Rare Bird Alert weekly round-up: 19 Dec 2012 - 01 Jan 2013

The week's highlights:
Rose-breasted Grosbeak still on the Isles of Scilly
Buff-bellied Pipit in Berkshire joined by another
Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll departs to pastures new
Black Duck reappears in Highland
Laughing Gull in Aberdeenshire
American Coot still in Galway

The pre-Christmas period saw a return to shocking weather with very strong southeast winds and heavy rain prompting a recurrence of flooding in southwest and southern England and parts of Yorkshire and eastern Scotland. There was then, needless to say, no white Christmas, just an endless procession of Atlantic lows with accompanying strong winds and frontal rain though temperatures remained mild.

Despite the weather, however, and the lure of shopping, there were clearly still some people out in the field, for during the festive period there was an excellent selection of rare birds scattered across the country from Scilly to Aberdeenshire, and plenty more in Ireland too. Indeed many of the long-staying rarities were logged on Christmas Day, a demonstration of commendable enthusiasm and dedication to the cause.

However, Boxing Day onwards is a more traditional birding period, with many desperate to escape from the house and regain some sanity in the open air. Such post-Christmas escapism has often produced a major rarity but this New Year there was nothing new and startling to grab the headlines. There was, nevertheless, much to report.

Headline birds
The period’s undoubted highlight was the continued, albeit intermittent, presence of the first-winter male Rose-breasted Grosbeak on St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly, tucking into its Christmas fare at feeders to at least 29th. Even though elusive, sometimes going missing for several days at a time, it clearly finds St. Mary’s to its liking. Fortunately, this bird has had the good sense to choose Britain’s mildest corner in which to attempt a wintering. This is important for a species whose normal winter range (from southern Mexico to northern Peru and Venezuela) is distinctly more tropical. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks come readily to feeders, however, a habit which this bird clearly understands. Hopefully it will ensure its survival over here.

Due to its location, however, a much greater crowd-pleaser was the Buff-bellied Pipit at Queen Mother Reservoir, Berkshire. Whilst access was available this bird vied with Suffolk’s Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll to be the tamest bird of the year and must be the best-photographed Buff-bellied Pipit ever in Britain (with apologies to anyone who knows better). Almost unbelievably, however, the bird was, on 26th, joined by another individual, only for both then to disappear, with no further sightings by the New Year.

This astonishing double-act was only witnessed for a couple of hours but both birds were well photographed together. The appearance of another poses the obvious question as to how many more might be out there. Nor is this the first time that Buff-bellied Pipits have appeared in multiples. The events in Berkshire are a clear echo of the two birds on the Isles of Scilly in late September and early October 2007 and, more recently, the two at Tyrella, Down in late autumn 2012. As if to remind us of this event, one of these latter birds duly made a reappearance on 27th and was still present on 29th.

Suffolk’s Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll was still present on 19th but a second dose of strong southeasterly winds and rain driving straight into its favoured stretch of beach probably tested its patience a little too much and it promptly disappeared. Where it goes will doubtless remain a mystery but if it chooses a similar ‘random’ piece of open ground the chances of its relocation will be slim. We should, however, be on the lookout for this species again in April. There are already a tiny handful of early to mid spring records of this species and the recently discovered light mid-April passage of hornemanni in Iceland (presumably returning to Greenland) is a further big hint that we should be looking at this time of year too. Readers of this column should remember a lovely picture of one with a Linnet on Islay in April 2012.

New just in time for Christmas was an adult drake Black Duck in the stunning location of Loch Sunart, Highland. It was first seen on 23rd and then again on 24th and 28th but it is in fact a returning bird, first recorded here from 16th to 17th June 2007 and then again in 2011, on 6th to 26th June and 6th October. Such a long-staying habit is of course not unusual in Black Ducks. Previous stayers have included birds on Tresco, Isles of Scilly from 1976 to 1983 and at Aber, Gwynedd from 1979 to 1985.

The other star bird of the Christmas to New Year period was a second-winter Laughing Gull at Rosehearty, Aberdeenshire, found on flooded fields and on the nearby shore on 19th and then missing but appearing again on 22nd, then again on 25th and then more regularly from 27th to 31st, either at Rosehearty or at Fraserburgh. There was, unfortunately, no sign of it on New Year’s Day, however. Surprisingly, this is the first for Aberdeenshire but Rosehearty is of course already famous for an altogether rarer Nearctic bird - the juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher of September 1999.

To complete the parade of the top rarities, the American Coot was still at Murloch, Galway on 27th at least.

There was a steady stream of ‘Euronews’ over the festive period but the most amazing event was the relocation of Estonia’s Red Fox Sparrow at Parainen, southern Finland on 20th where it remained until at least 30th. Other excitements included a female Baikal Teal in Switzerland and, in Sweden, a Cedar Waxwing. Also grabbing the headlines was an adult Slaty-backed Gull at Grodno, Belarus on 26th to 30th at least. Other good birds were in the Netherlands - a Dusky Warbler at Alkmaar and no fewer than three Hume’s Warblers - at Groningen, Den Haag and Katwijk, the latter presumably a returning individual from last winter. A Black-throated Thrush was in Denmark.