The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2015
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The Birds of Sta ordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2015 1 The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2015 Annual Report 82 Editor D.W. Emley BEM Published by West Midland Bird Club 2018 1 Published by West Midland Bird Club © West Midland Bird Club All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the copyright owners. The West Midland Bird Club is a registered charity No. 213311. Web site: http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.org.uk/ ISSN 0963-312X Printed by Swallowtail Print, Drayton Industrial Park, Taverham Road Drayton, Norwich, NRB 6RL www.swallowtailprint.co.uk 2 The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2015 Annual Report 82 Contents 4 Editorial 5 Submission of Records 6 Birds and Weather 14 Systematic List 218 Ringing Report 232 Report on the nest box scheme in the Bearda area 2015 360 A territorial Melodious Warbler in West Midlands 240 Do ‘Continental Stonechats’ Saxicola rubicola rubicola reach the West Midlands? 244 County Lists 252 Gazetteer 260 Contributors 265 Index of Species Front Cover Photograph: Red-footed Falcon, Chatterley Whitfield, Bill Goldstraw 3 Editorial This year sees a major cosmetic and physical change in the Annual Report as we move from an A5 format to a B5 format, in line with many other clubs and societies. The larger size gives us more room to present data, use a larger typeface and to increase the size of the images that we use. I hope that you like it. Again, photographers have been very generous and I am sorry not to have the room to have used all their work. The success of the Report lies solely at the feet of our contributors for without them we have nothing to write about. This year we have had over 1000 people send records in; an amazing response by any standard. Sadly, this is the last Report in which the initial EGP will appear for the well-known and well-liked birder Eric Phillips passed away. Eric’s first contribution to the Report was in 1970. His friend Steve Nuttall says “Eric, was regarded as a top Midland birder and had a vast amount of knowledge and not just of birds for he was a keen botanist who loved butterflies and fungi too. He was also a keen historian, and loved mooching around old churches and historic buildings. He was a passionate cyclist and would think nothing of pedalling to Belvide, Upton Warren, Wyre Forest or Chelmarsh from his home in Kingswinford. Many of these journeys would easily be 30-40 miles in total. He was famous for finding the first British record of White-tailed Plover at Packington in 1975 along with the late John Fortey and Eric’s partner Bet and was one of the true pioneers on the Scilly Isles back in the early 70’s.” Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who helped with this year’s report. I am especially grateful to all those who contributed records, especially those sending in valuable census data; to Alan Dean, Andy Lawrence, Nick Pomiankowski and Allan Bacon for their articles; to Jim Winsper for his Birds and Weather and Ringing Report; to Andy Lawrence for producing the cover and to artists and photographers Alan Dean, Bob Duckhouse, Steve Edwards, Kathleen Everitt, Stephen Gibson, Bill Goldstraw, Pete Hackett, Dave Hutton, Phil Jones, Hughie King, Peter Lichfield, Tim Marlow, John Oates, Karl Sargent, Steve Seal and Nigel Talbot for making their work available; and above all to the County Recorders and their teams: Warwickshire: Report Writers: Steve Haynes and John Oates with thanks to Jonathan Bowley; Records Committee: Matt Griffiths, Steve Haynes, John Judge, Tim Marlow and Simon Roper. Worcestershire: Report Writers: Steven Payne, Gavin Peplow and Andy Warr; Rarities Committee: Terry Hinett, Gavin Peplow, Rob Prudden and Andy Warr. Staffordshire: Report Writers: Nick Pomiankowski, Andy Lawrence, Holly Sissons, Matthew Sissons, Nick Smith; Rarities Committee: Steve Nuttall, Bernard Smith, Mark Sutton, Steve Turner; Site Report Compilers: Peter Betts, Mike Boote, Graham Evans, Pete Jordan, Steve Nuttall; Data Input; NDP, Holly Sissons, Matthew Sissons. West Midlands: Report Writer: Kevin Clements; Rarities Committee: Gareth Clements, John Oates, Steve Nuttall. I would like to thank Mike Dawson of Swallowtail Print, Eng-Li Green of Alcedo Publishing, Jim Winsper and my wife Sue, for their support and help during the compilation of this report. David Emley 4 Submission of Records All contributors are asked to follow the guidelines set out in the booklet A Checklist of the Birds of the Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands and Guide to Status and Record Submission (third edition 2011). A copy of these can be found on our