RARE BLACK-THROATED THRUSH TURNS UP ON CAMPUS AT GRIMSBY INSTITUTE

Waiting for the bus to Cleethorpes? No, waiting for the rare thrush to reappear

A BUS stop outside Grimsby Institute was today providing an impromptu bird hide for twitchers on the look-out for a rare bird.

For the past couple of mornings, the campus has been providing feeding habitat for a black-throated thrush - the first ever to be recorded in Lincolnshire.

Somehow, it has ended up in this location when, at this time of year, it should be in Eastern Europe, the Middle East or Mongolia.

One theory is that it might have made the last part of its journey on a cargo vessel arriving in Grimsby or Immingham.

There are hopes that it might linger for a while in the same way as another black-throated thrush that has been in Bedfordshire since December 11.

The Grimsby bird was first detected on Thursday morning by expert birder Josh Forrester, a staff-member at the institute, who managed to take a photograph before putting out an alert via Twitter.

He was only able to watch it for a short while before it flew off in the direction of the nearby Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital off Scartho Road.

However, it was back on campus this morning up until soon after 11am, providing excellent views both on the grass and on the branches of tall trees, before flying off.

It is thought it has been probably spending the past two afternoons in gardens, feeding on cotoneaster and other berries.

However, its afternoon absence was a big disappointment for a score or so enthusiasts, some of whom had driven from as far way as South Yorkshire hoping to see such a rare bird.

Its throat is not as dark as its counterpart in Bedfordshire, suggesting that it may be a female or a juvenile.

If a return is reported tomorrow or over the rest of the weekend, many more birders are likely to be heading for Grimsby.

It is not the first rare member of the thrush family to have been reported in Grimsby.

Some 20 years ago, a longstaying American robin attracted hundreds of birdwatchers, some from as far away as Norway, to an industrial estate in the town.

Alas, this bird came to an unhappy end when it fell victim to a passing sparrowhawk.

How Josh Forrester broke the news, via Twitter, of his superb discovery

Black-throated thrush - the target of the Grimsby quest though this bird was photographed in the Himalayas by Soumyajit Nandy (Wikimedia Commons) 

Let's hope it shows up soon!

Eyes upwards for this quartet of birders 

Somehow, I don't think it's going to be our lucky day!

* Available, new on ebay (price £2 inc postage), A Birdwatching Guide to The Lincolnshire Coast, featuring on the front cover Grimsby's famous American robin

BYGONE BIRDING: A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN EDINBURGH

Letter published in The Scotsman, May 16, 1935:

SIR- 

Tonight about ten o ' clock, I had the unusual pleasure of listening to a nightingale in full song within a few miles of the centre of the city. 

The bird, which was visible to me several times, was perched near the top of one of the large hawthorn trees near the canal at Stoneyport , beyond Slateford. 

The songster was unmistakably a nightingale  and seemed perfectly at home in its new surroundings. 

It would be interesting to know if any other person has heard the visitor , and whether this is the first time the nightingale has been heard in or near Edinburgh. 

Wm Shortreed 
23 Duke Street
Edinburgh

May 14 , 1935

TEN-MINUTE TWITCH: CALLANDER, PERTHSHIRE

Location: Callander, Perthshire

Date: January 22, 2020

Weather: Mostly sunny, dry

Target species: Goldeneye

Star species: Goosander

Other species recorded: Mallard, jackdaw, carrion  crow, blue tit, great tit, mute swan, black-headed gull, herring gull, starling, house sparrow, chaffinch

 

COULD CLIMATE CHANGE BRING SWARMS OF LOCUSTS TO THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE?

On the march and on the munch - locusts have prodigious hopping as well as flying abilities (not to mention voracious appetites)

The crop devastation currently being caused by swarms of locusts in parts of Africa prompts the question: Could global warming see them spread to the UK? Not impossible, a search of the records this intriguing letter in an 1844 edition of The Zoologist journal.

Note on the occurrence of the locust in Yorkshire 
Thinking that the following account of the appearance of the Asiatic locust in Yorkshire last year, may not be uninteresting to your readers, I have taken the liberty of troubling you with a letter on the subject. 

Two of these insects were given to me on the 9th of September, 1842, by a labourer at Holmpton (a village situated quite on the sea), who had found them in an oatfield, where he, his wife and some others had been harvesting. 

Not having seen any of the species before, they were, at first, afraid of touching them, but happening to know that I was a collector, they were so kind as to catch them for me which they succeeded in doing without injuring any part of their bodies. 

I placed them in a box with a supply of green food, of which they partook very sparingly. 

On the 18th of September, finding one of them nearly dead, and that the other had eaten part of its wings, I killed and preserved it.

The other specimen lived until the 26th of September. 

During their confinement, I frequently amused myself by letting them out of the box and seeing the distance they could spring, which, when I first had them, was certainly not less that ten or twelve feet. 

A window, a little more that a yard from the ground, was the point to which their aim was always directed, and they generally, if placed at a distance, say five or six feet, sufficient to enable them to attain power enough, succeeded in getting into it. 

Three more specimens were taken in my neighbourhood, one at Hollym, a village about two miles from the sea, and two more by a gentleman residing at Roos which is little more than a mile from the coast. 

According to the following report from the Hull Packet of September the 9th, 1842, this insect has also been taken near Scarborough. 

Scarborough, Sept. 8. Extraordinary visitant

"Rarely has the locust, that terrible scourge of so many warmer climates, been seen in our favoured land, but exceptions do occur, and two specimens of the African species, upwards of three inches in length, were taken last week in this vicinity.

