2014 Plate 1
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FAIR ISLE BIRD OBSERVATORY Report for 2014 Plate 1. Ciaran Hatsell Plate 2. Marianna Chimienti with puffling, with Paddyfield Warbler, 21st July 2014. © David Parnaby 5th September 2014. © David Parnaby Plate 3. Chris Dodd, Ward Hill, 2014. © Carol Jefferies Plate 4. Three men in a boat (Richard Cope, David Parnaby and Ciaran Hatsell), 31st May 2014. © Ciaran Hatsell FAIR ISLE BIRD OBSERVATORY REPORT NO. 66 (2014) Editor: David Parnaby Photographic editor: Ian Andrews CONTENTS Chairman’s report - Eric Meek 3 Warden’s report - David Parnaby 5 Administrator’s report - Susannah Parnaby 9 The NTS on Fair Isle in 2014 - Alexander Bennett 10 Home Coming for Betty Margaret Best - Jimmy Stout & John Best 11 Rachael Redfern - David & Susannah Parnaby 14 Ornithological monthly summary - David Parnaby 15 Systematic list 2014 - David Parnaby 36 Corrections to previous annual reports - David Parnaby 111 Ringing summary - Ciaran Hatsell & David Parnaby 112 Fair Isle’s seabirds in 2014 - Ciaran Hatsell 134 First and last migrant dates - David Parnaby 142 Rarity accounts: Bridled Tern, 16th June 2014; the first for Fair Isle - David Parnaby 144 Moltoni’s Subalpine Warbler, 16th May 2014; the first for Fair Isle - Richard Cope 146 Glossy Ibis, 16th May 2014; the first for Fair Isle - Ciaran Hatsell 148 27th April 2014; a day to remember - Ciaran Hatsell 149 Committee decisions on rarities from 2013 - compiled by David Parnaby 152 Cetaceans and other marine wildlife - David Parnaby 154 A report on the research into Killer Whales observed around Fair Isle - Andy Foote & Filipa Samarra 158 Lepidoptera report - David Parnaby, Ciaran Hatsell & Nick Riddiford 161 Other non-avian highlights in 2014 - Nick Riddiford & Stewart Thomson 165 Ladybirds on Fair Isle - Nick Riddiford 172 RSPB STAR seabird tracking project - Rob Hughes 174 Encouraging the next generation at FIBO - David Parnaby 176 My Fair Isle experience - Langdon Truscott (recipient of JHMF grant) 176 FIBOT financial report and accounts for 2014 - Mike Wood 178 Map of Fair Isle 180 Systematic checklist of the birds of Fair Isle - David Parnaby 181 Front cover: Lanceolated Warbler, September 2014. © Richard Johnson Published in 2016 by: Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust, Fair Isle Bird Observatory, Fair Isle, Shetland, ZE2 9JU Typeset by: H.Scott, PicaDesign ([email protected]). Printed by: Swallowtail Print Ltd, Norwich Fair Isle Bird Observatory Report for 2014 1 FAIR ISLE BIRD OBSERVATORY TRUST (FIBOT) A company limited by guarantee. FAIR ISLE BIRD OBSERVATORY, FAIR ISLE, SHETLAND, ZE2 9JU. Obs, 9th June 2014. © Ian Andrews Telephone: FIBO website: 01595 760258 www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk General email: Warden’s blog: [email protected] fibowarden.blogspot.co.uk Administrator: Facebook: [email protected] facebook.com/fairislebirdobservatory Reservations: Twitter: [email protected] twitter.com/fi_obs Board of Directors: Eric Meek (Chairman from June 2014) Administrator: David Okill (Vice-Chairman) Susannah Parnaby Mike Wood (Director of Finance) Ian Andrews (from June 2014), Douglas Barr, Solicitors: Ian Cowgill (from June 2014), Louise Batchelor, Anderson Strathern Alexander Bennett, Mark Bolton, Pete Ellis, 1 Rutland Court, Edinburgh. EH3 8EY. Peter Evans, Fiona Mitchell, Jane Reid, Roger Riddington (Chairman until June 2014). Bankers: Bank of Scotland, 38 St Andrew Sq, Honorary Director: Edinburgh. EH2 2YR. Roy Dennis (President) Accountants: Warden: Momentum Ltd, Harelands Court, Melsonby, David Parnaby North Yorkshire. 2 Fair Isle Bird Observatory Report for 2014 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT Eric Meek Despite this relative familiarity with the Northern Isles and especially Fair Isle, it was still with some trepidation that I took over the reins of the chairmanship of FIBOT in June. Roy and Roger will be very difficult acts to follow but we are fortunate in having David and Susannah who now have four years worth of experience behind them and who deal superbly with all the day-to-day problems that the running of the Observatory can throw at them. We also have an excellent board of directors, with expertise in a whole range of fields, in order to keep me on the straight and narrow. Plate 5. Eric Meek (left) succeeded Roger Riddington as Chairman at the 2014 AGM, Obs, 8th June 2014. © Ian Andrews At the biannual meeting of FIBOT directors held on the island in June 2014, Roger Riddington “How does the tiny speck retired from the position of Chairman after five very busy and productive years. Having taken over from Roy Dennis once the new Observatory of land that is Fair Isle had been officially opened, Roger had the task of overseeing the installation of our new Warden do it? With 381 species