1 LONDON BIRD REPORT ——— NO.79 FOR THE YEAR 2014 PRODUCED BY THE LBR EDITORIAL BOARD PUBLISHED MAY 2016 2 LONDON BIRD REPORT NO. 79 3 CONTENTS ——— Introduction and Acknowledgements – Pete Lambert ............................... 5 Appendix I & II: Escapes and Hybrids – Pete Lambert ................................. 168 Rarities Committee and Recorders ...................................................... 7 Appendix III: Non-proven & non-submitted records and records in circulation ..... 175 Recording Arrangements .................................................................. 8 First and Last Dates of Regular Migrants ................................................. 178 Map of the London Area ................................................................... 9 Mini-gazetteer of Sites ................................................................... 10 Ringing Report – Paul Roper ........................................................... 179 Review of the Year – Nick Rutter .......................................................15 The Breeding Bird Survey in London – Ian Woodward ............................ 186 Contributors to the Systematic List ................................................... 19 The Peregrine Falcon in Inner London - David Johnson...........................189 Blyth’s Reed Warbler at Wanstead Flats, June 29th 2014 - Nick Croft ....... 200 Birds of the London Area ................................................................ 27 Changes to the London Area List and Published Rarities - Andrew Self ...... 203 Swans to Shelduck – Alex Massey ......................................................... 28 The Bonxie Influx in London in October 2014 - Andrew Moon ................. 208 Dabbling Ducks – Malcolm Kendall ....................................................... 34 Reminiscences of a London Birder - Andrew Moon ............................... 218 Diving Ducks – David Bradshaw ........................................................... 40 The Birds of The Warren, Bexleyheath, 1988-2014 - Andrew S. Waller ..... 229 Gamebirds – Bob Watts .................................................................... 46 A Breeding Bird Survey of Barnes Common and Putney Lower Common - Divers to Cormorant – Ian Woodward .................................................... 48 Jan Wilczur ............................................................................. 232 Herons – Ian Ellis ............................................................................ 53 Checklist of Birds of the London Area and Raptors – Andrew Moon .................................................................... 58 Guide to Contributors of Records .................................................. 239 Rails – Quentin Given ...................................................................... 67 Breeding Criteria ........................................................................ 248 Oystercatcher to Jack Snipe – John Colmans and Roy Beddard ..................... 70 Indexes of Common and Scientific Names .......................................... 250 Common Snipe to Phalaropes – Andrew Self ........................................... 81 Skuas to Gulls – Richard Bonser .......................................................... 89 Links to files on the LNHS website Terns – David Campbell .................................................................. 100 Full and Short Gazetteers of Sites (see page 8) Auks to Cuckoo – Peter Newmark ....................................................... 103 Checklist and Guide (see page 239) Owls to Woodpeckers – Paul Goodman ................................................ 109 On the London Bird Club webpage - scroll down to ‘Bird Recording’: Larks to Waxwing – Tim Harris .......................................................... 116 http://www.lnhs.org.uk/ornithology1.htm Wren to Thrushes – Roy Woodward, Andrew Self, Clive Herbert, Rarities Henry Wyn-Jones and Pete Lambert ................................................ 124 As above. Click on the ‘Rarities’ link. Warblers – Paul Whiteman ............................................................... 133 Foreign-ringed Black-headed Gulls (see page 185) Crests to Treecreeper – Derek Coleman ............................................... 141 The Peregrine Falcon in Inner London (see page 189) Shrikes to Sparrows – Alan Lewis ....................................................... 149 On the Publications webpage: http://www.lnhs.org.uk/Publications.htm#LBR2014 Chaffinch to Siskin – Angela Linnell .................................................... 156 Linnet to Hawfinch – Anthony Stones .................................................. 159 Buntings – Bob Watts ..................................................................... 