Rare Birds, Where and When

RRP 29.99 : Now just £25

Britain and Ireland have been blessed by several analyses of rare birds in recent decades, though it is now nearly 20 years since 'Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland' by Dymond et al published in 1989. This was followed by Rare Birds in Britain 1800-1990 by Lee Evans in 1994 and Keith Naylor’s A Reference Manual of Rare Birds in Great Britain and Ireland in 1996. In 1997 the excellent Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland: A Photographic Record by David Cottridge and Keith Vinicombe hit the shelves, combining pictures and interpretation in one place for the first time.

Since then there has been no attempt to pull together the records for all species presently treated as ‘rarities’ by the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) and the Irish Rare Birds Committee (IRBC)……..until now.

Rare Birds, Where and When: An analysis of status & distribution in Britain and Ireland by Russell Slack does just that and is probably the most detailed analysis and interpretation of rare bird records in Britain & Ireland ever undertaken.

Not only does "Rare Birds, Where and When" deal with all rare species, it also analyses occurrence patterns of rare taxa considered by the committees (for example Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll)

Pictures by Available Light Images and Graham Catley

For each species there is:

• An overview of distribution
• An overview of nomenclature
• An overview of status
• An overview of Western Palearctic or European records
• Discussion of trends, patterns and why species arrive (or not)

For those that have occurred on fewer than 20 occasions there is:

• A complete list of all records, tabulated by county, location date, age, sex, and if applicable racial attribution.

For those that have occurred on more than 20 occasions there is an in-depth analysis:

• A detailed historical review of records, including the first
• Occurrence patterns of records (when was the earliest/latest/peak periods)
• Distribution of records (which areas/sites/regions have received the most)
• Detailed histograms and graphs
• Links to trends

Other features include:

• Finders accounts, usually the one that ‘broke the mould’ or an interesting observation, from British Birds, Birding World and elsewhere
• Maps
• Tables

For each species/subspecies every avenue as to why they occur here is explored and discussed.

For each entry this book attempts to provide the answers to the questions that birders often ask:

• How many recent European records of Pallas’s Sandgrouse have there been?
• What is the racial breakdown of the Oriental Turtle Doves in Britain and the rest of Europe?
• Why is Black-billed Cuckoo rarer than Yellow-billed Cuckoo?
• How successful were the Snowy Owls breeding on Fetlar and how many records of Snowy Owls away from Scotland have there been?
• Why do Pallid Swifts occur with such late autumn frequency nowadays?
• How frequent are Dusky and Naumann’s Thrushes in Europe?
• Does the autumn and winter occurrence pattern of Black-throated Thrushes differ?
• Are Citrine Wagtails becoming commoner, if so why?
• What were the details around the find of the Red-flanked Bluetail that I saw in Dorset in 1993?
• How many accepted Pallas’s Grasshopper Warblers have there been elsewhere in Europe?
• How many pairs of Savi’s Warblers used to breed in England?
• What’s the earliest ever Paddyfield Warbler?
• Are Booted Warblers getting earlier?
• How many Isabelline Shrikes have been subspecifically assigned in Britain and Europe?
• How rare are Northern Long-tailed Tits?
• How many Balearic Woodchat Shrike and Eastern Woodchat Shrikes have there been in northern Europe?
• What was the full extent of the Nutcracker invasion in 1968/69?
• What was the arrival pattern of previous Two-barred Crossbill influxes?
• What’s the Western Palearctic status off all the American wood warblers?
• Why is Summer Tanager so rare in the Western Palearctic compared to Scarlet Tanager?
• What was the best year ever for Rose-breasted Grosbeak?
• Is Yellow-breasted Bunting becoming rarer and what are the chances of seeing one on Fair Isle nowadays.

And much, much, more!!   With a foreword by Ian Wallace and a chapter on vagrancy patterns by Alex Lees & James Gilroy this book will stand as the definitive reference work on rare birds for years to come.

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