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 17 August 2018

U.K. Heat Wave Triggers Rare Flamingos to Lay Eggs for the First Time in 15 Years



None of the eggs were fertile, but conservation officials have hatched a plan to encourage the flamingos to breed again

SMITHSONIAN.COM
AUGUST 13, 2018 3:17PM

A scorching summer heat wave has been sending things a bit topsy turvy in the typically-temperate U.K. Water supplies have been depletedtraces of ancient structures are cropping up in parched fields and demand for thirst-quenching beverages contributed to a beer shortage. Emphasizing just how high temperatures have climbed, a nature reserve in Gloucestershire, England announced last week that a hot spell prompted its rare Andean flamingos to lay eggs for the first time in 15 years, as Yonette Joseph of The New York Times reports.

With weather conditions mimicking their warm natural habitat, six Andean flamingos at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) Slimbridge were recently triggered to lay a total of nine eggs. The reserve said in a statement that the rare pink birds, which hail from the Andean plateaus of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, are notoriously “fickle breeders and can go years without nesting successfully.” They usually lay just one egg, and when the climate isn’t favorable, they often do not breed at all. The ones at the WWT haven’t laid any eggs since 2003, when the weather was similarly hot, according to The Telegraph’s Sarah Knapton. The birds’ last successful breeding period was in 1999.


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