and Administrator, David and Susannah Parnaby, and ensuring that all went well. Inevitably, with a already recorded, 2014 brand new building and brand new staff, there were a few minor hiccups but things have progressed steadily and everything is now produced a further three” running smoothly. Roger has done a superb job and we owe him an enormous vote of thanks for the time and energy that he has put into the task. The trustees held their usual two meetings during I first visited Fair Isle in 1967 and again in 1970 the year, in January in Aberdeen and in June on and 1971 before being appointed as assistant the island, but that apparent paucity of meetings warden, under Roger Broad, in 1972. My late wife, belies the amount of work that is carried out by e- Chris, joined me later that year, becoming cook mail and ‘phone. We attended both of the towards the end of the season. Returning to national Birdfairs, the Scottish, near Edinburgh, in teaching in Northumberland early in 1973, the May and the British, at Rutland Water, in August. Fair Isle experience stayed with me and I helped We have also been working hard to improve the lead Workers’ Educational Association trips to the FIBO website and we are looking at ways in which island in 1976 and 1977. I always wanted to it may be possible to improve our annual report. return to the Northern Isles to live and finally got The John Harrison Memorial Fund helped bring the chance when, in January 1981 I was more young folk to Fair Isle and, in addition, a new appointed Area Officer for the RSPB in Orkney, a fund of a similar nature was set up. The Simon position that I held until my retirement in 2012. Aspinall Bursary Fund commemorates the life of Fair Isle Bird Observatory Report for 2014 3 Plate 6. The FIBOT Board of Directors and staff, Obs, 8th June 2014 (from left to right): Roger Riddington (out-going Chairman), Peter Evans, Pete Ellis, Eric Meek (Chairman), Ian Andrews, Fiona Mitchell, Louise Batchelor, Mike Wood (Director of Finance), Alexander Bennett, Mark Bolton, Dave Okill (Vice-Chairman), Douglas Barr, Ian Cowgill, Susannah Parnaby (Administrator). [Roy Dennis (Honorary President), Jane Reid and David Parnaby (Warden) were not present] © Ian Andrews Simon Aspinall, who was a frequent visitor to the On a more cheerful note, it has been good to isle and who died in 2011 at the tragically early age hear that the island’s seabird populations rallied of 50. This fund was set up by Simon’s parents, Jack during the summer of 2014. After years and years and Sylvia, and his brother, Richard, and we are of poor breeding success and declining numbers, looking forward to 2015 perhaps being the first year many species had their best breeding season for that one or more recipients may benefit from it. a long time and we can only hope that this might be a turning point and not just a blip on the A major piece of research that is being funded by graph. Observatory staff continue to monitor the FIBOT is the analysis of the Observatory log data. numbers and breeding success of the isle’s Stretching all the way back to 1948, the Fair Isle seabird populations while RSPB researchers observation logs provide a unique picture of bird spent another season attaching tracking devices migration through the island over some 65 years. to a sample of adult seabirds to enhance our All these data have been digitised and FIBOT have knowledge of just how far they are having to employed Will Miles, one of our previous assistant travel in order to find food. wardens, to analyse them under the supervision of one of our directors, Prof. Jane Reid. The work 2015 sees the start of a three-year national is going well and we look forward to seeing the project to census all of Britain and Ireland’s first draft papers in the near future. Will has seabirds, the fourth time that this has been already given several talks on the subject, raising attempted. Fair Isle, of course, participated in the the profile of the island even more. first of these, Operation Seafarer in the late 1960s and did so again in the Seabird Colony Following on from the traumatic year of 2013 Register of the late 1980s. The work was when the island lost several of its residents or repeated at the millennium for Seabird 2000 and close associates, it is sad to have to report one now, 15 years on, we have to try to do it all again. more loss. Betty Best first came to the island as One thing I know is that, on Fair Isle, it will be the nurse in 1973 and had been a stalwart done with as much diligence and with as great resident until her death in December. That left yet accuracy as anywhere in the country and we look another gap that is impossible to fill. Our sincere forward to seeing the results. condolences go to her husband John and children, Ian, Fiona and Andrew and her grandchildren.