DANISH Rare Bird News - November 2011

Hereby November 2011 Danish Bird News:

A new Danish record of 42 Pygmy Owls (far from annual in Denmark) were logged during 9th October to 29th November including four in NE Nordjylland and 38 at Sjælland, with most in the NE. No less than four male Desert Wheatears were seen during 1st-22nd including a record two together at Hanstholm, Nordjylland on 5th. The 2nd ever Western Black-eared Wheatear, a 1st cal male, was well twitched atThorsminde Harbor during 1st-8th. The first ever wintering Pied Wheatear was a 1st cal male at Strandby Harbor, Nordjylland during 28th-30th. Denmark's (and Blåvand's) 2nd ever Desert Lesser Whitethroat was a 1st-cal heard and ringed at Grønningen, Vestjylland during 5th-9th. An adult Bonaparte's Gulls in transitional plumage was at Hirtshals Harbor, Nordjylland during 10th-30th moulting into winter plumage (the 4th ever seen in Denmark, all during 1988-2011 in Nordjylland including three at this harbour alone!).

Other November records include four White-billed Divers past Skagen,Nordjylland during 1st-17th, eight Great Northern Divers, five late British Storm-petrels (two inland near the coast) during 27th-30th including two dead, a new Danish record 67 Great White Egrets including a record 13 at Rømødæmningen, Sønderjylland on 12th, two adult Black Brants, three Red-breasted Geese, just one (an adult male) King Eider, a (adult) pair of Surf Scoters at Skagen,Nordjylland during 19th-20th, a 1st winter male Ferruginous Duck new to Langeland, Fyn at Tryggelev Nor during 31st October to 13th November and a hybrid female type Ferruginous Duck x Pochard at Stege, Møn during 11th-14th, nine Red-crested Pochards, two or three juvenile Gyr Falcons, five Grey Phalaropes, a record late Red-necked Phalarope on 17th, four Mediterranian Gulls, three 1st-cal Baltic Gulls, four Yellow-legged Gulls, one 2nd winter Iceland Gull, three migrant Tengmalm's Owls, one Hoopoe, four Crested Larks remaining at the sole breeding site at Hirtshals, Nordjylland on 21st, no less than seven Richard's Pipits, a record late Tree Pipit on 13th, a late Whinchat on 2nd, just onePallas's Warbler, one Nutcracker, a new Danish record 668 Two-barred Crossbills during the autumn's second wave of Russian migrants including a Sjælland record 71 at Gribskov, Nordsjælland on 29th, and four late Serins.

Source: DOFbasen.dk-- DK500Club, ornitolog, Rolf Christensen

Round Britain Tour January 2012

I have one place available on my Round Britain tour of January 2012 - 14-22 January 2012 to be precise - visiting most counties of England as well as visiting Wales and Scotland. A total of 180 species is expected in the week including all of the specialities that can be found in winter including most wildfowl, raptors, Cirl Bunting, Dartford Warbler, Red-billed Chough and the Scottish specialities. Please email Lee at LGREUK400@aol.com if you are interested in joining me (Lee Evans)

DUSKY THRUSH in Sweden for the past week !

And the rarities just keeps on coming!

On Saturday, the first DUSKY THRUSH for Sweden was found some 30 kms NW from Stockholm. Excellent pictures of the bird can be found at http://www.artportalen.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageID=352389

The bird has been on the site for a week, and is still there today (Anders Eriksson)

CHESTNUT-EARED BUNTING in SWEDEN

The past days have seen a remarkarkable influx of eastern species in Sweden with two desert wheatears, one isabelline wheatear, dusky warbler, siberian stonechat, three black redstarts possibly ssp phoenicuroides, a probable siberian thrush etc. But the crown jewel was found today when a CHESTNUT-EARED BUNTING was found on small island in the Stockholm archipelago. The island is a military area with very limited access so it can be a delicate problem for tomorrow. images of the bird can be found at http://www.artportalen.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageID=348703

Anders Eriksson, Stockholm, Sweden

AMERICAN PURPLE GALLINULE on MADEIRA

Just received a phone call from Madeira. An adult AMERICAN PURPLE GALLINULE (Porphyrio martinica) is occassionally showing well in the dense vegetation of Ribeiro Machico (E Madeira), only about 50 m upstream of the coast. The bird was found by a Finnish birdwatcher Heikki Vasamies (per Sami Tuomela)

INDIAN HOUSE CROW - first record for CYPRUS

Berkshire birder Dave Carter photographed this ungainly INDIAN HOUSE CROW at the entrance to the Zafer Burma Monastery, on the Cypriot Karpas Peninsular, on 19 September 2011 - the first record of this ship-assisted vagrant on Cyprus.

BLACK-BELLIED STORM PETREL, WHITE-FACED STORM PETREL, WILSON'S PETRELS and putative SOUTH POLAR SKUAS seen from Lanzarote Pelagic trip, Canary Islands

For full details and photographs, see the links at http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/birdinglanzarote/22696

Two Black-bellied Storm Petrels have thus far been recorded in Britain, with one off North Norfolk in December and another far up the Bristol Channel at Severn Beach in October. More will certainly follow...........

Reservoirbirds.com

For up-to-the-minute Spanish news, bookmark the website (http://www.reservoirbirds.com) This is a very productive website, regularly including information on taxonomy, identification, distribution and detailed directions to the latest rarities to appear.

