Hi all,
Following on from Rohan’s email adding the Indian Cuckoo to the list for Cocos Keeling I thought that I would go back over the reports for the last couple of months and see what had been reported.
David James and Richard Baxter arrived on the islands, each with a birding group, on 27th of November and stayed for about 2 weeks each. David’s group started on Cocos Keeling and Richard’s group started on Christmas Island, and both parties overlapped on CK for a day in the middle. Since then Adrian Boyle and Mike Carter, Rohan Clarke et al visited from 28th December to 4thJanuary and Peter Marsh et al visited from 22 nd January to 1st February. Lisa Preston is resident on CI and has added some birds and there is another group on the islands now, or very soon. Richard Baxter will be back on the islands in March.
The resulting list shows that there has been a staggering number of vagrants arriving at the islands between 27th November 2010 and 1st of February 2011. Over little more than 2 months there have been approximately 22 vagrants identified, many of them firsts for the islands, and a large handful more (10 +/-) have been seen but not fully identified.
I may have missed one or two from the list, especially the ones not identified fully, as the list is drawn from multiple reports. And I have not named all who saw the birds, just enough to indicate approx when they were seen. The list is in no particular order, it is just as I found the birds on the original submissions to B-A etc. It does not include the half dozen or so “vagrants” that are so regular, or seasonally regular, that they are no longer really vagrants, such as Asian Koel, Western Reef Egret, Saunder’s Tern, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Grey Wagtail etc.
Schrenck’s Bittern: Richard Baxter et al
Mossy-nest Swiftlet: Richard Baxter et al
Asian House Martin: Richard Baxter et al
Yellow Bittern: David James et al; Richard Baxter et al
Japanese Sparrow-hawk: Richard Baxter et al
Chinese Goshawk: Richard Baxter et al
Large Hawk-cuckoo: Richard Baxter et al
Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoo: Mike Carter et al; Richard Baxter et al
Pintailed Snipe: Richard Baxter et al
Common Redshank: Richard Baxter et al
Purple-backed Starling: Richard Baxter et al
Watercock: David James et al; Richard Baxter et al
Common Teal: Richard Baxter et al
Cinnamon Bittern: Mike Carter et al
Common Snipe (possible): Mike Carter et al
Pied Harrier (possible): Mike Carter et al
Harrier on C. I. (unidentified): C. I local ranger via Lisa Preston; Peter Marsh et al
Large raptor on CK; Mike Carter et al; Richard Baxter et al (possibly 2 different species).
Large Raptor on CI: found by local ranger at time of visit by Richard Baxter et al
Red Collared-dove: David James et al; Mike Carter et al
Eurasian Hobby: David James et al; Mike Carter et al
Asian Brown Flycatcher: Adrian Boyle et al
Indian Cuckoo: Rohan Clarke et al
Cattle Egret (sp): Peter Marsh et al
“Black passerine”: Peter Marsh et al
“small bittern/heron (unidentified): Peter Marsh et al
Oriental Reed-warbler: Lisa Preston; Peter Marsh et al
Malaysian Night Heron: Mike Carter et al; Lisa Preston
European Roller: Mike Carter et al
Warbler (sp): David James
Jouanin’s Petrel: Richard Baxter et al (off Horsborough Is., maybe seasonally resident or migrant)
Matsudaira’s Storm-petrel: Richard Baxter et al (off Horsborough Is., possibly seen by one person but not confirmed. Just called, well after the event, as a “small bird, like a storm-petrel”)
I guess there are two possibilities for this surge in vagrants, either there are more birds moving around due to current weather patterns or other natural events, or there are more bird watchers looking for them. Perhaps it is a combination of the two. Whichever is the case it has been a great time on the islands and it will be interesting to see what comes up in the next month or so.
And further down the track, will the “event” occur again in November to February 2011/2012?
It would also be interesting to hear if there are more vagrants showing up in the last few months on the west coasts of Java, Sumatra and Malaysia.
Cheers
Jenny ===============================
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