Late Start Early Finish.

It was a late start yesterday, and by 1.30pm the rain - which lasted until early evening - brought about an early finish by the time I got to Glasson Dock where I found 12 Little Egret assembled on the marsh for the high tide roost about an hour away.

At Conder Green, in the creeks I found only one Common Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank, c.150 Redshank, a single Dunlin and Snipe, and saw House Martins around the Cafe d' Lune area still. On Conder Pool, 2 Wheatear were something of a surprise, with 24 Goldfinch on the thistles, 4 Little Grebe, and a Collared Dove on here was unusual.

A big disappointment as I was looking forward to another good wander again but finished up with a pitiful short list. Some you win, some you loose, talking of which....

The Yellow-breasted Bunting.

Yellow-breasted Bunting Arkive 

The Yellow-breasted Bunting is an extremely rare vagrant to the UK, the first record being of a female found in Norfolk in September 1905, the latest one being of a juvenile at Brownsman, Farne Islands, Northumberland, in September 2013. 

As one of Eurasia's formerly most abundant species, the Yellow-breasted Bunting (YBB) has declined by a staggering 90% and retracted its range by 5,000km since 1980.

High levels of hunting appear to be responsible for this decline of the YBB, and at night time roosts where the birds gather in huge flocks on migration and on wintering grounds, they become easy targets for trapping in huge numbers. The species is known in Chinese as 'the rice bird' and following initial declines, hunting of them was banned in China in 1997, but millions of these and other song birds were still being killed for food and sold on the black market as late as 2013. 

Back in 2001 an estimated one million YBB were being consumed for food in one Chinese Province alone, and the species has now all but disappeared from Eastern Europe, European Russia, large parts of Western and Central Siberia, and Japan. 

Hard to believe that, in the 21st century, man needs to be better educated on the consequences of eating wildlife. 

Homo sapiens....The greatest and most ruthless of all know predator species.

Mega Time!

Rufescent Tiger Heron. Colin Bushell.

With thanks to Colin Busell for the photograph of the Rufescent Tiger Heron in Peru where he is currently searching out the birds/wildlife.

Its MEGA TIME now and the RBA pager is going nuts and the list - including some omissions - at the moment in the UK stands like this....

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler 1908 Dublin.

Yellow-breasted Bunting 1905 Norfolk.

Black-eared Wheatear 1875 Lancashire.

Hermit Thrush 1975 Shetland, Fair Isle.

Green Heron 1889 Cornwall.

Of course all these birds carry with them an interesting history and first UK records are noted above. The Green Herons (GE) first record is obviously interesting in that it was recorded in the very same county as the one there at the moment, that of Cornwall way back in 1889, but the record was later removed from the British List as the birds ability to cross the Atlantic Ocean was doubted, but apparently four days after this bird had been seen on 27 October 1889 two American Bitterns were seen in Ireland and regarded - in connection with the GH - as 'surely not just a coincidence'. The record of the GH had to wait until 1971 before it was resubmitted to the BOURC who subsequently accepted it onto the British List.

Another old record is that of the Black-eared Wheatear the first of which was in 1875 near Bury in Lancashire. Another bird of this species was that of one in Sussex on 28 May 1902 but this individual was involved in the famous 'Hastings Rarities Affair' and was therefore later dismissed. 

It is interesting - though sad - that many of these old records involve birds having been shot in the days when we obviously had a need to become more civilised and caring for our birds and wildlife, even more sad is the fact we still need to rid ourselves of some people who are remnants of the days when wildlife didn't seem to count as important....like the very dear MR KISIEL who I think you should read about, and about who and what I made a comment, on which I have a feeling you may agree with.