Lock, mock and two previous records
Britain’s third Northern Mockingbird in Devon was a stunning start to the month, though the national lockdown meant there was no major twitch.
Northern Mockingbird: Exmouth, Devon, from January 2021
NEWS broke on the morning of 6 February 2021 of a Northern Mockingbird at Exmouth, Devon, representing potentially just the third British record after two individuals in the 1980s. Photographed by local resident Chris Biddle, he posted the images on Twitter asking if it could possibly be a Northern Mockingbird, a North American species. It was first seen in January and represents the first record anywhere in Britain or the Western Palearctic in more than 30 years – the last was as far back as 1988.
In Britain, occurrences don’t appear to follow a particular pattern, with accepted individuals recorded in both May and August, while the sole other European record occurred in October. The first in Britain was a brief one-day bird at Saltash, Cornwall, on 30 August 1982, Found early morning during a strong northwesterly gale, it was promptly chased off by local Magpies.
The second accepted record – at Horsey Island, Essex, from 17-23 May 1988 – was only 10 km from the port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, and was thought to possibly be ship assisted. Indeed, the nearby area has hosted records of both Lark Sparrow in 1981 and Whitethroated Sparrow in 1992. ■