General Discussion
Even the hurricanes are good news for Dawlish!
Well, they are if you're a twitcher...
The hurricane season has blown a succession of seldom-seen US birds across the Atlantic to the British Isles.
A spate of transatlantic wader discoveries in Britain include a sparrow-sized semipalmated sandpiper at Devon's Dawlish Warren.
With Hurricane Gustav still raging, there is widespread speculation in birding circles that it will add a new species to the list of birds recorded in Britain - just like in early September 2004 when Europe's first-ever purple martin was found on Lewis on the Outer Hebrides just days after Hurricane Frances.
Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph. http://tinyurl.com/5jffw8
Does anyone know if it's still there? These poor migrants tend not to last too long out of their familiar habitat.
Even if it isn't, the twitchers, you can bet your life will be FLOCKING IN, just in case it is true.
Viaduct wrote:
Do you have any evidence of that? Or is it the start of a rumour that you are so good at?
Might I kindly point you towards the link that I provided.
Thank you.
For me, the reserve is top of the list of the best of Dawlish.
The wardens are very knowledgeable and helpful.
I do like birds but I am not a twitcher. Most of the sparrow-sized birds I see are unidentifiable at a distance and don't hang about for me to get close.
In the unlikely event of my having good binoculars and seeing a palmeate sandpiper well enough to look it up, I would probably assume that it must be something more common. Still, I love the place.