Rare sighting of Britain's largest bird of prey in New Forest

30th January

Rare sighting of White-Tailed Eagle in the New Forest

By Bradley Halcrow Junior Reporter

BRITAIN' largest bird of prey has been spotted in the Hampshire countryside.

Birdwatchers have seen  a young white-tailed eagle, a species which has made an appearance only twice in the area in the past decade, in the New Forest.

According to the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, the UK’s largest bird of prey was last seen in the county in 2011 and 2008 - and before that there was a 60-year gap.

Also known as a sea eagle it was sighted at the trust’s reserve at Blashford Lakes last month, and again by the Shell Station on the A31 at Picket Post, which overlooks Roe Inclosure.

A Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust spokesperson said: “White-tailed eagles are a rare sighting in Hampshire, with only two previous sightings in the past 11 years.

“They’re an impressive sight to see, being the UK’s largest bird of prey with a wingspan of up to 2.2m (over 7 feet) – but are usually only found in Scotland where 40 pairs breed.

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Rare bird appears in Cape Breton

Andrew Rankin (arankin@herald.ca) 

Published: May 23 at 11:50 p.m.

MARBLE MOUNTAIN, N.S. — David Johnston had to see the painted bunting, widely considered the most beautiful bird in North America, for himself.

With camera in tow, the birder of 50 years wasted no time hopping in his car and hightailing it 40 kilometres away to Cape Breton’s Marble Mountain to see the tiny rainbow-coloured creature.

There it was, as promised, hanging out at a friend’s bird feeder. The trek from his Port Hawkesbury home on Tuesday had paid off.

“Just beautiful,” said Johnston. “First one I’ve seen. A lifer for me.”

It was a rare sighting, indeed.

The tropical bird, also named Nonpareil for their supposedly unrivalled beauty, was first sighted in Nova Scotia in the mid-1960s and has only been spotted about 60 times since, said Ian McLaren, an emeritus professor of biology at Dalhousie University and a Nova Scotia Bird Society board member.

A few of them are occasionally flung to our shores while en route to their breeding grounds in the southeastern United States.

“They set out from the tropics, subtropics, sometimes across the Gulf, and keep on going beyond their summer range,” said McLaren. “Often they get driven off the southeastern Atlantic coast and caught up by the frequent southwesterly airflow that brings us windy and often wet weather here in spring.”

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Rare bird sighted for second time

Jonathan Bell

Published Dec 1, 2017 at 8:00 am (Updated Dec 1, 2017 at 7:36 am)

An unusual feathered visitor has been spotted for only the second time in Bermuda.

Birdwatcher Ian Fisher snapped a picture of a western tanager, first sighted in 2006 by David Wingate, in Ferry Point Park, the same location as the American songbird was spotted 11 years ago.

The birds range through the west coast of North America and spend their winters in Central America.

Andrew Dobson, president of the Bermuda Audubon Society, said: “It should have been heading south, but some birds obviously get disorientated. “This one kept going and luckily found Bermuda.”

The sighting by Mr Fisher, with bird watcher Paul Watson, was reported in late October.

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Rare bird seen in Malta for the first time

Brown Shrike spotted in the south by BirdLife

The rare Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) was spotted in Malta yesterday for the first time ever.

BirdLife Malta ornithologists confirmed the bird's species this morning.

The bird was seen in the south of Malta by photographer Benny Scerri, and although it is the first record for Malta, in the recent past it has been seen sporadically in Europe - although it is still considered as a rarity.

The bird breeds in temperate Asia and at this time of the year is normally on it way to its winter quarters in tropical Asia.

The Brown Shrike is a bird in the shrike (Kaċċamendula in Maltese) family that is found mainly in Asia.

The genus name Lanius is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits. The specific cristatus is Latin for "crested", used in a broader sense than in English. The common English name "shrike" is from Old English scríc, "shriek", referring to its shrill call.

Like most other shrikes, the Brown Shrike has a distinctive black "bandit-mask" through the eye and is found mainly in open scrub habitats, where it perches on the tops of thorny bushes in search of prey.

More scientific details here: http://bit.ly/2gZdHOx.

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Rare bird sighting in Espanola

Rocco Frangione, staff June 12, 2017

The Osprey are back in Espanola.  The birds disappeared from the area in 1983 when the former E. B. Eddy had a disastrous chemical spill in the Spanish River.  Several groups spent the years following the spill rehabilitating the Spanish River which has seen the return of many species.  The Osprey also came back but their sightings are rare.  A female Osprey caring for its chicks on McCulloch Drive was photographed and the area in question is drawing a lot of attention.  The bird is a protected species.  In the McCulloch Drive instance, the Osprey is using a wood flat as a nest.

