One Hundred Years of Notable Avian Events in British Birds Andy Brown
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One hundred years of notable avian events in British Birds Andy Brown ABSTRACT There can be few people with a passion for birds who have not been enthralled by, or envious of others who have witnessed, one or more of the spectacular events to have involved birds in Britain & Ireland. Unsurprisingly, the various editors of British Birds have made a considerable effort to ensure that this journal has been in the vanguard of reporting and documenting these events. his article is intended as a guide to British for BRITISH BIRDS’. They wrote that ‘It shall Birds’ reporting of the principal events be one of our chief aims, but not by any means Tinvolving birds in Britain & Ireland over our only aim, to provide in these pages, month its 100-year history. While opinion will vary as by month, a current history of British birds... to what constitutes an ‘event’, I have tended to Our plan is to make organised enquiries into regard colonisations, extinctions and phe- such questions as the extension or diminution nomena which suddenly affect birds over a wide of the breeding range of certain species, the area or in more than usual numbers – and exact status and distribution of some birds, the preferably both – as events. Those included are effects of protection in certain areas and on dif- a personal selection from the many, often ferent species, the nature of the food of partic- graphic accounts of widespread death and ular birds, and many kindred subjects.’ destruction, of the displacement of birds on Although it made no explicit reference to any spectacular scales and of some quite abrupt intent to report on events in the avian world, changes in the status of our wild birds which such reports quickly occupied the journal’s have graced the pages of BB. They are presented pages. Indeed, in the very first issue, in June by six main themes: the effects of severe 1907, an article by Gurney (1907) gave a strong weather; falls, rushes and hold-ups; the appear- indication that the reporting of significant ance of large numbers of typically scarce events would become a central theme of the species; irruptions; colonisations and extinc- journal. Gurney reported that ‘a violent storm tions; and the human impact. The original of snow and hail... accompanied for at least papers contain a wealth of detailed data and twenty minutes by incessant flashes of light- other information; they also often contain ning... caused a stampede among the horde of much evocative prose and among them are Pink-footed Geese [Anser brachyrhynchus], esti- some of the most exciting papers in the annals mated at nearly four thousand, which usually of British ornithological writing. Together, they make the preserved salt-marshes of Holkham thoroughly document an action-filled, eventful and Wells their head-quarters. These birds, and memorable 100 years. probably terrified by the noise of the thunder and half-blinded by the snow, flew about in all A brief history of reporting avian events in directions, exposing themselves to the electric British Birds fluid, with fatal results in several cases.’ The editorial of the first issue of British Birds The second volume contained several short was used by the journal’s editors for ‘setting accounts of the large numbers of Pallas’s Sand- forth our plans, our hopes, and our ambitions grouse Syrrhaptes paradoxus found in Britain & 214 © British Birds 100 • April 2007 • 214–243 One hundred years of notable avian events in British Birds Ireland in 1908 and, with the third volume, BB watchers who assiduously recorded and tackled its first major event in earnest. The reported their findings. There appears to have preface to Vol. 3 opened with the statement that been a huge appetite for such comprehensive ‘The ornithological event which has excited the reporting and as each successive event occurred, most interest among our readers during the the editors solicited the data required from their year covered by this volume has been, without readers. BB was thus deluged with information doubt, the remarkable irruption of [Common] on all sorts of more or less fascinating occur- Crossbills [Loxia curvirostra]. The widespread rences. Perhaps realising that a sense of perspec- character of the incursion, the large number of tive was required, Ticehurst’s (1911b) note in birds taking part in it, and the considerable Vol. 4 regarding the reported ‘remarkable number of breeding records resulting therefrom migration phenomena’ and ‘wholesale destruc- are unparalleled in the history of previous tion that occurred in the south-east of Ireland irruptions.’ The editors (1910) added that ‘it on the night of March 29–30th, 1911’ rather behoves us to make as complete a record as pos- scathingly cautioned that ‘to those who are in sible of the movement so far as it affects the any way familiar with the subject of migration, British Islands.’ The event was documented in minute detail over nearly 100 pages spread over several volumes. Vol. 3 also contained a colour fold-out map which detailed the extent and progress of the irruption, while Vol. 4 had the Cross- bill as the subject of its fron- tispiece; these being among the first examples of the use of coloured artwork in BB. The events surrounding the Crossbill irruption which began in 1909 evi- dently generated great excitement in the ornitho- logical community and the preface to Vol. 4 lamented that ‘the year covered by our fourth volume has been marked by a steady advance rather than by any very striking event in British ornithology’. It was, never- theless, able to report that ‘The Crossbill irruption and the resultant nesting have again engaged the careful attention of many contribu- tors, and never before has such a visitation been so well and thoroughly recorded.’ That the journal Fig. 1. This coloured plate showing Common Crossbills Loxia curvirostra, was able to produce such a drawn by C. G. Davies from material collected in England in the spring of 1910, comprehensive report was was one of the first instances of colour artwork in BB.The exceptional attributable to the large irruption of Crossbills which began in June 1909 was one of the first ornithological events to really seize the attention of the nation’s birdwatchers, number of active bird- and was covered in detail in the journal. British Birds 100 • April 2007 • 214–243 215 One hundred years of notable avian events in British Birds and have taken the trouble to study the Reports others have scored.’ Tom Harrison’s message of the Migration Committees of the British included the tribute to Witherby and to BB that Association and the British Ornithologists’ ‘No other single person or the periodical he Club, there is no need to conjure up fanciful founded did so much to reorientate and revit- theories to account for this “remarkable phe- alise western ornithology.’ Then of the Sarawak nomenon”… [it is] merely part of the normal Museum, he somewhat wistfully added ‘Ah, that spring-migration of the species concerned, but we had a Bornean Birds as well.’ Presumably, the brought forcibly before the notice of even the not inconsiderable reportage of exciting events most unobservant by a fortuitous combination in the avian world in the journal was in no of circumstances.’ Perhaps he was also just a small part responsible for the revitalisation to little miffed that the events were reported first which Harrison referred. not in BB but in the pages of The Field and the The journal has continued its thorough Irish Times. reporting of significant events in the avian The early accounts of avian events in BB are world and even a cursory perusal of its pages not only exceptionally thorough but they also reveals that few of the 50 years since 1957 have do much to convey the sense of excitement that been uneventful. Understandably, perhaps, must have surrounded the events, especially there has been a tendency to give less compre- when viewed alongside such relatively pedes- hensive treatment to events which have not trian contemporary contributions as ‘On a sup- been of record magnitude or which have essen- posed egg-daubing habit occasionally exhibited tially repeated earlier events, this especially by the [Western] Jackdaw [Corvus monedula]’ since the appearance of the seasonal and annual (Wigglesworth 1910), on ‘The Tradescant reports in the late 1980s. Nevertheless, and Museum’ (Mullens 1911) and the debate con- while several younger journals and internet cerning ‘unequal wing strokes in flight’ joined websites now report events almost as they by Headley (1910) and Seaby (1910), among happen, BB continues to be the place to publish others. It is thus perhaps a little curious that the comprehensive overviews of the great avian 11-page editorial entitled ‘The First Fifty Years’, events of our time. And, whatever their scien- published in the June 1957 issue, makes no tific merit, there can be few contributions to the explicit mention of notable events in the bird journal which have done as much to excite, world or the role of BB in reporting them. Fur- inspire and enthuse ornithologists, young and thermore, it is only evident from one of the 35 old, in the study of the birds of these islands. ‘Anniversary Messages’ that such reports had been of interest to readers: Dr G. A. Brouwer of Effects of severe weather the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in For the most part, the effects of weather on Leiden, The Netherlands, wrote that ‘I find that birds go unnoticed, but when birds are dis- many papers come to my memory again: the placed, injured or killed in unusual numbers 1909 irruption of Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) during unseasonal or exceptional weather, the illustrated with maps, ..