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.

Friday 12 July 2019

Rarity finders: Calandra Lark on North Uist


07/07/2019

Premonition is a strange thing. When something remarkable happens, it is all too easy to justify to ourselves afterwards that we predicted it would happen. However, it is a matter of record that the last thing I said to my friend (and keen twitcher) Stu Butchart as I left the BirdLife offices in Cambridge for a two-week holiday to the Outer Hebrides was "I'm going to find you a Bimaculated Lark on North Uist next week."
What is not a matter of record, though, is that, when I said it, I also thought to myself that it would probably 'only' be a Calandra Lark. Without wishing to plug a book that has not yet been published (too late!), I had just been working on the Melanocorypha texts for a Helm Guide to the world's larks that I'm writing with Per Alström, so these big, bulky birds were clearly on my mind.

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