The latest ‘Work in Progress’ (WIP) file from the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) holds quite a lot of stunning data, together with Grey Catbird, Red-throated Thrush and Masked Booby submissions.
BBRC releases a file of ‘energetic’ data on an everyday foundation to offer birders with an unofficial update on the progress of submissions. The committee acts because the nationwide adjudicator of sightings of vagrant birds. Its ultimate selections, on whether or not or not it considers data confirmed and involving wild birds, are printed in an annual report in British Birds as an official report.
Among the lots of of data below recent consideration by the committee are a number of birds not broadcast on the time of the sighting.
A Masked Booby listed on the WIP file for Kent in 2022 could be the primary for Britain if accepted; this chook was photographed in Cape Verde (Lee Gregory).
Missed rarities
A reported Red-throated Thrush on St Mary’s in the course of the ‘Scilly season’ final October [2023], when lots of of birders take a break on the archipelago, is at present ‘In Circulation’. The solely earlier British report concerned a male in Essex in 1994, so these on the islands within the hope of such rarities final autumn could be pissed off at probably walking previous this much-desired Asian species.
According to the WIP file, Devon birders probably missed out on a Grey Catbird in Plymouth from 3-8 December 2023, though the 2018 chook in Cornwall allowed many birders so as to add this American vagrant to their British lists. It was seen in a birder’s backyard on three events throughout its six-day keep, although the backyard and surrounding space weren’t thought-about appropriate for a twitch. This report can be nonetheless into account.
The file additionally consists of particulars of eye-catching seabird claims, with a Tufted Puffin at Porthoer, Caernarfonshire, final September – which was reported on the time – and a Masked Booby submitted for North Foreland, Kent, in October 2022, which wasn’t put out on the time. A Kelp Gull at Portland, Dorset, in July 2018, is one other stunning older sighting. Decisions are nonetheless pending on these data.
In 2017, BBRC invited submissions of claims of hybrid birds thought to contain a uncommon dad or mum. According to the WIP file, committee members are at present deciding whether or not an egret current in Lincolnshire for over a 12 months was the results of a blended pairing between Western Reef Heron and Little Egret.
