More bird news from BTO. Anyone in Ireland? - see the final paragraph.

Phil

----- Original Message -----
From: "BirdTrack" <birdtrack@...>
To: <phil@...>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 10:27 AM
Subject: BirdTrack update August 2007


Dear BirdTrack recorder

For a great deal of August it felt like summer had truly ended, with rain
and wind a feature of the month. This weather will have had dire
consequences for late breeding attempts and will also have held up
migration. It is thus perhaps not surprising to see so few commoner migrants
around, and many species of warbler were in very short supply. It is still
early for the bulk of autumn migration though, so it will be interesting to
see if numbers pick up.

An all too brief spell of northeasterly winds towards the end of August
brought a few scarce migrants to the east coast, including (exceptionally)
over 30 Greenish Warblers (five of which were on Blakeney Point in Norfolk).
Good numbers of Pied Flycatchers, Whinchats, Red-backed Shrikes and Wrynecks
were also seen. Species on their way out now include Swift, so do keep
sending in lists and we can follow this departure. Compare the early
departure of Swift
(http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s295-20-07.html) with the much
later departure of Sand Martins
(http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s321-20-07.html).

You may have read about Wally the Whimbrel on BirdTrack before, but now we
can follow the travels of Wallace the Whimbrel. 'Wallace' was fitted with a
satellite transmitter in April 2007 at Wheldrake Ings in North Yorkshire and
was then followed up to its breeding grounds in Iceland and is currently in
Guinea Bissau (http://www.whimbrel.info/).

One mystery we've been scratching our heads about recently is the number of
Chiffchaffs being recorded. Feedback from ringers and Bird Observatories
suggests that there are very few around (not surprisingly after such a
flooded summer), but the BirdTrack results seem to show the opposite, with
more Chiffchaff being submitted than the previous two years
(http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s422-20-07.html). It will be
interesting to see how this develops as autumn migrants start to filter into
the country.

The August wallpaper is now live, so do have a look and choose your
favourite. Your choices this month are Whinchat and Marsh Harrier. To set
them as your background, follow the instructions at
http://www.bto.org/birdtrack/wallpaper/index.htm

Lastly, if you live in Ireland or have visited Ireland in the last few
years, BirdWatch Ireland are very keen to receive your bird sightings.
Scarce migrants in Ireland are very unrecorded or reported only anecdotally,
despite their conservation importance. To this end, BirdWatch Ireland are
gathering sightings of scarce migrants in Ireland, so if anyone has any
species lists for the period 2004 to 2006, then please do enter these onto
BirdTrack for download by BirdWatch Ireland.

I hope you enjoy your autumn birding, and we'll see what September brings...

With best wishes

Mark Grantham and the BirdTrack Team