"One is yet alive in the possession of a gentleman in Scarborough, and the other has been preserved by Mr. Williamson for the museum. 

"It is truly to be hoped that these are only accidental stragglers, and not the avant couriers of a flight such as alarmed the southern parts of England, and especially London, in August, 1748." 

I have also copied a report from the Yorkshire Gazette of January, 21, 1843, from which it appears that this insect was also found further inland about the same time last year. 

Locusts in England

"About three weeks ago, a labouring man took a specimen of the Gryllus migratorius, or Asiatic locust, in a field at Stonegravels, near Chesterfield. 

"The man, being struck by its unusual appearance and activity, after a severe chase, succeeded in capturing it in safety. 

"It is now in the cabinet of a gentleman in Chesterfield. 

"We understand that several others have been taken in this and the neighbouring counties in the present year - one in Sheffield at the beginning of September, another in Mickleover, near Derby, nearly at the same time, a third about the middle of the same month, near Burton-on-Trent.

"The last was found to be a female, containing about forty or fifty eggs, apparently ready to be deposited. 

"The gentleman who captured the last-mentioned specimen says that he disturbed it in getting over a hedge near which it was reposing, and that, when first discovered, the insect sprang a distance of fourteen yards."

William Sherwood
Rysome Garth
near Patrington
Holderness
Yorkshire
January, 1844 


* Picture: Holleday/ Wikimedia Commons

BYGONE BIRDING: SABINE'S SNIPE IN SUSSEX

Letter from The Zoologist, 1845

I have lately procured a specimen (a very good one) of the rarest of all British birds - the Scolopax Sabini. 

It was shot early last month, near one of the estuaries of Chichester-harbour. 

The person who killed it (a retired sergeant) sold it for five shillings (25p), but its new possessor (fortunately for me, not a collector) became so well aware of its value that I succeeded, with difficulty, 

in procuring it for five pounds. 

I believe this is the sixth instance of its occurrence, and it has never been obtained out of the British islands. 

Captain Bonham, of the 10th Hussars, who shot the second that was ever killed, showed me his bird last month at Brighton. 

It is, perhaps, a little less dark, but otherwise it is similar in all respects to my specimen. 

A.E. Knox 

BYGONE BIRDING: HAWK KILLED BY A LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE

From the Leicester Chronicle, March 28, 1845

On Sunday last, as the pilot engine was proceeding towards Loughborough, and when just beyond the Barrow station, a hawk attempting to fly across the line was knocked down by the engine. 

On returning to Loughborough, the hawk was found on the spot with its head cut completely off and a snipe in its mouth.

From the wounds at the back of the head, the snipe had evidently been killed by the hawk.

Being too heavy, prevented the hawk from flying with its wonted rapidity, and thus was the cause of its death also. 

TEN-MINUTE TWITCH: ROB ROY HOTEL, ABERFOYLE, PERTHSHIRE

Location: Rob Roy Hotel, Aberfoyle, Perthshire

Date: January 21, 2020

Weather: Overcast with bright intervals, very mild

Target species: Treecreeper

Star species: Great spotted woodpecker (in flight)

Other species recorded: Starling, mistle thrush, blackbird, great tit, blue tit, coal tit, carrion crow, woodpigeon, cormorant (overhead), robin,  chaffinch 

AFTER-DARK BUILDING COLLISION CLAIMS LIVES OF MORE THAN A HUNDRED CHIMNEY SWIFTS

Aftermath of the incident - some of the birds lived to fly again but many were killed outright  (Photographs: Carolina Waterfowl Rescue)

THE threat posed to night-flying migrant birds by bright lights in buildings has been underlined by a sad incident at Charlotte in North Carolina.

Some 300-plus chimney swifts flew into the city's Nascar hall of fame building, with at least 100 being killed and many more being injured.

The chimney swift is slightly smaller than the common swift familiarly seen in Europe.

Says the American Bird Conservancy: "Ordinarily, after sundown, chimney swifts would have been sleeping in a sheltered roost.

"Why they were aloft at night is hard to know, but the building's bright lights likely played a role in attracting them and possibly blinding and disorienting them, leading the flock to collide with windows and walls.

"The situation in Charlotte is a good illustration of the danger artificial light at night poses to migrants.

" As many as 1 billion birds die in collisions with glass (i.e. windows) each year in the U.S. 

Most of these collisions take place during the day, as migrating birds are looking for food to replenish energy reserves and mistake reflections on glass for habitat.

"Buildings pose a particularly serious threat at night and especially when conditions are foggy or stormy, when birds can't see what's below or in front of them. 

"As likely happened with the swifts, a brightly lit building can act as a beacon, one that attracts birds, possibly blinding them at the same time."

Adds Dr. Christine Sheppard, American Bird Conservancy's Bird Collisions Campaign Director: “Turning off unnecessary lights can help birds, while saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"There are simple fixes we can make to reduce the reflective and translucent nature of glass and prevent bird deaths. 

"We should get serious about that.”

See also report of a comparable incident that occurred in Galveston, Texas
https://bit.ly/2sDMydv

Related reading (all titles available as e-books via Kindle):

William Eagle Clarke: Lighthouse Birdwatcher

William Eagle Clarke: Lightship Birdwatcher

James Wright: The Isle of May and its Birds - The Migration Studies of Evelyn Baxter and Leonora Rintoul

The building in Charlotte where the incident occurred last October (Photo: Flame37fighter via Wikimedia Commons)