BirdTrack News Archive

Although spring migration is over there are still some interesting migrant sightings. It is a sign of their increased population that the past week saw plenty of wandering Osprey sightings, including from "less traditional" areas such as Dorset, Kent, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Suffolk. This is a species that could well turn up almost anywhere at almost any time between March and October! If you are not lucky enough to catch up with one, do check out the various Osprey "Date with Nature" sites around the country, including Glaslyn in Wales, Bassenthwaite in the Lake District and Aberfoyle in Scotland.

Recently Mark Avery, RSPB Conservation Director, wrote on his blog after doing some analysis of Spotted Flycatcher and Turtle Dove from his personal BirdTrack records. Mark's first sightings of Spotted Flycatcher from his office at The Lodge in the 1990s showed a trend of being later each year. First arrival date is not a very useful statistic in analyses since it is only looking at extreme individuals rather than the population as a whole, but we can get a good idea from just looking at BirdTrack graphs when the main arrival of a species is. We can see that 2009 is later than 2008, but actually 2008 was earlier than 2007, and 2006 earlier than 2005. So at least over a brief period this is inconclusive. (Read more about Mark's analyses in June's BirdTrack email update, coming soon to your inbox.)

Finally our best wishes go out to Howard and Felicity Woods who are nearing the end of their Lands End to John O'Groats cycle ride, raising money for the BTO and other charities. Do say hello to them if you see them somewhere north of Inverness.

We are probably at the low point of the summer as far as migration goes, with spring birds now quieter and involved with breeding activities and the first returning waders a few days away.

Many birders will have enjoyed a couple of relatively showy Marsh Warblers in the last week. Birds at Amwell Gravel Pits in Hertfordshire and Otmoor in Oxfordshire were particularly well appreciated. Marsh Warblers have always been rare in Britain, peaking at just over 100 breeding pairs but down to 6-8 pairs in 2005. Although difficult to identify, spring birds are likely to be in song, which is an amazing, rambling mix of mimicry amidst a few acrocephalus sounds - listen to one from the Netherlands at Xeno Canto.

Interestingly more records of Marsh Warblers in recent years have come from the north and east, with breeding records from Orkney and Shetland. This ties in with the wider picture: the EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds (Hagemeijer & Blair, 1997) describes dramatic increases in Scandinavian populations and it is clear that this species, on the edge of its range in Britain, is generally expanding northwards.

Finally a couple of BirdTrack tips:

You can use a single column format for entering species lists, rather than the two column format. This makes it easier to add breeding status to your records, and makes them more valuable for the Bird Atlas. When logged in click on your name or "My Details & Settings" to change your preference

Also from "My Details & Settings" please check that your email address is correct so you can receive BirdTrack monthly update emails.

Much of Britain enjoyed balmy summer weather this week, although thunderstorms were widespread through the latter half of the week. Spring migration activity has certainly slowed down. However now is the time to see newly fledged birds around (and to capture breeding status in your records to BirdTrack so that they are extra valuable for the Bird Atlas).

In past weeks we've highlighted various summer migrants that have cause for concern due to declining numbers. Many familiar species including Cuckoos, Spotted Flycatchers and even Willow Warblers show significant declines. One major difficulty in assessing reasons for such declines is that knowledge of conditions, e.g. habitat and foot, on the wintering grounds in Africa are very poorly known. Some exciting new research is intended to address this through cooperation with RSPB and BirdLife International partners in Africa, and you can read more about it at Out of Africa.

If bird activity has slowed down for you, why not consider helping Butterfly Conservation in their week-long Garden Moths Count? This is a survey that hopes to promote interest in observation, recording and conservation of the 900+ species of larger moths in the UK.

Those of you who follow BBC Springwatch will have noticed a focus on Cuckoos, a species that for many no longer heralds the arrival of spring following a 37% decline in numbers since just 1994. The BBC asked for viewers to send in their cuckoo sightings (or hearings) and we have now plotted the responses. The results from BirdTrack seem broadly similar to last year, with a small peak in reporting rate recently probably an artefact of the extra publicity!

