Possibly of interest?

Phil
----- Original Message -----
From: "BirdTrack" <birdtrack@...>
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 5:03 PM
Subject: BirdTrack update - May 2007


Dear BirdTrack recorder

As usual, May was a very busy month, with many of our resident species
already finished breeding and our early migrants still busy feeding chicks
(we have even received a report of an incredibly early brood of Swallows,
with the first nestling hatching in the first week of May). To help us
monitor the timing of breeding and to better map breeding bird
distributions, it is useful if you could record breeding status on your
BirdTrack lists. This is quick and easy to do simply by clicking on the
notebook icon following the species name. Then just click on the most
suitable description on the drop-down list.

Some of our later arrivals are also now becoming more vocal, including
churring Nightjars, purring Turtle Doves and the characteristic
'Wet-My-Lips' call of the Quail. So do keep listening out for these in
suitable habitat.

View the arrival of Turtle Doves at:
http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s272-20-07.html
and compare the pattern of records to the national breeding distribution:
http://blx1.bto.org/bbs-results/results/countmaps/bbs_abund_map_turtle_dove.html

You may like to listen out for BirdTrack on Radio 4. We'll be featuring on a
Radio 4 programme on Monday 4 June (9pm), repeated on Tuesday 5 June (11am),
so do listen out for this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/nature.shtml
If you do miss these, then you can always listen again online at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml

High-pressure weather towards the end of May brought a large number of
overshooting migrants into the country, livening up a few birding days. This
included quite a few Black Kites, Cattle Egrets and a couple of Squacco
Herons. 'Commoner' birds seen by many BirdTrack recorders also included
Common Rosefinch, Red-backed Shrike and Hoopoe. Other impressive spring
migration counts included over 130 Wheatears on Blakeney Point in North
Norfolk (one of the highest ever spring counts at this well known site) and
quite large numbers of Swifts. As summer progresses keep an eye out for
large movements of Swifts, as adults will temporarily abandon their nests
and make long feeding flights around high pressure systems, with the young
birds going torpid (almost hibernating) for days at a time.

Note the apparent lack of a double migration peak for Wheatear this spring:
http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s357-20-07.html
We would normally expect two peaks for the two different races that migrate
though the UK.

Unfortunately though, with these high-pressure systems come thundery showers
(60 hours long in some places!) and these were very bad news for many
breeding birds. We have received many reports of warblers dying in the nest,
and even half a colony of very well grown Little Egrets!

Well we hope you've had an exciting spring so far, and don't forget that the
first autumn migrants are just round the corner...

With best wishes

Mark Grantham
On behalf of the BirdTrack Team