British Birds

September 2000

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This Month's Contents

	414 - Twitching and taxonomy Dr Martin Collinson
	415 - The European Bird Report – passerines Colin Davies and Dr J. T. R. Sharrock
	428 - Non-native birds breeding in the United Kingdom in 1998 Dr Malcolm Ogilvie and the Rare Birds Breeding Panel
	435 - Lesser Sand Plover in West Sussex: new to Britain and Ireland Jack Hunt
	442 - The Purple Swamp-hen in Cumbria in 1997 Dr Alan Knox, Dr Tim Melling and Roger Wilkinson

The European Bird Report – passerines Colin Davies and Dr J. T. R. Sharrock

This biannual feature was inaugurated 23 years ago (Brit. Birds 70: 218). These compilations provide the only reliable, continent-wide report on population trends and significant, nationally accepted records of rarities. Some of the highlights in this forty-seventh compilation include:
First breeding by Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola in Armenia, Estonia, Slovakia and Switzerland
First Black-throated Accentor Prunella atrogularis in France
Flock of 25 Siberian Thrushes Zoothera sibirica in Poland
First Upcher’s Warbler Hippolais languida in Greece
First Marmora’s Warblers Sylvia sarda in Belgium and the Iberian Peninsula
First Ménétries’s Warbler S. mystacea in Cyprus
Irruption of Eurasian Jays Garrulus glandarius into Denmark and Latvia in autumn 1999
Irruption and breeding of Rosy Starlings Sturnus roseus in Bulgaria in spring 2000
Irruption of Pine Grosbeaks Pinicola enucleator into Scandinavia in autumn 1998
Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea, Palm Warbler D. palmarum and Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas in Iceland in a ten-day purple patch in 1997
First Pallas’s Reed Bunting Emberiza pallasi in Portugal

Cerulean Warbler

Lesser Sand Plover in West Sussex: new to Britain and Ireland Jack Hunt

On 14th August 1997, a bird thought to be an adult Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii in breeding plumage was found on the mudflats of Pagham Harbour, West Sussex. Subsequently, with the aid of photographic evidence, its real identity became apparent and was confirmed as Lesser Sand Plover C. mongolus, of one of the eastern races in the ‘atrifrons’ group. The bird stayed only three days, being last seen on 16th August

Lesser Sand Plover

The Purple Swamp-hen in Cumbria in 1997 Dr Alan Knox, Dr Tim Melling and Roger Wilkinson

The evidence suggests that the Purple Swamp-hen Porphyrio porphyrio watched and photographed in Cumbria in October 1997 was an escape from captivity rather than a wild vagrant.