The big stories
Potentially the first wild English Bufflehead for almost a decade was a most surprising discovery during a BTO wetland bird survey.
England’s first Bufflehead in almost a decade, a Eurasian Woodcock influx, early spring migrants and Nearctic visitors to the Mediterranean hit the headlines.
Bufflehead: Warwickshire and Northumberland, January and February 2021
ENGLAND’S first Bufflehead since 2012 was the surprise highlight of a WeBS count at Coton Lakes, Warks, on 27 January. Promptly disappearing after 28th, it reappeared at the same site on 16 February, where it paid close attention to the local Tufted Ducks. Impressively, this is the second county record of Bufflehead, with a touring drake spending three days at Middleton Lakes in June 2004.
Last seen in Warwickshire on 25 February, the bird resurfaced some 300 km away at Northumberland’s Cresswell Pond a day later. Again keeping close company with a small cadre of Tufted Ducks, this county first proved to be a brief one-day visit before the Bufflehead departed for pastures new.
The Northern Irish drake – the country’s first-ever record – did a bunk during the cold snap in early January, and it seems probable that they might be one and the same. This winter has seen a mini-influx of this Nearctic rarity into northern and western Europe – with a further two in Ireland, alongside Norway’s first, providing an ample supporting cast for when it arrives on the desk of the British and Northern Irish rarity committees. ■