Birdwatch UK October 2017

70 Birdwatch•October 2017 http://www.birdguides.com/birdwatch

EXPERT ADVICE NEWS • LISTCHECK • BUILDING KNOWLEDGE

AFTER successfully connecting

with the Amur Falcon in Cornwall

in July 2017, Ernie Davis has

become the  rst person to see

850 bird species in the Western

Palearctic (WP).

Having spent years searching

for hard-to- nd birds in some of

the region’s most remote areas,

including the Cape Verde Islands,

Western Sahara, the Upper Nile

Valley in Egypt and Russia’s Ural

Mountains and

south-eastern

steppe, Ernie

just had to

cross the county

border from his

home in south

Devon to get his

landmark 850th

tick.

Amur Falcon

would have

been high on

the wants lists

of many of

the region’s

biggest listers,

particularly those

in Britain. The

one previous British Amur spent

a month in residence at Tophill

Low, East Yorkshire, from 14

September-15 October 2008, but

was believed to be a Red-footed

Falcon – until it was reidenti ed

from photos, by which time the

bird had moved on.

In an increasingly competitive

WP listing  eld, Ernie Davis is

three species clear of Pierre-André

Crochet of France, and six ahead

of Chris Bell from Co Durham.

Based on BWP boundaries, just

18 birders have so far passed

the 800-species mark, with 71 on

700 species or more.

You can now keep your own

Western Palearctic list online at

http://www.birdguides.com. You’ll need

a Bird News Pro or Bird News

Ultimate subscription to use the

listing service, but if you’re not yet

a subscriber you can try it out for

free with a 30-day trial – sign up

at http://www.birdguides.com/free-trial-

membership.

• bit.ly/bw304wplister

Top Western Palearctic lister

breaks the 850 barrier

MARK HALLIDAY

■ Hand-reared godwits

begin migration

A total of 26 Black-tailed

Godwits, hand-reared at

Welney WWT, Norfolk, have

been seen on migration. The

 rst-winter birds were released from captivity

just 11 weeks ago.

• bit.ly/bw304godwits

■ Major increase in Griffon Vulture

numbers in western Alps

A Vulture Conservation Foundation census

showed a signi cant increase in summering

Griffon Vultures in the western Alps.

• bit.ly/bw304vultures

■ International protection for UK’s

second-largest seabird colony

A huge new Special Protection Area (SPA)

has been designated off the Northumberland

coast, giving 200,000 seabirds greater

security. The Northumberland Marine SPA

stretches 12 miles from the coast into the

North Sea.

• bit.ly/bw304seabirds

 News round-up

NORTHERN SHRIKE SPLIT

THE recent update of the International Ornithological

Congress’s world list, as used by Birdwatch and from

next year the British Ornithologists’ Union, included

several splits relevant to the Western Palearctic, some

of which were covered in last month’s Listcheck.

However, also of note is the separation of

Northern Shrike Lanius borealis, the mainly North

American counterpart of Great Grey Shrike L

excubitor, of which Northern until now was usually

considered a subspecies.

DNA analysis has shown Northern to be more

closely related to Loggerhead Shrike L ludovicianus,

another widespread Nearctic species.

However, the new species is not just con ned to

North America. Morphological similarities between

Northern and Siberian forms of Great Grey Shrike

have long been noted, and the following four Siberian

subspecies are now subsumed into the former:

sibiricus, bianchii, mollis and funereus.

The taxonomy of the grey shrikes

is still not yet fully resolved, as the

position of the nominate Iberian

subspecies of Southern Grey Shrike

L meridionalis meridionalis remains

uncertain; it currently appears to

form a clade with L borealis to judge

by analysis of its mitochondrial

DNA, but is closer to L excubitor in

plumage and range.

Northern Shrike has occurred as

a vagrant to Finland (one record),

Norway (one

record) and

Ukraine (seven).

There is a

pending record

for the Azores. ■

Updating avian taxonomy

LISTCHECK

In

association

with

In the

digital

edition

OCTOBER’S digital edition

has lots of bonus content,

including:

• Film clips of all  ve wing-
  barred leaf-warbler species.


• Footage of rarities and
  scarcities from Britain and the
  Western Palearctic.


• Bonus images and video of
  Common Cuckoo.


• Film and audio  les of other
  species in the magazine,
  including those in the Autumn
  challenge.


• Recording of Bill Oddie
  reading his latest column.
  The digital edition is
  available for PC, Mac,
  iPhone/iPad and Android.
  Sample editions are free, and
  subscriptions or single issues
  can be purchased. Visit http://www.
  pocketmags.com/birdwatch
  to  nd out more. ■

This fi rst-winter Northern Shrike

was on Corvo, Azores, on 18

October 2014 and if accepted

will be the fi rst for the islands.

DAVID MONTICELLI

The Amur Falcon at Polgigga,

Cornwall, in July became Ernie

Davis’s 850th species for the

Western Palearctic.

1710 p65-71 Expert advice v4.indd 70 14/09/2017 17:45:16