Now that we really are in to summer rather than spring (apologies if you are curently experiencing some of the recent torrential rain and thunderstorms) it is worth looking at some typically late migrants:

Spotted Flycatchers are clearly in short supply - an already red-listed species following declines of 81% in 25 years

Nightjars seem comparable with previous years, although this is a difficult species to analyse based on BirdTrack data: note the peak reporting rate in late May coinciding with the warmest weather of the year so far - more a sign of birdwatcher activity than Nightjar activity!

Finally news of another interesting satellite migration study comes from an ex BTO colleague Mark Collier, now working in the Netherlands. Ten Purple Herons on their Dutch breeding grounds have been fitted with transmitters in a project that aims to find more about their migration routes and identify important feeding sites. Four of the ten have now made it back to the Netherlands and you can follow their progress on the Wetlands International 'Follow the Bird' website.

Forgive the self-indulgence with the photo this week. There's not much chance of Ibisbill ever appearing on BirdTrack but displaying birds on a river at about 3000m altitude were a highlight of my recent holiday in Uttarakhand, India. Surely Ibisbill must be on every birdwatcher's list of "must-see" birds?

Back in Britain we are near the end of spring migration. A few species seem to have had poor reporting rates during the end of May, such as House Martins, whilst Cuckoos have seen a small spurt. The latter may well be due to increased publicity following the publication of the latest "Red and Amber Lists" of birds of conservation concern in Britain - the once familiar cuckoo is now red-listed following continual decline over the past decades. Because of its parasitic nature this is a difficult species to confirm breeding - if you do notice a young one being fed by foster parents please ensure you record a suitable breeding code in BirdTrack.

A BirdTrack contributor reported a colour-ringed Spoonbill in Devon earlier this spring. We have just heard back from the Dutch working group on Spoonbills that it was ringed as a nestling in the Netherlands in June 2007, was first seen in Britain on the River Taw near Barnstaple in Devon in November 2007 and has since had an interesting journey across England, being seen in Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cheshire and Devon again, with a month spent back in the Netherlands in May/June 2008.

The map below shows this bird's movements around Europe, with the different pins marking the different stages of its journey. You can navigate the map as normal by double clicking and panning.

View Spoonbill in a larger map.

Following another week of unsettled weather with gusty winds and widespread showers, seawatchers in the north-west have continued to be treated to a passage of skuas with over 375 Long-tailed Skuas past Aird an Runair, North Uist, though Pomarine Skua numbers fell off this week with 150 counted off Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway and Western Isles. Migrants such as Nightjars and Honey Buzzards returned to their breeding sites whilst a bit of colour has been introduced with a sprinkling of Bee-eaters and a few Woodchat and Red-backed Shrikes and Melodious Warblers. Wader-watchers were treated to a Terek Sandpiper in East Yorkshire followed by two Buff-breasted Sandpipers in neighbouring South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.
Away from birds, we are currently experiencing the largest invasion of Painted Lady butterflies this century, with counts of many thousand passing through many sites down the east coast, possibly originating from North Africa.

The weather this week has been a little more unsettled due to the west-south-west winds that have originated in the Atlantic. This has meant that seawatchers have been treated to a steady passage of skuas. On the 17th 81 Pomarine, 51 Great and 5 Arctic skuas were counted on passage in just over one hour. Land-locked counties weren’t completely left out. A Pomarine Skua was found at Belvide Reservoir in Staffordshire on the 15th.

Notably, 40 Hobbies were counted together at Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk and a single flock of 300 Common Terns were seen feeding off Southend Pier.

House Martin numbers are still low compared with previous years, hopefully they will return to breeding sites over the next week or two. To take part in this years House Martin survey click here.

Friday 22 May is the International Day for Biological Diversity, the theme of which is non-natives. For more information see the BTO homepage.

