Paul Chapman
Well-known member
Has Mandarin got a self-sustaining population in the Western Palearctic outside England?
All the best
All the best
Parts of Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland. Not sure about numbers.Has Mandarin got a self-sustaining population in the Western Palearctic outside England?
All the best
Has Mandarin got a self-sustaining population in the Western Palearctic outside England?
All the best
Ha, I'm trying to pretend that I didn't do that thing a few years back ... plus I didn't go to Kuwait, and don't actually recall twitching anything outside of Cornwall in the UK, apart from a few geese? So it was a pretty feeble attempt really
Hudbrel - anyone using that term should be 'removed' lol.
So it seems they didn't go for the Hudbrel as its nailed on on the Azores..
Nutcracker/Dortmundbirder - many thanks
Status on Azores to 2014 here:-
http://www.birdingazores.com/?page=rarebirddata&id=-1
Are there other records suggesting a different and more regular status?
All the best
What do you think about their determination problem? Could "their" Martin of Kuwait be a Pale Sand Martin Riparia diluta? Would be a first for the WP (not for them but for the whole WP of course).
Photos here:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=253268028440329&id=186249971808802
(hope you can follow the facebook link)
I guess special from a continental viewpoint, but it's by far the most abundant goose wintering in Britain - a fairly hard bird to miss, actually. Somewhere around a third of a million of them.I think it could also be noteworthy to have Pink-footed Goose in the bag (of course not as important as in the "historical" ABA Big Year by Sandy Komito et al.!!). Because apart from Netherlands (where this species can also be amongst the hardest to get in winter) that species is just a passage visitor in many other parts of continental Europe - and I would guess there are better and more important places than these sites to go birding in autumn ...
I am a little bit amused about the theoretical discussion about Hudbrel here. Does anybody know exactly that they didn't try to get it when they were in Cornwall and just weren't successful? There has been no blog post and no further information about that day in facebook yet...
The actual discussion about the strange Sand Martin in Kuwait on the facebook page goes in direction to Pale sand Martin!!! That would be a great ingredient of a WP Big Year to have a first record for the WP "in bag"!!!
I guess special from a continental viewpoint, but it's by far the most abundant goose wintering in Britain - a fairly hard bird to miss, actually. Somewhere around a third of a million of them.
We search through flocks of thousands of them to look for the odd Whitefront or Tundra Bean
Their detailed lists for the 16th include an entry for Marazion Bay from 08:31 to 12:18 which includes the Pacific Diver, towards the end of the list, plus a typical selection of birds which would be present out to sea or on the beach there. Following this there are short visits to Marazion Marsh and Ryan's Field, then en-route stuff. There is no mention of Perranuthnoe where the coves the Whimbrel has been present at are, though as it's only a short distance east of Marazion I guess they could have considered a visit there to be part of the same list. However, I interpreted the three and three quarter hours as spent looking for the diver, as it is generally difficult, I could of course be wrong, I have been (1968 I think it was - no, just kidding).I am a little bit amused about the theoretical discussion about Hudbrel here. Does anybody know exactly that they didn't try to get it when they were in Cornwall and just weren't successful? There has been no blog post and no further information about that day in facebook yet...
Only two mammals? I've not been trying, but have had 8 already this year.Summary
Birds 231
Mammals 2
Jird, as per earlier comments....
Pale Sand Martin
From what I call seen, the bird in the images does look like the plates of PSM shown in eg Rasmussen's Indian Guide, eg indistinct breast band, merging with grubby throat. I recently saw what we took to be true Sand Martins in Gujarat, India rather that anything that looked like the plates of PSM in Rasmussen, despite PSM being (apparently) the more likely species according to that reference.
To add to my own confusion, PSM in China, which must I think be PSM on range, just look like Sand Martins to my eyes.
I haven't done any image searches and don't have much experience of PSM, but rather suspect it is one.
cheers, alan
As per Facebook they will be heading home for a few days and then to Svalbard. I would have loved to see them go to The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark for a couple of days. Blyth's Pipit, Bufflehead, Ivory Gull and Siberian Accentor would have made great additions.