Rare Bird Alert weekly round-up: 22 - 28 August 2012

The week's highlights:
Dapper male Spanish Sparrow makes a brief touch down in Suffolk
Fea’s (type) Petrel cruises past the tip of west Cornwall
Another Irish Barolo Little Shearwater this week, and it's Bridges of Ross that scores
Influx of Azorean (Yellow-legged) Gulls in Ireland, after candidate in London
Decent mix of seabirds and passerines caught up in unsettled Bank Holiday weather...

August Bank Holiday weather generally comes in one of two forms - more scorchio than a Paulo Fisch Fast Show forecast or wet and windy, just how birders like it.

The ABH of 2012 was, for many, far closer to the latter than the former and that was certainly a good thing for those scanning the sea or bashing the bushes through many parts of the country.

A run of showers and then heavier spells of rain was prevalent along the western side of the country with southwesterly winds getting the week up and running. As the long weekend approached, the frontal systems angled themselves to the north bringing both seabirds and passerines to many eastern counties, with the emphasis soon shifting to the south coast….all in all, a nice mixture….

Headline birds
The undoubted star of this week almost passed by with barely a ripple created in the rarity puddle ~ a handsome male Spanish Sparrow bidding a brief “hola” to Landguard Point, in Suffolk, during the morning of 24th.Initially thought to be a Tree Sparrow, the bird was quickly re-identified when the finder’s images were reviewed on the back of his camera. Despite some pretty intensive searching from keen county listers (it will become the first record for Suffolk), the bird had already made its hasta la vista move and was never seen again.

Why barely a ripple? Despite being only the 9th ever Spanish Sparrow to make it to British shores, there have been two records of the species (one earlier this year of course) which have ensured that anyone who has wanted to see a Spanish Sparrow here probably has by now….

Hundreds made the New Year journey to Calshot, in Hampshire, a few months ago to enjoy the obliging male there (he was last seen around March 23rd) while the famous two and a half year resident in Cumbria, at Waterside, saw a procession of admirers head to the far northwest of England during his 884 day stay.

2012 will become the second year that has seen more than one Spanish Sparrow observed in the same 12 months - in 1993 males were seen in Pembrokeshire and on Orkney, the latter the first twitchable bird of the modern era.

Britain’s first Spanish Sparrow was discovered on Lundy in June 1966 (famously appearing two days after Britain’s one and only Rufous-sided Towhee) and was followed by two on Scilly (in 1972 on St. Mary’s and in 1977 on Bryher - the one in the field with an Arctic Redpoll) with the other record (Britain’s seventh) being a one day male in southeast Cornwall in November 2000.

This particular Landguard mega was an even briefer visitor than another famous “it’ll stay for a while won’t it?” cracker for the site - the Crested Lark in October 1996 caught a few folk out by disappearing within just a handful of hours of discovery and taunted the dippers by reappearing (very briefly) a week later…..

The 24th was something of a red-letter day too for seawatchers in Cornwall ~ birders at Porthgwarra scoring a fly-by Fea’s (type) Petrel as teatime beckoned. All accepted Cornish records of this still incredibly exciting seabird have been seen from Porthgwarra and Gwennap Head, five records in all, all listed as Fea’s/Zino’s Petrels.

The first for the county was seen across three days in the middle of August 1989 and further records followed in 1996, 1999, 2008 and 2009 - the latter bird assumed to have been doing sizeable feeding passes of the headland, accepted for dates between August 30th – September 2nd.

Last week, we went in to some depth with regard to the number of accepted Fea’s/Zino’s in Britain and, in particular, Ireland, with both Cape Clear and Bridges of Ross coming out bathed in a heady Pterodroma glow. Cork also gained a thumbs up following on from the Barolo Little Shearwater seen from Galley Head last week - this week, given the weather, it seemed almost inevitably that another would be seen and the Bank Holiday Monday afternoon of 27th produced the goods for seawatchers on the coast of Clare at - where else - Bridges of Ross.

It was fitting that Niall Keogh, who provided us with some wonderfully evocative shots of this supreme seawatching spot was amongst those on hand to enjoy this still ultra-tough-to-see seabird - to the end of 2010 there were still just 20 accepted Irish records of Little Shearwater, the most recent being off Bridges on August 24th 2008 - the seventh IRBC approved for the site since the first in 1991. Since then, Little Shearwaters have been reported from Bridges of Ross in both August 2009 and August 2011.

Following on from late news of a potential near third-winter Azorean (Yellow-legged) Gull (L.(m). atlantis) on the vast tip at Rainham (London) on 21st, no fewer than three candidates were found in County Cork on 26th.

Particularly striking, and utterly convincing, were the near-adult at Rosscarbery and the second or third-winter type at Ring, Clonakilty (below), with the final bird, listed only as a possible, seen near Ballycotton.

More people have encountered (presumed) Azorean Gulls than Baltic Gulls, thanks to some obliging (and outstanding) contenders over the past five or six years. In 2006, a few Canada Warbler twitchers headed to Kerry to admire the impressive adult at Carrahane Strand while in 2008, as folk headed to Scilly, the second-winter Azorean Gull in the fields around Sennen was collected (if not admired) by many. The following year, the long-staying adult at Appleford Tip in Oxfordshire drew steady crowds for a couple of months - all of them well documented and all looking like the real deal.

As has been discussed here in the last couple of weeks, the Atlantic weather systems of late have been coming from some exciting areas, not least slap-bang in the middle of Azorean Gull range. With the evidence presented so far, it looks as though we’re in for a potentially remarkable arrival of this species-in-waiting…… the rest of the round-up is online, simply click the link below

Update on our latest development, the Android version of the RBA news App "bird alert PRO".
This great addition to our news service is now in final testing and everything is looking good for release in September, thus enabling almost all "smartphone" users to enjoy what our iPhone users have been raving about. With it you will "See more.."
Anyone interested in getting two month's free should email admin@rarebirdalert.co.uk with the subject "Android offer".


Much more in the full online round-up
Plus lots of great photos and more...