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Rare Shrike found in Anglesey and Cattle Egrets nest on the Dee Estuary

30th May 2017

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week and lists 20 birding events in the coming days

Of the dozen or so birds that we’ve lost as breeding species in Wales in the last century, the Red-backed Shrike is one of the most striking.

It is suspected that a changing climate combined with new agricultural practices to end its presence here.

Regular nesting ceased in Wales in the 1950s, though a couple of nests in the 1980s gave false hope of a return.

A few Red-backed Shrikes turn up as passing migrants, brought on southeasterly winds, as we experienced last week.

A male at Anglesey’s Penrhos Coastal Park was a Bank Holiday weekend surprise, with some birders lucky to hear it singing, as well as getting views of this smart bird.

While some birds have been lost, others have arrived; the RSPB revealed last week that Cattle Egrets are nesting on the Dee Estuary , just a few hundred metres beyond the Welsh border.

This follows an unprecedented influx of the Mediterranean heron into western Britain. Burton Mere Wetlands is only the third location where Cattle Egrets have nested in Britain.

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Rare sighting of brahminy kite thrills birders

TNN | Updated: Feb 20, 2017, 12.00 AM IST

Chennai: Advocate M Santhanaraman and conservationist T Murugavel stared in disbelief when they spotted a brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) with twigs in its beak flying near the TVS showroom on Anna Salai on Friday. Two days later, they returned there to confirm that their eyes hadn't been playing tricks on them. It was no illusion - the bird was there at the same spot.

Santhanaraman said the bird was flying from east to west towards Egmore. "Probably, the restoration of Chetpet lake may have attracted the bird to come back to the city," he said.

Director, Institute of Bird Studies, Rishi Valley School V Santharam noted that brahminy kites used to be a common sight in the city. "We, the members of the Madras Naturalists' Society, have seen the bird in Adyar estuary, near Theosophical Society and many other places in south Chennai in the 1980s. But, in the last 20 years, there have been very few brahminy kite sightings in the city," he said. 

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Marsh Sandpiper sighted 10 years after it was tagged

J Arockiaraj | TNN | Apr 7, 2016, 07.12 PM IST

MADURAI: Spotting a bird almost a decade after it was tagged has thrilled bird watchers in the region. A metal ring was placed around the marsh sandpiper by ornithologists in September 2006; the bird survived and was spotted again in 2016. Recently, the Travancore Nature History Society in Thiruvananthapuram and the Tribal Foundation in Kanyakumari took out a bird counting exercise in the Manakudy Bird Reserve and they spotted this marsh sandpiper at Puthalam salt pan. The team alerted ornithologists with a photo of the bird. It was revealed that the Bombay Natural History Society had done the ringing. S Balachandran of BNHS and PO Nameer of the Centre for Wildlife Studies worked on the subject and confirmed that the sandpiper had been ringed in September 2006 at the Kovalam Salt Pan, part of Manakudy Bird Reserve, said S S Davidson of the Tribal Foundation.

Kalesh S of TNHS said bird ringing was essential to learn about birds' lifespan, their movement and breeding pattern, vital for bird conservation. Ringing is done by placing a lightweight, uniquely numbered metal ring around a bird's leg, providing a reliable and harmless method of identifying birds. It helps in re-sighting the birds that provide data on migratory patterns.

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Rare Tickell’s Thrush bird sighted, first in the region

 Manka Behl | Apr 10, 2016, 04.43 AM IST

Nagpur: In a rare sighting, a Tickell's Thrush bird was recently sighted in Yavatmal. This is believed to be the first sighting of the bird in the district.

The bird was spotted by avid birdwatcher Dhananjay Bhamburkar in the Pohara-Malkhed reserve forest in Amravati district. Young naturalist and founder of Disha Foundation, Yadav Tarte confirmed that the sighting was quite rare for the region. "The bird is common in the open forests of the Himalayas and North-East. It migrates seasonally into peninsular India. In Maharashtra, it has been previously sighted in Konkan and Jalgaon regions," said Tarte.

He added that the birds are omnivorous and mostly feed one earthworms and insects. "Its size is similar to that of Common Myna. While males of this specie have bluish upper parts and a white belly, females have brown upper parts. "Its sighting in the Deccan plateau at this time of the year is very surprising. This signifies the healthy biodiversity of our region," said Tarte.

TOI had earlier reported how Amravati has become a preferred habitat for many migratory birds. However, considering the threats to bird habitats that have come to fore during various bird population census, experts have been pushing for more research about the bird's habitat, hurdles, food habits, migration patterns and avoiding destruction of prominent bird habitats.

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