The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2018
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The Birds of Sta ordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2018 1 The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2018 Annual Report 85 Editor D.W. Emley BEM Published by West Midland Bird Club 2020 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, NR8 6RL www.swallowtailprint.co.uk CBP002269 2 The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2018 Annual Report 85 Contents 4 Editorial 5 Submission of Records 6 Birds and Weather 14 Systematic List 222 Ringing Report 241 County Lists 254 A winter roost of Red Kite Milvus milvus in south Warwickshire 256 Lesser Black-backed Gulls at Olton Mere: seasonal and age distributions and correlations with a nearby breeding colony 266 Gazetteer 273 Contributors 278 Index of Species Front Cover Photograph: Black-necked Grebe, Draycote, Claire Workman 3 Editorial I would like to start by welcoming Pete Forbes as the new County Recorder for West Midlands and wish him well in his position. At the same time, we extend our thanks and appreciation to Kevin Clements for his tenure of this post which he has held since 2004. In this Report we have two super articles that really show what the Club members can do. One is a report of a Red Kite winter roost in south Warwickshire – who would have envisaged such a thing not that long ago – and the other a study of Lesser Black-backed Gulls at Olton Mere. From January 2018 the British Ornithological Union adopted the IOC World Bird List (10.1). As we follow the BOU, there are some taxonomic changes in the report, notably that the two subspecies of Bean Goose are now raised to species status. This means that while there were no new species in the Region, Worcestershire has gained one by dint of Taiga Bean Goose being raised to species level. 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 Steve Atkinson, Ian Bollen, Mark Clarke, Theo de Clermont, Alan Dean, Steve Edwards, Dave Emley, Bob Hazell, Phil Jones, John Judge, Hughie King, Derek Lees, Peter Lichfield, Graham Mant, John Oates, Nick Pomiankowski, Richard Rafe, Steve Seal, Mark Sutton, Nigel Talbot, Kevin Wardlaw, Richard Walker, Andy Warr and Claire Workman for making their work available; and above all to the County Recorders and their teams: Warwickshire: Report Writers: Chris Hill and Steve Haynes with thanks to Jonathan Bowley and Tim Marlow. Worcestershire: Report Writers: Steven Payne, Steve Haynes, Gavin Peplow, Craig Reed, Andy Warr. Rarities Committee – Terry Hinett, Gavin Peplow, Rob Prudden, Andy Warr. Staffordshire: Report Writer: Nick Pomiankowski; Rarities Committee: Steve Nuttall, Bernard Smith, Mark Sutton, Steve Turner; Site Report Compilers: Peter Betts, Mike Boote, Ian Grant, Pete Jordan, Steve Nuttall, Russell Toon; Data Input; NDP, Holly Sissons, Matthew Sissons. West Midlands: Report Writer: Peter Forbes, who would like to thank Nick Barlow and David Saunders for their assistance and Steve Haynes for his advice. Once again, we are lucky to have 100 illustrations by 24 members making a valuable contribution to the Report, our thanks go to them and we are sorry that we cannot use all that were sent in. Thanks also go to Claire Workman for her cover photograph of Black-necked Grebe and to Andy Lawrence for preparing the cover. Finally, I would like to thank Mike Dawson and Eng-Li Green of Swallowtail Print, Jim Winsper and my wife Sue, for their support and help during the compilation of this report. David Emley [email protected] 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. All records should be sent to the relevant County Recorder as soon as possible after observation. Postings on Social Media do not constitute a record submission. Failure to inform the relevant County Recorder could result in the sighting going unnoticed and therefore being lost. 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. An up-to-date list of species requiring a description can be found on the Club’s website. Records should be sent to the appropriate County Recorder. Postal addresses can be found on the Club’s Website or in the Newsletter: Warwickshire Chris Hill [email protected] Worcestershire Steven Payne [email protected] Staffordshire Nick Pomiankowski [email protected] West Midlands Pete Forbes [email protected] Records can be sent electronically as Excel, Word, CSV or RTF files. Another alternative that is proving very popular and which members are encouraged to use if possible, is the BTO’s BirdTrack website http://www.bto.org.uk/birdtrack/. Data entered here can be accessed, with permission, by the County Recorder. 5 Irrespective of the inclusion of some notable birds in our Region, the annual total of 233 species in 2018 is down on the previous two years cf. 237 in 2017 and 236 in 2016. The annual variation in the number of species occurring in our Region can be nothing more than coincidental over this short period of time but we can derive much more from the numbers present and the species themselves over an extended period. In this year’s section, storks to egrets, the inclusion of: White Stork, Glossy Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Eurasian Bittern, Cattle Egret, Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Great White Egret and Little Egret is indicative of our changing regional avifauna. This is further highlighted when compared to our report No. 35 for the year 1968 when the same section reported Heron and Bittern (as they were then named). When giving consideration to the aforementioned occurrences in this report, it offers proof that the birds involved are using a suitable regional habitat and, equally important, they are thriving in a suitable climate that has changed considerably over the past 50 years. This selection of species represents birds that are regarded as event species in terms of their significance at regional or county level. A first county record for Worcestershire arrived in the form of a White-fronted Goose of the race Anser albifrons flavirostris (Greenland White- fronted Goose). Elsewhere, the breeding range of Red Kite continues to expand with a pair confirmed as successfully raising young for the first time in the West Midlands. Stone-curlewA found in Warwickshire is just the second record for this species in this named county during a 165-year period. Finally, a Dusky Warbler was a long awaited first record for this species in Warwickshire. Many extreme weather events such as storms with frequent wind speeds in excess of gale force 8 (39-46 mph - Beaufort Scale), heatwaves, droughts, and heavy rainfall with its associated flooding have become more commonplace and intense in the British Isles as a result of global warming. Information that further highlights the increasing warming process is provided by the Met Office’s ‘State of the UK Climate report for 2018’. Fig. 1 shows that the ten hottest years in the UK since 1884 have all happened in the last 17 years. Adapting to this transformation of the worlds climatic conditions will inevitably bring 6 Fig. 1 Beginning with the hottest, the top ten warmest years in sequence are: 2014, 2006, 2011, 2007, 2017, 2003, 2018, 2004, 2002 and 2005. about a change in habits to a great many of Earth’s life forms, especially those that have evolved to thrive in a specific climate or adopted a migration strategy that provides a balanced life. Annual weather assessment 2018 The following represents an assessment of the weather experienced across the UK during 2018 and how it compares with the 1981 to 2010 average. 2018 was warmer than average for the UK, although not as warm as 2017. May, June, July and December were all much warmer than average. It was also a relatively dry year, particularly across the north of the UK, with June a very dry month in the south. This was a very sunny year, particularly May, June and July. Notable extreme events during the year included a spell of severe winter weather in late February and early March. The Met Office issued two Red Warnings, and this was the most significant spell of snow and low temperatures for the UK since 2010. High pressure dominated the summer – the warmest for the UK since 2006, the driest since 2003 and the sunniest since 1995. Some rain gauges in southern England recorded more than 50 consecutive dry days and temperatures exceeded 30 °C fairly widely on 15 days during the period June to early August.