being a standard Black Redstart). In the South East, perhaps the stand-out story of the month was the finding of a near full summer plumaged White-billed Diver, off the north-east coast of Kent. It was initially discovered off Ramsgate (2nd), moving the next day to Foreness Pont, then moving to the north-facing Margate coast (being last seen on 9th). Other White-billed Divers were seen off Devon, Cornwall and Shetland, and one was found dead at Thorpeness, Suffolk.
Other rare birds
A Dusky Thrush was seen briefly at Easington, East Yorkshire, on 4th. The second-winter drake King Eider remained off the north Norfolk coast at Sheringham until at least the 23rd, while the female at Ynyslas, Ceredigion remained throughout. There was yet another (probable) Eastern Yellow Wagtail on St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly, while there were further ‘probables’ at a couple of sites on Mainland, Shetland (South Nesting and West Voe of Sumburgh). A lovely second-winter Franklin’s Gull was seen mostly in the car park at Radipole Lake RSPB, Dorset (12th to 14th). In the same county, the Cattle Egret roost at Abbotsbury had about 40 birds in it. There was a small influx of Hoopoes, but more dramatic was the influx of Rough-legged Buzzards into the country, with birds (mostly juveniles) reported at more than 70 sites during the month. Surely, many of these will be appearing on many a New Year’s Day list?