Quite a mixed bag weather-wise this week starting with cold weather including ground frosts in the south and parts of Scotland, and heavy showers in the north and west accompanied by strong westerly winds. This later gave way to an easterly airstream with winds in the English Channel reaching gale force. As expected we saw the first major arrival of Swifts and other typically later migrants such as Turtle Dove and Spotted Flycatcher began to pick up numbers. On the coast seawatchers at last started to get some tern passage: this included a few Black Terns and there were many inland sightings, including at least 56 at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire.

Ring Ouzel is one bird that shows a nice migratory pattern on the BirdTrack graphs. You might think that 2009 has been a poor spring, but in fact it is probably 'normal', with particularly good years in 2007 and 2008. In fact a similar pattern of two good years followed by two poorer ones can be seen in earlier years: see 2005-2006 for example.

A couple of interesting nestcams were brought to our attention this week:

Kestrels near Weymouth from Dorset Wildlife, with three eggs laid so far

Goshawk in the New Forest, where the chicks hatched this week

Apologies in advance if you don't get a response to BirdTrack emails over the next two weeks, but I'm off on holiday to the 'hills' in Uttarakhand for some cooler weather...

The weather has been a little more unsettled this week with strong winds and rain in the north and moderate to strong, predominantly south-west to westerly, winds in the south.

The beginning of the week was better for migration watchers with reasonable numbers of migrants at coastal watchpoints, including the first mass arrival of Common Swift, although numbers do seem to be down on previous years. This seems to be the pattern for many species, with several participants emailing in to the House Martin survey to say that their House Martins have not arrived yet; for some this will be the latest that they will have ever arrived to breed, whilst others are early having got here before the occurrence of bad weather further south.

Wader migration picked up this week with several inland reports of Whimbrels, Dunlins and Common Sandpipers, the latter in much lower numbers than in previous years, but coastal watchers have had a poor spring so far: where are those Common Terns? Whilst the BirdTrack graph doesn't show it, since many birds have turned up at regular inland sites, coastal passage has been very poor. South coast watchers haven't yet been treated to a spring show of Poms either, although larger numbers have made it to the north-west, especially either side of the Solway at Bowness in Cumbria and Newbie in Dumfries and Galloway, and at Aird an Runair on North Uist where a total of 1,148 were recorded from 2^nd-8^th May (with 128 Long-tailed Skuas between 4^th-8^th). Seawatchers everywhere will be hoping for more over the next week.

There has been a scattering of southerly overshoots this week which have included one or two Woodchat Shrikes, Purple Herons, yet more Cattle Egrets and a single Bee-eater in Suffolk. The surprise of the week has been the long-staying, at least for a swift, Pallid Swift in Lancashire that turned up on the 30 April and is still present.

Finally some announcements:

This weekend is World Migratory Bird Day. This is a global campaign aimed at highlighting the need to protect migratory birds and their habitats, focussing this year on 'barriers to migration'.

BirdTrack is part of MuckIn4Life, conservation volunteering for all the family, with other activities ranging from bat-detecting to pond-desludging.

On 8 May 1909 a Lapwing was caught and ringed by ornithologists at Aberdeen University. Thus, 36 million ringed birds later, we are celebrating 100 years of bird ringing.

The weather this week has again been largely settled, fairly warm and sunny, although with some more rain. Winds have remained light and predominantly south to south-westerly. Although conditions in the UK may have seemed ideal for the arrival of migrants this has not been the case, with only small numbers at migration watchpoints. Rain in northern France and further south near the Pyrenees may be holding up new arrivals.

Swifts have been widely scattered but slightly later than in previous years and in no real numbers as yet. The block in migration is quite evident from the reporting rate graphs for some other species as well, including Wood Warbler and Pied Flycatcher, which show an initial arrival in line with previous years but a slowdown over the past two weeks.

Those interested in scarce and rare migrants had better luck this week, firstly with an unprecedented influx of Whiskered Terns, starting with a flock of 11 being seen at Willington Gravel Pits in Derbyshire. These eventually dispersed and birds were then seen in several other counties, including one in Northern Ireland.

Another surprise was a stunning 1st-summer male Collared Flycatcher in gardens at Portland, with rarer still to come in the form of a Crested Lark at Dungeness.