Rarity news from ICELAND

Iceland's 3rd (and first twitchable) PIED-BILLED GREBE was found in NE Iceland yesterday and today the 4th SOLITARY SANDPIPER (and first since 1995) was also in the NE. More remarkable in my opinion is the first Icelandic breeding record of Bohemian Waxwing - a pair with four fledged young is at Mývatn (per Edward)

First SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER for ICELAND

See images here at http://www.flickr.com/photos/omarrun/with/5956224606/

Bird was discovered yesterday - 19 July

Long-standing BROWN FISH OWL nest-site is blown by holiday-makers

See http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=41512

This pair of Brown Fish Owls have been in residence for some time but only now since photographs have emerged been confirmed as this species......

Presumed escape BLUE GROSBEAK in Norway

This female-type Blue Grosbeak was recently discovered on the small island of Store Faerder in Norway - http://birding.blogg.no/1310747327_pictures_of_the_blue_.html

The bill size appears to suggest that it is one of the South American sedentary races of Blue Grosbeak rendering it a likely escape from captivity

GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL at Varanger, NORWAY

Today, Danish birder and former rarities commitee member, mr. Henrik Haaning Nielsen saw an adult GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL at Kiberg, Varanger,Norway.

Vi ses snart på Verdens Ende på Grenen!

DK500Club ornitolog, Rolf Christensen, Hvidefyrvej 4, DK-9990 Skagen, Danmark

French BOOBY still present but is it moribund?

The adult RED-FOOTED BOOBY is still on Sainte-Croix lake in S France today Monday 4 July. The lake is 80 km NE of Marseille and 90 km NW of Nice, the two closest international airports. This morning the bird was sitting on a pedalo / paddleboat next to the entrance of the Verdon gorges, around 43.801 / 6.247, so probably visible from the bridge over the Verdon on the road D957 between Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and Les Salles-sur-Verdon.

One additional piece of info: the bird is feeding alone BUT is said to be so tame that it was possible to catch it by hand (despite being in good physical condition apparently). What this means, I have no idea. The species is reputedly very tame on the breeding grounds and the last year's Spanish bird was certainly very tame also, so whether this excludes a natural origin or not, we don't know. The bird is unringed but obviously should be searched for PIT tags (which is planned for the near future) (per Pierre Crochet)

RED-FOOTED BOOBY in France again

Following last year's remarkable events, an adult RED-FOOTED BOOBY spent all day yesterday inland at Lac de Saine Croix in the Alpes-de-Hautes provence.

Elsewhere, the immature YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON continues to survive in Funchal Harbour on Madeira

First LESSER SCAUP for Northeast Spain

This morning (22 March) has been found a drake LESSER SCAUP (Aythya affinis) in the Lobregat Delta (near Barcelona), which is the first record for NE Spain and the Mediterranean Spanish coast.

Pictures and details for arrival to the spot with coordinates, since it’s visible from an open access area to the public, are available at
http://www.reservoirbirds.com

Ferran López

Adult summer FRANKLIN'S GULL in EGYPT (Luxor)

See http://notdennis51.WordPress.com/

Danish Vagrants

Today saw the return of the sole Scandinavian White-winged Scoter (stejnegeri), the drake off Blåvands Huk, Esbjerg. Also, the almost never seen, Århus Harbor Glacous-winged Gull is probably still around? These two WP megas are only 150 km. apart (Rolf Skagen)

PALLAS'S ROSEFINCH in (WP) Russia

A male PALLAS'S ROSEFINCH was photographed in WP Russia, in Ulyanovsk (on the Volga) on the 25th and 26th January, feeding on rowan berries. No news since then...Seen by Galina Pilyugina and Andrei Moskvichev (information via Geert Groot Koerkamp)

Another first for the Western Palearctic - YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON at Terceira

This juvenile YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON was photographed by Filipe Correira on Terceira, in the AZORES. It has been present since at least 28 July 2010 and was still being seen as recently as last Sunday 23 January 2011. Full marks to Tony Clarke for notifying me of this amazing record

BRUCE'S GREEN PIGEON in EGYPT

This BRUCE'S GREEN PIGEON was photographed in Luxor, Egypt, by Steven R van der Veen recently - yet another mega to befall this bird-rich country in winter.

AFRICAN MOURNING DOVES - the images - Kris De Rouk

Is this yet another overlooked species in the Western Palearctic?

AFRICAN MOURNING DOVES in extreme southern EGYPT - first record for the WP

On 29th December 2010 I and Dirk Colin were looking for birds in the Village of Abu Simbel (near the Tempel) in southern EGYPT. On one occasion I was attracted to a strange call somewhere in a tree. I shouted to Dirk to come and listen to this call. Suddenly the bird left the tree and we could see that it was in fact a small Collared Dove type perhaps African. We found also a second Dove.

From that moment on they were seen displaying and were regularly calling - with this krawrr call http://www.xeno-canto.org/XCspeciesprofiles.php?species_nr2=5736.00

When we got back home and checked the photographs, we realised that our birds were actually AFRICAN MOURNING DOVES Streptopelia decipiens, ""a first for the Western Palearctic."" !!

Kris De Rouck, Belgium