British Birds

January 2010 (Current Issue)

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This Month's Contents
2 Rare breeding birds in the United Kingdom in 2007 Mark Hailing and the Rare Breeding Birds Panel

53 Glaucous-winged Gull in Gloucestershire: new to Britain John Sanders

60 Winter roosting behaviour of Hen Harriers in northern England Peter Middleton

61 Social behaviour of the Egyptian Vulture R. E Parrer and Diana Qairaz

52 Announcements:East Glamorgan and Gower. New taxonomic sequence

65 Letters: Dark rumped storm-petrels and others W R. R Bourne. Swinhoe's Storm-petrels in

Spanish waters Ricard Gutierrez and Juan Antonio Lorenzo

67 Reviews: The Golden Oriole. Echoes from Cape Clear: a year in the life of an Irish island and itsBird Observatory. A Birdwatching Guide to Lesvos. The Nature Guide to the Cévennes and Grand Causses — France. The Nature Guide to the Camargue, La Crau and Les Alpilles – France. Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland {2nd edn)

71 Editorial Roger Riddington

72 News and comment Adrian Pitcher;

76 Recent reports Barry Nightingale and Eric Dempsey

 
Rare breeding birds in the United Kingdom in 2007 Mark Hailing and the Rare Breeding Birds Panel

With the publication of this, its thirty fourth report, the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP] has been compiling and archiving information on rare breeding birds for 35 years. This report presents details of the status of the rarest breeding birds in the UK in 2007. Records are collated from all counties of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern ireland, and also the Isle of Man, but not from the Channel Islands. Most of the information presented is submitted by county and regional bird recorders (hereafter simply ‘recorders’], for whose support we are extremely grateful. The Panel also receives information from a number of other sources, including returns from Schedule 1 licence holders, Raptor Study Groups, information from national surveys, counts from RSPB reserves, and other single-species studies (see Acknowledgments). Coverage In 2007, coverage was broadly similar to that in 2006, with at least some data available from all counties and regions


Red Kite, Milvus milvus, Radnorshire April 2007, Rebecca Nason
Glaucous-winged Gull in Gloucestershire: new to Britain John Sanders

During a visit to record colour-ringed gulls at Gloucester Landfill Site, near Hempsted, Gloucestershire, on 15th December 2006, an unfamiliar gull was discovered. Photographs suggested that it most closely resembled Glaucous-winged Gull Larus glaucescens. During cannon-netting operations the following day, the gull was captured; measurements and photographs established that it was a third—winter Glaucous-winged Gull.This identification was further supported by comments from observers familiar with the species in North America, and by DNA analysis.The bird was relocated at Ferryside, Carmarthenshire, where it was seen intermittently between 2nd and 5th March 2007, then at Beddington Sewage Farm, Surrey, on 18th April 2007, after briefly reappearing at Gloucester Landfill Site on I6th - 17th March. Other records in the Western Palearctic and the species’ distribution in the North Pacific are discussed.


3rd Winter Glaucous-winged gull Larus glaucescens, Gloucester Landfill Site, Gloucesertshire, Dec 2006. John Sanders