Whilst we may be eagerly awaiting summer arrivals it is equally fascinating wondering where our winter visitors go to. A remarkable satellite tracking study on Woodcock is providing new insights into this.

In the past week there has been a lot of sunshine and warmer than usual temperatures for the time of the year. Last weekend was also very sunny although with a chill north or north-easterly wind there wasn't the rush of migrants many birdwatchers would have been hoping for. However several inland parties of Little Gulls and Arctic Terns included good flocks of the former at Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire, Carsington Water in Derbyshire, and an impressive 45 at Staines Reservoirs in London.

By mid-week the wind turned southerly and these light winds prompted a surge in migration. Particularly good numbers of Grasshopper Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats arrived.

As usual the Portland Bird Observatory website makes for fascinating reading: check out April's pollen-stained Blackcaps (and details of a study of pollen on migrating warblers by Dr Matt Wood), an excellent photo illustration of Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler differences and a Greenfinch with both male and female characteristics.

The winds remain light as we go into the weekend and are are set to turn south-easterly; with some drizzle forecast as well this bodes well for migration. It could be a nice birdwatching dilemna for coastal birders - do I look for grounded migrants or hope for some nice seabird passage?!

In the BirdTrack office we welcome queries via email at birdtrack@bto.org. I was delighted when opening one identification query this week to see a photograph of a fine Woodchat Shrike! An excellent find for someone who regularly watches their south Devon coastal patch, and hopefully an encouragement to all to get out BirdTracking as we enter one of the busiest and most exciting times of the year for both migration and breeding.

Pleasant weather with lots of sunshine and light, predominantly south-westerly winds, provided good conditions for birdwatchers being out in the field, although relatively poor visible migration at major watchpoints. However, with plenty of new records in to BirdTrack it does seem that a number of migrants have overflown watchpoints and returned straight to their breeding territories.

Locally we're aware of good numbers of Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, Blackcaps and Sedge Warblers on territory and this is borne out on a wider scale by the BirdTrack graphs which show all of these arriving earlier than in the last two years. Reed Warblers too have started arriving from 1st April, with our own Garden BirdWatch man Mike Toms enjoying his earliest ever at Thursley Common in Surrey.

We have recieved a number of reports through the House Martin survey of birds arriving back on territory, including one pair three weeks earlier than in previous years at one house in Scotland. This is an easy survey to take part in so please help us be able to compare with 2008 results.

A migration highlight for regular watchers of inland waterbodies is the brief presence of flocks of Common Scoter and we've had several records this week, including 22 at Brogborough Lake in Bedfordshire, and even 4 on the lake in Richmond Park, London.

Finally a quick update from Nimrod: now back at his nest after a fascinating journey.

Generally good weather this week, and seemingly with more to come, so migrants continue to arrive. Here's a quick summary so far for some migrant warblers.

Sedge Warbler - in a little early

Reed Warbler - first arrivals here and look to be early

Whitethroat - first wave looks to be on time

Blackcap - apparently better numbers than last year's poor showing

Willow Warbler - similar to Blackcap, being on time and in good numbers compared to last year

In last week's update we mentioned a little bit about raptor migration. Now whilst in the UK we might not be privileged with such spectacles elsewhere in Europe such as Falsterbo and Gibraltar, Ospreys are a scarce migrant throughout the UK and satellite-tracking can reveal some fascinating accounts of their migratory journeys, such as that of Nimrod, currently somewhere in the UK!

The Easter weekend usually prompts many records of migrants, in part because of the extra opportunity to get out in the field. Look out for a further update next Friday to see how things have progressed.

Last week's update showed a fine picture of a male Garganey: an excellent prediction because yesterday we were treated to the first ever record of Garganey on the Nunnery Lakes reserve at the BTO! I'm tempted to show a Black Kite photo this week to see if my luck continues, but instead it's a great comparison shot of a couple of raptors that have both had some interesting reports this week. Whilst Ospreys delighted many observers across the country, the more intriguing movements were from Buzzards. At Titchwell in Norfolk 22 Buzzards were recorded passing west or southwest in just three and a half hours on 29th March, and there have been several other reports of apparent passage in the east of England at least. Reporting rates show a distinct rise recently, for a bird that was extremely rare in this part of the country just 20 years ago. In fact results from the Breeding Bird Survey (and its predecessor the Common Birds Census) suggest that its population has increased 518% from 1970 to 2006, an increase greater than any other species with large enough sample sizes to monitor trends effectively. See The State of the UK's Birds 2007 for more information.

