British Birds Report on Rare Birds in Great Britain in 2014

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Report on Rare Birds in Great Britain in 2014 The 57th annual report of the British Birds Rarities Committee presents details of rare birds recorded in Britain in 2014.

The headline event is the inclusion, from 2012, of the Portland Pale-legged Leaf/Sakhalin Leaf Warbler. This is an extraordinary record, of a species pair from the Russian Far East that was not seriously considered likely to occur in Britain. Also making its first appearance in this report after a green light from BOURC is Thayer’s Gull, a long overdue vagrant from the Canadian High Arctic.

The rarest birds featured in this report are as follows:
1st Pale-legged Leaf Phylloscopus tenellipes/Sakhalin Leaf Warbler borealoides
1st & 2nd ‘Thayer’s Gull’ Larus glaucoides thayeri
2nd White-winged Scoter Melanitta deglandi
3rd Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus, Masked Shrike Lanius nubicus and Eastern Crowned Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus
4th Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris and Moltoni’s Warbler Sylvia subalpina
4th & 5th Fea’s Petrel Pterodroma feae
5th Cretzschmar’s Bunting Emberiza caesia
5th & 6th ‘Eastern Black Redstart’ Phoenicurus ochruros phoenicuroides/rufiventris/xerophilus
6th & 7th Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler Phylloscopus orientalis
7th Pacific Diver Gavia pacifica, ‘Northern Harrier’ Circus cyaneus hudsonius, Audouin’s Gull Larus audouinii and Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea
7th & 8th American Coot Fulica americana
8th Spectacled Warbler Sylvia conspicillata
9th Crag Martin Ptyonoprogne rupestris and Siberian Thrush Geokichla sibirica
10th Slender billed Gull Chroicocephalus genei
10th (& 11th) Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus

Notes: Barnacle Geese feeding on potatoes; Little and Common terns sharing a nest scrape on Blakeney Point, Norfolk

Obituary: Bryan Nelson

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