As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Rare birds blown off course on megastorm as a delight for watchers

For the nation’s army of ultra-keen twitchers, the gale will be long remembered for producing an incredible windfall of lost birds.

An endless supply of unusual birds have touched down across the country, sending rarity-chasers into a state of apoplexy.

Many have spent a small fortune dashing around the British Isles to see species dubbed as “megas” in birdwatching parlance.

October is the month when twitchers congregate on the Isles of Scilly, hoping that autumn winds will send migrating North American birds hurtling their way.

The latest weather has not only delivered trans-Atlantic species but also birds from deepest Siberia. Most probably the star was a Cape May warbler found in the most northerly stand of trees in the British Isles on the island of Unst, Shetland.

Many have spent a small fortune dashing around the British Isles to see species

It was the tiny songbird’s first appearance in Britain since 1977. No sooner were twitchers on the flight home when in came reports of other American rarities making landfall. A mourning dove on the Isle of Rum, a ruby-crowned kinglet on Ireland’s Cape Clear and two myrtle warblers on Lundy Island and County Galway, respectively, sent the birdwatching hotlines into overload.

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