UK visits from Short-billed Dowitchers risk becoming fewer as pressures grown on North American wetlands

                                             

Short-billed Dowitcher in New Jersey - photo: Chuck Holmler/ Focus on Wildlife via Wikimedia Commons

 

THERE was disappointment for birders hoping to glimpse a Short-billed Dowitcher that was reported at Drift Reservoir, near Penzance,  in Cornwall mid-afternoon on Monday of this week.

The bird was reportedly flushed by a passing Peregrine and has not been seen since.

Short-billed Dowitchers are now seldom recorded in Britain because they are in breeding decline in the marshlands of the United States and Canada.

In a paper in a 1993 edition of the Canadian Field Naturalist , researcher Charles Maisonneuve wrote:

"Within their vast breeding range (Québec toBritish Columbia), Short-billed Dowitchers are restricted to bogs, muskegs, fens or wet meadows.

"Although some authors mention that shorebird habitats in coastal staging and wintering areas are threatened by agricultural and pesticide pollution, industrial and port development and potential oil spill, there is no evidence yet that habitats used by dowitchers during their migrations or on their wintering grounds have been subjected to major environmental perturbation.

 "However, a significant population decline in the Short-billed Dowitcher may be due to loss of breeding areas due to extensive flooding or drought following hydroelectric project development. 

"In northern Québec and Labrador, more than 16, 300 ha of bogs, fens and sedge meadows were lost to the James Bay hydroelectric project.

"The W. A. C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River in British Columbia caused the dry-out of 50, 000 ha of wetlands in the Peace-Athabasca Delta 

"A reduction of more than 38 per cent in water surface and disappearance of 36 per cent of the perched basin shorelines occurred in the three years following the closure of the dam.

Maisonneuve continued: "There is a pressing need for studies on northern shorebird breeding grounds facing development pressure because of the possible cumulative effect of these projects.

"On migration and on the southern wintering grounds, high proportions of many populations are concentrated into a few, distantly separated and vulnerable sites." 

                                   

Drift Reservoir - photo: Kernow Skies/ Wikimedia

Bids invited for historic hand-coloured engravings - but can anyone identify the species?

                                                               

Four very early hand-coloured engravings of birds are included in Lot 1429 which is up for bids at a sake to be conducted by Ewbanks of Woking in Surrey on September 24. the birds are not identified but the French artist is Francoise Nicholas Martinet (1725-1804). The pre-sale estimate for the lot is modest - jut £60 to £100.                                                   

                                                 

                                             

The enduring attraction of juvenile songbirds ensured firm auction price for porcelain Blackbird chick

 

This cute 1930s 11.5cm high Meissen porcelain model of a Blackbird chick sold for £160 at a sale conducted by Tennants auction house. This was in line with the pre-sale estimate of £120-180. Meanwhile, two late-19th Century Golden Orioles fetched £250 despite being damaged, notably about their bills. The pre-sale estimate had been £200-400.

                                                  

Future of Hertfordshire's Rye Meads wetland reserve looking brighter following pledge by Thames Water

               

THERE is cautious optimism for the future of  the Rye Meads wetland reserve in Hertfordshire following a statement issued by Thames Water and published by The Hoddesdon Society.

There had been a question mark over the site - and public access to it - since  the RSPB announced its intention to pull out come November because of cash constraints.

Amy Pigot, who has been at the forefront of a campaign to save the reserve says: "This statement is very welcome and marks an important step forward."

However she is not resting on her laurels, noting  there is still a lot of detail to work through around the transition, future management, volunteers, facilities and community involvement.

 

James Bolton's study of bird identification almost two centuries ago achieves handsome price at auction

 

The two volumes of one of the oldest titles on British ornithology have sold for a total price of £1,700 at an auction held by antiquarian books specialists Dominic Winter at their saleroom in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The hammer price of James Bolton's Harmonia Ruralis, published in 1824, exceeded the pre-sale estimate of £1,000-£1,500. 

 

                                                                    

         

                                

Nature warden looks back on his time as nature reserve warden at one of Norfolk's most dynamic wetlands

       

A Spoonbill in flight features on the cover of a recently-published book that is likely to be in demand among birders. In it, Holkham's senior nature reserve warden, Andrew Bloomfield reflects on his time at one of Britain's most important and exciting wetland landscapes. It is available, at £40 in hardback, from the Holkham gift shop.

Weekend Egyptian Nightjar in Shetlands is first sighting for Scotland and third for Britain

                                                    

The Egyptian Nighjar is a fairly common native of  North Africa and Arabia 

IMAGINE the pleasure for a birder of looking out of one of the windows of your house and seeing  . . an Egyptian Nightjar!

So it was for former British Birds editor Roger Riddington, a long-time resident at Pool of Virkie in Shetland.

It was the first sighting in Scotland of this strange-looking bird and only the third British record - the others being on June 23, 1883, at Rainworth in Nottinghamshire and at Portland Bill on June 10,1984.

Many birders have made the trip by ferry from Aberdeen to the Shetlands  capital, Lerwick, but, as of  early morning today, the bird has not reappeared.

 * Photo: Morhaf Kamal Alianee/ Wikimedia Commons