Black Stork Ciconia Nigra Category a Very Rare Vagrant

Black Stork Ciconia nigra Category A Very rare vagrant. 5 records Breeds mainly across mid-latitude Europe, from Germany eastwards, with small populations in central and eastern France and occasional pairs as close as Belgium. Migrates south to winter in tropical Africa (Snow & Perrins, 1998). It is a rare but regular visitor to Britain, with 276 records to 2018 but it has gradually become more frequent in occurrence with an average of 9 records per years in the last decade (BBRC, 2021). There had been 28 records in Kent to the end of 2019, with sightings in all months from April to October, although with a peak in May and June (both with five records) (KOS, 2021). Black Stork at Sellindge (Derek Smith) The first local record occurred in 1995, when John van der Dol watched one arrive in off the sea at Folkestone on the 22nd June. After a 16 year gap, there have been four further records in the last eleven years, as demonstrated by figure 1. One was seen flying north-east over Hythe by Sean McMinn on the 8th June 2011, a first-summer individual was seen over Saltwood by Paul Howe and Hythe by Nigel Webster and Sean McMinn on the 7th August 2015, Derek Smith saw one flying over Sellindge on the 5th and 6th June 2021, having presumably roosted nearby, and Ian Roberts saw one flying north over Crete Road East on the 15th July 2021. 2 1 0 1997 2011 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Figure 1: Black Stork records at Folkestone and Hythe Three sightings were in June, with singles in July and in August, as shown by figure 2. 50 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2 1 0 0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 52 Figure 2: Black Stork records at Folkestone and Hythe by week Figure 3 shows the distribution of records by tetrad. Figure 3: Distribution of all Black Stork records at Folkestone and Hythe by tetrad The full list of records is as follows: 1995 Folkestone, one flew in off the sea, 22nd June (J. H. van der Dol) 2011 Hythe, one flew north-east, 8th June (S. McMinn) 2015 Saltwood and Hythe, first-summer flew west, 7th August (P. Howe, S. McMinn, N. Webster), later seen and photographed at Dungeness 2021 Sellindge, one, 5th to 6th June, when flew high north-east, photographed (D. Smith) 2021 Crete Road East, one flew north, 15th July, photographed (I. A. Roberts), having earlier been seen flying west over Dover 2021 Folkestone, one flew east, 17th July (I. A. Roberts), presumed same as above Black Stork at Sellindge (Derek Smith) Black Stork at Crete Road East (Ian Roberts) References BBRC statistics: https://www.bbrc.org.uk/main-information/statistics (accessed 2021) Kent Bird Reports. Kent Ornithological Society KOS Kent list: https://kentos.org.uk/kent-list (accessed 2021) Snow, D. & Perrins, C.M., 1998. The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Oxford University Press. Acknowledgements The tetrad map images were produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service and are reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey. Black Stork at Dungeness (Martin Casemore), the same bird earlier seen at Hythe .

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