British Birds

June 2008 (Current Issue)

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This Month's Contents

	276 Rare breeding birds in the United Kingdom in 2005 Mark Holling and the Rare Breeding Birds Panel
	317 Magnificent Frigatebird in Shropshire: new to Britain Richard Bradbury, Mark Eaton, Chris Bowden and Mike Jordan
	322 Letters: A Kermadec Petrel, taxidermists, and judging ancient records Pete Combridge, Lammergeiers again Christopher Carter, Interoceanic ballistic jaegers W. R. P. Bourne
	326 Notes: White-tailed Eagle catching Greylag Goose Martin and Liz Izzard, Jean and John Yeoman, Peregrine Falcon egg breakage Simon S. King, Peregrine Falcons feeding Common Kestrel chicks Phil Johnson Moorhens building nest of goose feathers]. Prank Walsh, Courtship feeding by Black-winged Pratincoles Peter Kennerley Blackbirds eating fuchsia seed pods and flowers John Stewart-Smith
	329 Reviews: A Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds, Birds, The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside, Nature's Engraver: a life of Thomas Bewick, Birds of Tiree and Coli
	332 News and comment Adrian Pitches
	335 Recent reports Barry Nightingale and Eric Dempsey

Rare breeding birds in the United Kingdom in 2005 Mark Holling and the Rare Breeding Birds Panel

This, the thirty-second report of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP), presents details of the status of the rarest breeding birds in the UK in 2005. The Panel The current membership of the Panel (June 2008) is Humphrey Crick, Mark Eaton, Ian Francis, David Norman, Judith Smith, David Stroud and Mark Holling (Secretary). Ken Smith retired from the Panel in November 2007 after 15 years of service, the last 14 as Chairman. On his watch as the Panel's longest serving Chairman, he oversaw the transition from a wholly paper-based archive to the computer database now in use, this having greatly enhanced the ability to use RBBP data to support conservation. Ken was a great ambassador for the work of the Panel and gave considerable support to its members. We are deeply grateful for all his hard work to promote the recording of rare breeding birds in the UK and wish him well in his retirement. Indeed, it will be a retirement, as Ken has also retired from the RSPB recently, leaving him more time for active fieldwork! Mark Eaton, a Research Biologist with RSPB, has replaced Ken, while the Chairman of the Panel is now David Stroud. The individual members of the Panel serve in a personal capacity, but four members also reflect the interests and requirements of both sponsoring bodies, as well as the BTO and the Association of County Recorders and Editors.

Peregrine Flacons Falco peregrinus Manchesyer May 2007 Adrian Dancy

Magnificent Frigatebird in Shropshire: new to Britain Richard Bradbury, Mark Eaton, Chris Bowden and Mike Jordan

Following the passage of Hurricane Wilma from the Gulf of Mexico, up the eastern seaboard of North America and into the northeast North Atlantic in November 2005, an unprecedented number of Nearctic gulls were displaced into western Europe. These included a minimum of 46 Laughing Gulls Larus atricarilla and three Franklin's Gulls L. pipixcan found in southwest England and Wales during the last two months of 2005. Nevertheless, Chris Bowden (CB) was still taken aback by the telephone call he received at RSPB headquarters in Sandy, Bedfordshire, late on Tuesday 8th November 2005. CB often talks to Mike Jordan (MJ), Curator of Higher Vertebrates at Chester Zoo, since they work together on several projects. On this occasion though, CB was astonished to find that MJ was calling to discuss the identification of a male frigatebird Fregata! Hearing the words 'I think my office mates will be interested in that', Richard Bradbury (RB) and Mark Eaton (ME) were soon crowding

Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens, Chester Zoo November 2005, Mark Eaton