Saturday 30 May 2015

It was perhaps one of the most enjoyable days of the spring for birding, with a lovely duo of scarcities appearing on the island. First up at about 0800 was a stunning male Shore Lark, discovered feeding the arable fields at the North End. This is a very unseasonal record (the last sighting in the UK was at Cleveland on the 4th of May), and is also the first Bardsey record since 1997! The bird spent all of the day feeding in the same arable field, giving very good views. Mid-morning, a very smart male Hen Harrier drifted over the track, and in the next half hour gave brilliant views as it quartered over the Narrows, Wetlands and North End. In addition to these, an Arctic Skua flew past the South End in the morning; two Sand Martins, 47 Swallows and 22 House Martins flew north over the island; and three Spotted Flycatchers were scattered around.

Shore Lark (c) Steve Stansfield

3 comments:

  1. This recalls the (equally stunning) male Shore Lark that turned up on Lundy last year on the similarly unseasonable date of 12th June. The last accepted Lundy record before that was back in 1992. Wouldn't it be fascinating to know where these two late-spring, west coast Shore Larks came from and where they were heading to?! Tim Jones, joint Bird Recorder for Lundy.

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  2. Hi Tim. Thanks for commenting. Interesting to hear about the Lundy bird- It would indeed be very cool to find out where the origins of these birds is. We haven't been able to rule out alpestris as yet, but it is hanging around so hopefully some sound recording will sort that out. Cheers, Ben

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