Rare birds warming to Wales?
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You may remember the blog I did on the rare glossy ibis which was sent in to our Flickr group?
No, not literally! It was a photo...But we are seeing more and more unusual birds appearing here.
I remember when we had a photo of a sent in from Llandovery of all places about 3 years ago.
There aren't many more exotic looking birds you could ever hope to see in Wales than a hoopoe, with it's amazing pink plumage and head crest.
It will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next 20 years or so...
A colleague of mine mentioned he'd seen a shearwater whilst visiting the Isle of Man last weekend?!
I thought they'd be long gone by now, on their way back to South America but he seemed to be fairly sure, and pointed out that he was with some locals who verified it.
I still think he was drunk but the jury is out on that one!
Perhaps the warmer weather has delayed some birds from leaving quite so soon at the end of the summer?
As for visitors - we're currently getting lots of blackbird 'imposters' from Northern Europe, fleeing the Scandinavian winter.
You can tell them apart from our 'resident' blackbirds as they appear to be less settled in your garden and can often be seen acting suspiciously...use your imagination. ;)
You might also see them hanging out amongst flocks of redwing and fieldfare which are beginning to appear on the east coast. Chris Peckham was talking about this on Autumnwatch recently.
If you're a keen bird watcher or wildlife photographer then perhaps you'd like to let me know what unusual species you've come across, so far this year?
Keep an eye out
Gull
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