Sep 27, 2023 08:35 PM
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...-in-uk-aoe
INTRO: A record-breaking number of “uber-rare” North American songbirds have arrived in the UK this week, blown over the Atlantic in the aftermath of Hurricane Lee.
More than a dozen species of small songbirds – one of which has never been seen in the UK before – were sent veering off their usual migration routes by the high winds.
It was “the largest such arrival ever recorded in the British Isles”, said Dr Alexander Lees, a reader at Manchester Metropolitan University and the chair of the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee. “One species hasn’t been seen before, and several have only been recorded once or twice.”
Their presence has delighted British birdwatchers, who gathered in their hundreds to spot the avian arrivals. “It is like having your football team winning the Premier League,” said Sophie Barrell, an ecologist with a particular interest in birding, who managed to see all three of the rarest species. She said: “Such a long journey is just an incredible feat because they have come miles and miles. To have multiple birds come over, and survive in this way, has just never happened before in my lifetime.” (MORE - details)
INTRO: A record-breaking number of “uber-rare” North American songbirds have arrived in the UK this week, blown over the Atlantic in the aftermath of Hurricane Lee.
More than a dozen species of small songbirds – one of which has never been seen in the UK before – were sent veering off their usual migration routes by the high winds.
It was “the largest such arrival ever recorded in the British Isles”, said Dr Alexander Lees, a reader at Manchester Metropolitan University and the chair of the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee. “One species hasn’t been seen before, and several have only been recorded once or twice.”
Their presence has delighted British birdwatchers, who gathered in their hundreds to spot the avian arrivals. “It is like having your football team winning the Premier League,” said Sophie Barrell, an ecologist with a particular interest in birding, who managed to see all three of the rarest species. She said: “Such a long journey is just an incredible feat because they have come miles and miles. To have multiple birds come over, and survive in this way, has just never happened before in my lifetime.” (MORE - details)