website http:// www.westmidlandbirdclub.org.uk. All records should be sent to the relevant County Recorder as soon as possible after observation. Concise, though adequate, field descriptions (including how the species was identified, the circumstances of the sighting and the observer’s experience of the species) should accompany records of all species – marked as A in the Details column of the checklist. In addition, descriptions are required for all out-of-season migrants, unusual hybrids and scarce sub-species, including Scandinavian Rock Pipit, Blue-headed and other flava race wagtails, White Wagtail (autumn only), Black-bellied Dipper, Greenland Wheatear and Chiffchaff races. The lack of an acceptable description may lead to records being rejected. Records should be sent to the appropriate County Recorder. Postal addresses can be found on the Club’s Website or in the Newsletter: Warwickshire Steve Haynes [email protected] Worcestershire Steven Payne [email protected] Staffordshire Nick Pomiankowski [email protected] West Midlands Kevin Clements [email protected] Records can be sent electronically as Excel, Word, CSV or RTF files or on record slips. These are available from the Club Secretary (address inside back cover) at indoor meetings or a copy can be downloaded from our web site: http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.org.uk/. Another alternative that is proving very popular is the BTO’s BirdTrack website http://www.bto.org.uk/ birdtrack/. Data entered here can be accessed, with permission, by the County Recorder, thus obviating the need to send in slips etc. D. W. Emley [email protected] 5 This year we have recorded a total of 227 bird species in our region. This being considerably lower than our best figure of 242 recorded in 1996, later being equalled in 2005. Birds of regional or county significance were mainly confined to the West Midlands county. An Alpine Swift, the second record for the county was watched in Wolverhampton city centre while a Great Reed Warbler, a first for the county, was seen in Sandwell Valley. A well-watched Melodious Warbler, another county first and only the third regional record, was found at Mercote Mill on the Berkswell Estate. Warwickshire claimed its second county record for Black-winged Stilt when two birds visited Fisher’s Mill. 2015 has seen a continuation in the trend toward extreme weather conditions occurring across the British Isles; exceptionally heavy rainfall accompanied by strong winds of gale-force proportion. While our region has felt the effects of these storms we have largely remained on their periphery. Storms that are generated in the near Atlantic are initiated by a severe and rapid drop in pressure from within an established low-pressure system, a process known as explosive cyclogenesis, also referred to as a ‘weather bomb’. A rapid acceleration of air caused by the jet stream high up in the atmosphere can influence this phenomenon by creating a quickening rotation of the circulating air mass. Winds of gale and severe gale force can then be generated by this action, resulting in the storms that can batter the British Isles. The jet stream consists of ribbons of very strong winds which move weather systems around the globe. Jet streams are found 9-16 km above the surface of the earth and can reach speeds of 200 mph. While located to our south, the jet stream draws in cool or cold Arctic air from the north, while in a northerly location it will suck in warm air from the southern continent land mass and sometimes excessively hot air from the tropics, thus influencing our weather in a variety of forms and at any time of year. The greater the exaggeration in the wave between the north peak and south trough of the jet stream ribbon, can be a crucial influence in determining where air is drawn from. 6 The Met Office chart opposite shows approximate variation in the jet stream positions relative to the British Isles. Is a changing climate affecting the intensity of our weather? Warming sea temperatures are certainly responsible for a variety of changes taking place in the natural world and we can suppose that the resulting air movement associated to this warming will create its own atmospheric changes, the convergence of warm and cool air masses is well documented. It would appear that the frequency and intensity with which storms occur over the British Isles has increased in recent times. Time will certainly prove if this is a phase in the warming process of the planet or the beginning of what will become the norm. This annual review takes in the wider weather assessment for the British Isles and its surrounding seas and continental land mass. This should provide a greater understanding of the generating forces that can dictate our regional weather patterns.