In the past few days high pressure with southerly winds prompted another migration 'push'. 200 Willow Warblers were seen at Portland on a couple of recent days and we can expect a big arrival in the next two weeks if the last two years reporting rates are representative. With plenty of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs present, now is the time to practise your identification skills with the help of this excellent article from Birdwatch magazine.

Winter finches are certainly dispersing with reporting rates well down for Siskin for example. Many of these will have left the country by now, two birds ringed at this time last year being recovered later in Russia.

It's an exciting time at the moment with everyone looking out for new spring migrants. With pleasant, clear and relatively warm weather during the first half of last week there were plenty of arrivals. There were several reports of Blackcaps, but overall reporting rates show little change compared to throughout the winter, which would suggest a movement of more locally wintering birds throughout the country rather than an arrival of African winterers. This is in contrast with Chiffchaffs which show a definite arrival trend.

Of scarcer early migrants, both Garganey and Little Ringed Plover have had increased reporting rates compared to the past two years and, although the sample size is small, it will be interesting to see whether this trend continues through the spring and into the breeding season. There was a westerly bias to the several records of migrant Hoopoes in the past week, including four in Ireland; only one of these birds (from Pembrokeshire) has made it into BirdTrack so please, if you've seen one, make sure you submit it.

Of course, a week is a long time in British weather and typically there was plenty of more wintry fare on offer, and a slowdown to spring migration towards the end of the week. Sharp frosts would have been a shock to early migrants expecting warmer climes, and those that have reached Scotland may well have been confronted with hail and snow. Plenty of recorders commented on good numbers and variety of birds feeding in their gardens, including several people who have emailed us about their first garden records of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll. Fieldfares have still been recorded in flocks of hundreds at a few sites. Finally, although a count of 1000 Scaup on the Solway Firth a few weeks ago must have been quite a sight, this is actually not that large a number for a site that regularly holds the majority of the British wintering population!

Early migration has been in full swing this week, with light easterly winds, clear blue skies and warm sunshine (at least in some parts of the country). These conditions are perfect for the arrival of migrants, with day counts of Wheatears in double figures at a few south coast sites (and an impressive 200 at Portland Bill on 19 March), with smaller numbers as far north as Argyll, Lothian and Tiree. Swallows are trickling in and there has been a strong and widespread arrival of Sand Martins.

Other classic March migrants have been well represented, with good numbers of alba wagtails, Meadow Pipits, Chaffinches (with a count of 2,135 Chaffinches recorded at Abbotscliffe in Kent on 19 March), Bramblings and Siskins, all being seen during visible migration watches at coastal watchpoints. Note that spring Chaffinch numbers generally are down on previous years, which is an interesting trend.

For many people the past week produced their first singing Chiffchaffs of the year, whilst a well-fed Blackcap which turned up in a mist-net in a BTO ringer's Norfolk garden may well have arrived from southwest Europe. Scarcer migrant species included an early Alpine Swift at Portland, Dorset; with a Serin also in Dorset, Hoopoe at Bardsey Bird Observatory and Black Kite in Yorkshire, also unusual visitors from further south.

For many people migrants may not have appeared yet, but spring signs are there to see with breeding activity commencing for many resident birds, this being a good time to find sharply declining species such as Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Willow Tit. I watched a nice male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming a few days ago at a site in Norfolk, but it highlights the serious concern for this species that there was a mini-twitch to see this bird! Please please make sure all your sightings are reported to BirdTrack.

Having just spent a lunchtime out watching displaying Goshawks and listening to singing Yellowhammers and Woodlarks, spring is definitely in the air in Norfolk. For many early breeding species such as Goshawk (and Crossbill) now is the time to get out and see these birds.

