Local Birds and Wildlife News

from EssentialsMAG April 2023 – South Wrexham Magazine

Legal Advice

By REVEREND HUGH LINN

The word ‘twitcher’ was originally coined to describe those fanatical birdwatchers who literally twitched with paroxysms of delight at the prospect of seeing a very rare bird, or one never recorded in the UK. Over the years, the word has lost much of its force and simply applies to less fanatical folk who are quite happy to observe birds encountered in their everyday lives.

Looking back on my sightings for this time of year, I am surprised at how many rarities I have spotted in and around home. My rarest sighting took place while travelling along Poulton's Straight Mile in April 2016. Alerted by loud bugling calls in the sky above, I grabbed my binoculars and discovered, to my amazement, that the birds concerned were Common Cranes. For 400 years these birds were extinct in the British Isles until a few arrived from the Continent earlier this century. Since then, some have been introduced for captive breeding in nature reserves and numbers are now gradually increasing. Cranes are our tallest British birds and their extinction was largely due to their being very good to eat! Another high ﬂier I have spotted over the years is the Osprey. Several of these sightings have been birds migrating over the Dee, but the best, amazingly, was viewed from my study window.

Gresford Flash has a good record for rare and unusual water birds. Some of the more unlikely sightings have been escapees from wildfowl collections such as Abyssinian Blue-winged Goose, Ruddy Shelduck and Ross's Goose. But most of the natural rarities have just been migrants dropping in for a rest and something to eat such as Black and Little Terns, Black-necked Grebes and Little Gulls. Martins and Swallows are common passage migrants at the Flash. Locally, Red Kite sightings are increasing, but many of our common small birds, like Finches and Sparrows, are now on the ‘Red List’ of seriously endangered species. Ten years ago Yellowhammers could be heard singing their distinctive "Little-bit-ofbread-and-no-cheese" song all round the area but now they are few and far between.

Wrexham Birdwatchers

April meeting: Friday 14th April at 7.30pm at Gresford Memorial Hall. Talk on "Birds of the Galápagos" by speaker, Mike Potts