Report on rare birdsin Great Britain in 2012

摘要

This is the 55th annual report of the British Birds Rarities Committee. In general, the crop of rarities in 2012 fell below the level of the exceptional year of 2011. There was no repeat of the extraordinary influx of Pallid Harriers Circus macrourusin the autumn, although the three spring records and one autumn adult would have been an impressive haul in most years. In a similar vein, three Red-flanked Bluetails Tarsiger cyanurus would have been a record year before 1998, but this now seems a poorshowing, in fact the worst since 2005. A generally poor autumn for eastern vagrants on the English east coast also saw numbers of Hume's Warblers Phylloscopus humei return to more typical levels after the glut in 2011, although eastern Locustella warblers put in a good showing, including no fewer than three British mainland Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers L. certhiola (and one Lanceolated Warbler L. lanceolata), species that normally require a trip to the Northern Isles. One of the main events of the autumn was an exceptional arrival of Olive-backed Pipits Anthus hodgsoni, which ensured that 2012 became the last year that the species would feature on the BBRC list. It was interesting to see the number of accounts from finders which suggested that they were intentionally searching for this species when they found it - proof that more or less instant communication of rare-bird news enables rarity hunters to target certain species when they are arriving in good numbers. Buff-bellied Pipit A. rubescens wasanother pipit that appeared in record numbers, with a double-figure total for the first time in a single year.