New flights of fancy Exotic bird species are winging their way to Mull
As the Scottish climate shifts, stunned naturalists have spotted some extremely rare avian invaders that are making Argyll their home
WITH its varied landscape of beaches, hills, lochs, marshes and sandy beaches, the island of Mull is a wildlife haven and home to some of the most delightful and impressive birds.
For those with a keen eye, golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, peregrine falcons and sparrowhawks can be seen soaring above the hundreds of miles of rugged coastline. By waters’ edges are nesting kittiwakes, fulmars and black guillemot, while countless ducks, geese, and waders are a common sight.
As of this week, Mull’s impressive list of bird species has a new, rare addition, one that, thanks to our changing climate, may well be a portent of what lies ahead.
Walking tour guide Theo de Clermont was beside Loch a’Chumhainn near the picturesque village of Dervaig when, low over the estuary, erupted a flurry of activity among the gulls and waders.
Black kites, which use their five feet wingspans to effortlessly glide as they scan for rodents, birds and fish which they grab using their long talons, are widely found in places as far flung as Australia, India and southern Europe. In recent years, numbers in France have crept up.
But the Isle of Mull on a Monday evening in May is far from where one might be expected to turn up.
“It was a bit of a bucket-list moment to see it,” recalls de Clermont, who works as a naturalist with NatureScot and has only been on the island for six weeks.
“It was probably blown up on southerly winds all the way up here, but it could be a sign of things to come.”
The sighting is a first for the Isle of Mull and only the fifth time a black kite – more dark brown in colour than the name suggests – has been spotted in Argyll. Within days came another black kite sighting, this time in Unst, Shetland.
Warm welcome
ACCORDING to research from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), black kites are one of more than a dozen birds expected to colonise the UK as a result of warming temperatures.
And while the Mull bird is regarded as one-off stray blown to the island by accident, it’s only a matter of time, say experts, before breeding pairs become a more common sight at spots around the UK.
Paul Walton from bird charity RSPB said: “Black kites were an extreme rarity in the UK a few decades ago and have become more regular visitors over the past 10 years, with around 20-30 recorded annually.
“The Mull bird is part of that trend – an exciting find for birdwatchers.
“Colonisation as a breeding species is possible in coming years,” he adds. “The breeding ranges of species do change over time – at the moment more often shrinking than expanding – but some range expansions are being recorded and the black kite is one.”
As well as black kites, a range of other winged species are expected to become a familiar sight temperature shifts.
Colourful hoopoes and bee-eaters found in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, are predicted to eventually become well established, while the glossy ibis, an exotic bird normally found in the Mediterranean, is expected to start breeding in the UK this year due to the warming climate.
Distant relatives of storks and herons, they have been encouraged to migrate north due to extremely dry conditions in the south of Spain and Portugal. There have been random sightings in recent years in South Uist, Eigg, and Mersehead nature reserve near Dalbeattie.
In the past decade more than 55 landbased and marine species have moved to parts of Britain outside their natural range, including purple herons which are now established in Kent, and European bee-eaters, which first bred in the UK in
2014. Night herona, little bitterns, cattle egrets and great white egrets have also made the UK their home, raising the stakes that they will eventually arrive in Scotland.
According to the BTO, black kites, short-toed treecreepers – a small speckled bird with a long curved beak being spotted in the south of England – and Bonelli’s warblers, a petite woodland bird which has stretched into the north of France, are also predicted to be on the way. “The nuthatch which was virtually unknown in Scotland 30 years ago is now a very regular breeder and still spreading north,” added Mr Walton.
“We have little egrets colonising England and we can expect then eventually to establish in Scotland, perhaps alongside other birds such as avocet great white egrets.”
It was a bit of a bucket list moment to see it. It was probably blown up on southerly winds