Further south, a greater variety of migrants are beginning to trickle in, and we have been receiving records of Hobby, House Martin, Stone Curlew, Sedge Warbler, Yellow Wagtail and White Wagtail. White Wagtail is the so-called nominate race of what we know as Pied Wagtail, and some of these migrants will be en route to breeding sites in the Faeroes and Iceland. Identification isn't straightforward though, with only adult males being really distinctive. For more details on the identification and taxonomy of this group, their Wikipedia entry is a good place to look.

Conversely, there are still plenty of winter visitors around. One count of 250 Fieldfare in the West Midlands was notable, but sightings have been widely spread across the country. If you still have birds, then do keep submitting them online!

Other notable counts recently have included an incredible 200 Red Kite at the feeding station at Gigrin Farm (Powys), 205 Pochard at Cantley (Norfolk), 155 Tree Sparrow in Lancashire and 150 Goldfinch at Scotstown (Co Monaghan).

Spring doesn't strike us as the best time of year to see wildfowl, but we've had a good run of records recently, including 217 White-fronted Geese on the Isle of Sheppey (Kent), 61 Goldeneye off Titchwell (Norfolk) and 120 at Musselborough (Lothian), and plenty of Scaup. The highest counts of this mostly seagoing duck were 49 in the Montrose Basin (Angus) and 29 off Grangemouth (Falkirk), but there were inland records of 5 in Lincs, 2 at Frampton (Gloucs), 6 at Rutland Water, 5 at Blithfield Reservoir (Staffs) and 3 at Beesands Ley (Devon).

Interestingly, the Turtle Dove is still surviving the winter in Norfolk, and other 'summer' visitors dropping in included Swallow in Warwickshire (20 Feb), two Sand Martins in Sussex (27 Feb) and an exceptionally early Whinchat in Northumberland (22 Feb).

For anyone wondering, thankfully the oil spill off the southern Irish coast dissipated last week, so a disaster was averted!

News of the week for me (with a slightly different hat on) was the possibility of another large oil spill. Last weekend an incident involving the flagship of the Russian navy, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, occurred 50 miles south of the Old Head of Kinsale, Co Cork. Somewhere between 300 and 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil were spilled, and a slick over 5 miles wide is now tracking eastwards, 30 miles off the southern Irish coast. It is possible that this will wash up on British shores in 10-15 days, when it will have formed into sticky tar balls, with obvious impacts on seabirds.

Far more pleasant news was the fact that our spring Siskins seem to be on the move. Numbers peak in many areas in March, and we have seen a distinct increase over the last week or so. Many will appear in gardens at this time, and the provision of niger seed or just red peanut bags will bring birds down to feed.

We're still receiving a few reports of Little Stints from around the country, and the wintering population does seem to be increasing year on year. In the past we've seen similar increases in Greenshank and Whimbrel, and perhaps we'll also soon be seeing more Spotted Redshank and Curlew Sandpiper.....

Two interesting sightings last week were a Sand Martin in Cornwall (at the same site as the wintering Swallow) and a Swallow in Oxfordshire, and its interesting to ponder if these are likely to be early returning migrants or birds that have wintered locally in Europe.

Nest Box Challenge
This last week saw the start of National Nest Box Week, and is THE time to be putting up a nest box in time for the summer. You can also contribute to our understanding of nesting habits by joining the online Nest Box Challenge. For more details about nest boxes, nesting birds and nest recording, visit the NBC pages here.

The BTO Ringing Unit received a very strange batch of ringed birds last week. It isn't often the office receives reports of foreign-ringed Woodcock, but this particular batch had four in it - there from Russia and one from Poland. In 100 years of ringing, this is only the second Polish-ringed Woodcock reported from Britain and Ireland, and we have had fewer than 400 from Russia. So this one week's worth of records was exceptional, and I do wonder if this was related to thwe freezing weather. Full moons do see more Woodcock on the move though (called Woodcock moons in the autumn), so this may be part of the explanation.

