Sunday, October 07, 2007

German Cory's Shearwaters - wtf?

We got this today - one of the very valuable updates on WestPal birds -

Rare bird records from Germany 09/2007

Data from Club300 Germany
www.club300.

de
Germany's premier service for rare bird alerts

For each following entry you will find a detailed map at:
www.club300.
de/news

Cory's Shearwater, Calonectris diomedea, Gelbschnabel-
Sturmtaucher
08.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
10.09.2007 1 ind. (Hamburg)
10.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
11.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
11.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
11.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
15.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
15.09.2007 1 ind. (Hamburg)
22.09.2007 1 ind. (Schleswig-Holstein
)
25.09.2007 1 ind. (Schleswig-Holstein
)

etc - plenty Sooties and lots of other good birds


Okey dokey...

There were no Great Shearwaters seen, at all. If I look at BirdGuides for September, away from the west/southwest there was 1 Cory's at Flamborough on 5th September, and 2 'reported' from Titchwell on 24th September. And nothing else. So where are German birders getting all these Cory's from? And where are the Greats - bearing in mind we had 100s in the North Sea, even excluding Orkney, which is a long way away. A quick scan of the dba website suggests the Dutch had one Great Shearwater and 3 Cory's Shearwaters reported in September. What did other North Sea countries get?

1 comment:

JH said...

The Netherlands had 2 Cory's (and a bunch of claims) and 1 Greater this autumn. The German bird might well be the same individual cruising around? Or maybe the Germans are ein bischen stringy?
Cap Gris Nez and Le Clipon had none of either.
Obviously, the Greater Shears all turned round when they ended up in the North Sea.

Jan Hein