United States
£ GBP
The 56th annual report of the British Birds Rarities Committee presents details of rare birds recorded in Britain in 2013.
Among the highlights of 2013, a spring Dusky Thrush was a welcome precursor to an exceptional summer of rarities, during which many younger observers gratefully accepted their first opportunity to connect with birds that had either been absent or at least not lingered in recent years. These included two male Swinhoe’s Storm-petrels on Fair Isle (one of them just about twitchable), a long-staying but wide-ranging Bridled Tern on the northeast coast, a tragically short-lived White-throated Needletail, and a Pacific Swift that eventually settled to feed over a coastal marsh in Suffolk for two days. The astonishing repeat occurrence of an Ascension Frigatebird and an early autumn Red-billed Tropicbird were two headline events where the bird concerned managed to avoid the gaze of most observers, ensuring that these two species maintained their position just beyond the reach of British twitchers.
The rarest birds featured in this report are as follows:
- 1st ‘Eastern Grasshopper Warbler’ Locustella naevia straminea/mongolica, ‘Stejneger’s Stonechat’ Saxicola maurus stejnegeri
- 1st& 2nd Alder Flycatcher Empidonax alnorum
- 1st–4th ‘Eastern Black Redstart’ Phoenicurus ochruros phoenicuroides/rufiventris/xerophilus
- 2nd Ascension Frigatebird Fregata aquila, Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea, Cape May Warbler Setophaga tigrina
- 2nd & 3rd ‘Moltoni’s Subalpine Warbler’ Sylvia cantillans moltonii, ‘Eastern Yellow Wagtail’ Motacilla flava simillima/plexa/tschutschensis/taivana/macronyx
- 3rd Western Orphean Warbler Sylvia hortensis, Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum
- 4th Canada Goose Branta canadensis interior/parvipes, Red-billed Tropicbird Phaethon aethereus, Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus, Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus, Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura
Book reviews and News & comment complete the October issue.