164 Front cover: Sparrowhawk at Rickmansworth. (Andrew Moon) Back cover: Yellow-legged Gull at Rotherhithe. (Richard Bonser) 4 LONDON BIRD REPORT NO. 79 5 LONDON NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY LONDON BIRD REPORT FOR 2014 FOUNDED 1858 ——— HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENTS A.J. Barratt, D. Bevan, FLS, R.M. Burton, MA, FLS, This London Bird Report has been produced by an Editorial Board, comprising: John Edgington, PhD, FLS, Jan Hewlett, PhD, K.H. Hyatt, FLS Chair of Editorial Board ............................... Pete Lambert OFFICERS FOR 2016 Chair of Rarities Committee .............................. Bob Watts PRESIDENT Data Manager ............................................ Derek Turner Vacant Editor: Birds of the London Area ..................... Pete Lambert Editor: Papers ............................................... Mike Trier VICE-PRESIDENTS Helen Baker, MBOU, Colin Bowlt, PhD, FLS, Mark Burgess, David J. Montier, Editor: Photographs ........................... Jonathan Lethbridge Colin W. Plant, BSc, FRES, Pat J. Sellar, BSc (Eng), FRGS, MBOU, Editor: Remaining Sections ........................... Pete Lambert R. John Swindells, Edward Tuddenham, MD, H. Michael Wilsdon, MBOU Production Manager ....................................... Gus Wilson Other members ........................................... John Archer SECRETARY David Howdon Introduction TREASURER There are some minor changes in this report. Following the publication of Andrew Self’s Michael West book The Birds of London, our Rarities Committee has made some changes to our Checklist. The Checklist now includes Snow Goose, Black Grouse and Black Guillemot, ASSISTANT TREASURER but no longer includes American Wigeon. Andrew’s paper in this report explains the Robin Blades reasons for these changes (see page 203). We have also decided to separate records World List Abbreviation: Lond. Bird Rep. formerly reported as Walton Reservoirs into two sites: Walton Res (Chelsea & Lambeth) © London Natural History Society 2016 and Walton Res (Knight & Beesborough). This follows changes to the Chelsea and Lambeth sections of these reservoirs. Designed by Nigel Partridge As space permits this time, we have included indexes of common and scientific names Printed by Swallowtail Print Limited, Norwich, Norfolk at the back of the journal (see page 250). Notes for Contributors are on page 255. We are sad to learn of the death of Gay Carr, who valiantly proof-read one section of ISBN 0 901009 42 3 Birds of the London Area in LBR 2012 while undergoing treatment for cancer. ISSN 0141 4348 It would be a great help in producing this report, if people would send us records as Published by soon as they can. In particular, we would like all records to be with our Recorders as the London Natural History Society – May 2016 soon as possible after the end of the year to which they refer. We will not usually be www.lnhs.org.uk able to be include in the LBR, records received after March 31st in the year following. Records of birds which are rare in London will not be published without our Rarities LONDON BIRD CLUB Committee receiving full details (notes/description or photo). Our Checklist on pages The London Bird Club is the section of the London Natural History Society 239-247 gives details of which species this applies to, and what details are needed, using for those with a particular interest in birds. the keys D, N or BBRC. http://www.lnhs.org.uk/ornithology1.htm The LNHS uses three different kinds of recording area: a circle for its outer boundary, twitter.com/londonbirdclub an Inner London rectangle, and the Watsonian vice-counties. There is sometimes confusion over the exact location of these, so the LNHS has commissioned GiGL to CHAIR publish them on their website. You can now see all of these on the iGiGL map at: Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne http://www.gigl.org.uk/online, to check exactly which area your record is in. COMMITTEE SECRETARY The Editorial Board, which took over the production of LBR in September 2010, has Angela Linnell managed to catch up with the backlog of reports now, but much of this work falls on 6 LONDON BIRD REPORT NO. 79 7 just a few people. We urgently need more people to help. In particular, we are looking RARITIES COMMITTEE AND RECORDERS for a new Editor of the Birds of the London Area section and for an Editor of the ——— Remaining Sections (pages 1-27 and 239-248 of this report). Please contact me if you could help with this. There are many uses of the word London in this report. Usually this refers to the LNHS RARITIES COMMITTEE recording area (see page 8 for details). But when we comment on Breeding Bird Survey Chairman: Bob Watts data in London, we are giving figures for the smaller area used by the BTO for their Members: John Archer, Richard Bonser,