The snow has also forced some birds into unlikely situations, with large gatherings of Fieldfare and other thrushes in orchards and gardens.

Our run of unusual winter visitors continues as well, with records of a wintering Turtle Dove in Norfolk and Sedge Warbler in Warwickshire. These are not entirely unprecedented occurences, but are still very noteworthy!

As another snowy spell comes through the country, times are hard for many of our winter birds. We would normally expect a big cold weather movement in these conditions, but so far there's been little evidence of this. There have increasing records of inland 'sawbills' (such as Smew and Goosanders), but there aren't the movements of thrushes, waders and finches that we might expect. The only large groups reported last week included 202 Pintail (a record count for this Devon site), 136 Stock Dove (Greater Manchester), 1500 Fieldfare (Kent), 200 Corn Bunting and 500 Goldfinch (East Yorkshire) and 340 Chaffinch (Worcestershire).

Records of other scarce winter visitors are also coming in, including good numbers of Water Pipit, Hawfinch and scarce grebes.

Its amazing to think that during these cold snaps, some so-called summer visitors still manage to survive. Records of birds hanging on include a Yellow Wagtail in Avon and a Swallow at Marazion in Cornwall. The latter site was home to four birds until recently, with an earlier cold spell killing three, and the last bird is surviving on insects in a 20m by 4m patch of seaweed washed up against the sea wall.

Last week saw an influx of Iceland and Glaucous Gulls into the country. St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly counted two adults, a second Winter and two first winter Glaucous Gulls, along with an adult and two first winter Iceland Gulls and a single first winter Kumlein’s Gull. Records of these birds haven’t been confined to coastal sites with several being seen on inland reservoirs, particularly coming in to roost.

A good find this week was the male Penduline Tit at Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk; this takes the number of birds reported in the UK this month up to five. Like the bird in Devon, the Suffolk bird spent its time feeding unobtrusively on reedmace heads. Checking out this particular habitat during the winter months might well lead to more being found.

Whilst most birds are firmly settled into their wintering areas, thrushes have begun to move north with flocks of both Redwing and Fieldfare a feature of the BirdTrack submissions this week. With the supply of berries in fairly short supply it might be time to try and attract these species into the garden by putting out a few apples. Garden BirdWatch results show that Redwing and Fieldfare peak in gardens in January.

The BTO’s home town of Thetford had its first record of Waxwings this winter when two arrived on Sunday morning; they didn’t hang around being seen to fly off north soon after they were found. This is another species that could just about turn up anywhere over the next few weeks as flocks search ever wider for supplies of berries.

Red-throated Divers are still a feature of south coast seawatches, with good numbers of birds reported moving east up the channel past Hengistbury Head in Dorset.

The last week has seen good numbers of Red-throated Divers passing coastal watchpoints, with at least 106 passing Portland Bird Observatory, see www.portlandbirdobs.org.uk and one bird reaching an inland site in the Midlands, being picked up dead at Draycote Water, Warwickshire on the 14th.

As waterbodies have thawed during the week, wildfowl have begun to move with Goosanders turning up on the BTO’s Nunnery Lakes Reserve over the last few days and 500 Coot recorded on Chasewater, Staffordshire on the 14th, and high counts of Snipe are also coming in, so it is worth keeping an eye on any local ponds and lakes.

The number of records of Siskins and Redpolls are also picking up as these birds move into riverside alders to feed, with smaller numbers being reported at garden feeding stations.

On the coasts, another bird to look out for is Fulmar. The cold weather has pushed birds down into the North Sea, including a few northern 'blue' Fulmars. There have been quite a few birds found dead in The Netherlands, so we are keen to hear of any large numbers of dead birds you might find.

Happy New Year to all our BirdTrack recorders, and with your help we'll see BirdTrack continue to grow and develop during 2009.

This recent cold snap will result in a bit of a reshuffle of birds in the country. Many birds will move south and west to seek warmer temperatures, and some will also be moving into gardens to find food and particularly water. So its well worth keeping an eye out for species such as Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting in the garden, and winter duck and perhaps Smew at your local gravel pit.