Recent Atlantic records of Elegant Tern (Sterna elegans)

Some information on records of apparent Elegant Terns in the Atlantic, derived from various sources and originally inspired by a posting by Laurent Raty, Brussels, Belgium, on the ID Frontiers website (http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdwg01.html) in Week 4, February 2001. Updated with recent records to date as far as possible - please advise of any omissions/additions required.

RANGE OF ELEGANT TERN

Referencing del Hoyo et al., 1996 (Handbook of Birds of the Word, vol. 3) Elegant Tern breeds in a restricted range on the Pacific side of N America, from S California to C Baja California and from Gulf of California to Nayarit (with 90% or more of the total known breeding population possibly in a single colony on Isla Rasa in the Gulf of California).

It regularly wanders north to N California as a post-breeding visitor from midsummer into autumn. With recent El Nino events, these northern incursions seem to have increased. It was first recorded in Oregon in 1983 but is now of annual occurrence. Irruption events took place in 1983 and 1990, with birds reaching as far north as British Columbia; in Washington, Elegant is currently described as an "irregular fall migrant on coast (usually absent but common during El Nino years)"; it is considered an exceptional visitor in Canada. No record could be found from Alaska.

The main post-breeding dispersal is to the south, with birds wintering along the Pacific coasts of America, mainly in Peru and N Chile, but a few remain in the north, as far as California, and others reach as far south as C Chile. No records could be traced from S Chile - all maps seen showed a winter range extending S at most to the latitude of Santiago de Chili (i.e., still more than 2,000 km N of the Strait of Magellan). Historically, the species is unrecorded from Argentina.

HABITAT AND MIGRATION HABITS

It seems that Elegant Tern is an almost strictly coastal species. In California, according to Joe Morlan's county lists, it is a normal visitor to all coastal counties (i.e., including the counties adjacent to the San Francisco Bay) but, among the 38 counties that are not directly adjacent to the sea, only 2 have the species on their list - Riverside and Imperial - and it is considered to be a rarity there (cf. "very rare in spring and summer at Salton Sea" which is about 140 miles NE of the Gulf of California, though connected by major waterways and water bodies, see map - National Geographic "Field Guide to Birds of North America"). It is either unrecorded or an extreme rare vagrant to any state not adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, even as close to its normal range as Arizona. Extralimital inland occurrences traced were from Arizona (3 accepted records - 4 birds) and Texas (1 accepted inland sight record), only.

It seems that Elegant is not at all a highly pelagic species. According to del Hoyo et al., (HBW 3), "migrants feed in harbours, estuaries, salt-ponds and lagoons", "non-breeders feed in lagoons and bay, avoiding rough waters". According to all maps, Elegant's winter range follows strictly the coasts. Harold Holt ("A Birder's guide to Southern California") lists the species as "hard to miss" along the coasts at the right season, but it is not even supposed to be a possibility on open ocean well offshore. Ross Silcock (http://www.rosssilcock.com/pacific.htm) provides an annotated checklist of the Birds of the Pacific Region (defined as: "the Pacific Ocean to within 200 miles of major land masses and south to 60S", "northward off North America and westward south of the Aleutian Is"; check foot of page for more detail on islands included). Within this region are a number of islands off the west coast (e.g. Guadalupe, Revillagigedo, Clipperton, Cocos Isand and the Galapagos), for which records of Elegant Tern might be expected if it had any propensity at all to travel across open ocean. The first record for any of these sites came only in 2004, from Cocos Island (Montoya & Pascal) which lies about 330 miles SW of the coast of Costa Rica, but there are apparently no records for any of the other locations on the western seaboard. There is also another record for the Pacific region, from Johnston Atoll (roughly 15 degrees W of Hawaii) - for Apr 1969, of a bird ringed in California in May 1966. This sighting seems to show that Elegant is perfectly capable of travelling long distances across open seas but is very much the exception, i.e. a vagrant.

Based on this, it seems clear that either a few tens of miles over land, or 200 miles over open water from an area where "Elegant is common", are sufficient for it to be an extremely rare and accidental species.

COASTAL RECORDS ON THE ATLANTIC SIDE OF AMERICA

In 2001 there were apparently only two accepted records on the "Atlantic side of North America":

1) 25 Jul 1889, Corpus Christi, Nueces Co., Texas: specimen, BMNH No. 91-10-20-92 (There is also a second record from Texas: 23 Dec 1985, Lake Balmorhea, Reeves Co., Texas: photographed, TPRF No. 397. But, as Balmorhea lies in the west corner of the state, close to New Mexico and roughly halfway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California, this record can't be assigned to the "Atlantic side of N America")

2) 20 Jun 1985, Chincoteague NWR, Virginia: adult photographed

(this sighting is not mentioned in del Hoyo et al. (HBW 3), while the species is explicitly said to be accidental in TX.)

There have subsequently been a number of further records:

3) 3 Oct - 22 Nov 1999, Honeymoon Island State Recreation Area, Florida: 1 adult

4) Late fall - early winter 2000-01, Fort DeSoto, Florida: 1 adult (returning individual 3?)

5) November 2001, Texas (http://members.tripod.com/~tbrc/tern.htm)

6) 23 May 2002, Tampa, Florida: an adult paired with a Sandwich Tern was found incubating an egg on island "3-D" (see ID Frontiers website; photo and account here).

7) 6-18 August 2002, South Beach, Chatham, Massachusetts; photos are posted on the Virtual Birder site. After a thorough debate over its identity on the the ID Frontiers website the consensus is now that this individual is indeed an Elegant Tern (rather than the first North American record of Lesser Crested Tern). Initial objections to ID as Elegant centered around the pale grey rump, even though this did not show very clearly in the photos of the bird. However, examination of museum skins has shown that non-breeding individuals can show grey in the rump, and it has been suggested that this may even be typical of winter and first-year birds. Furthermore, breeding plumage specimens showed some degree of grey in the tail, earlier in the season, but none from May to July specimens which were pure white.

8) 8 Apr 2004, another debatable individual, at Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas (Dade), Florida; ultimately rejected and deemed a possible Sandwich x Elegant hybrid.

9) 8 Aug 2009, an orange-billed tern at Viginia Beach, Virginia, ID discussed on flickr here. The consensus on ID-Frontiers was this is a genuine Elegant, though confidently excluding hybrids remains a tricky issue.

According to Boesman [1993] (Dutch Birding 14(5):161-169), there is also one sight record on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica - but no further info could be traced about this bird. Neither could any records be traced from the South Atlantic, but there have since been records for both South Africa and Argentina (see below).

Overall, it might be said that there has been a recent upsurge in North American east coast records, perhaps of interest regarding the latest records from the east side of the Atlantic Ocean (see below).

OCCURRENCES IN EUROPE + SOUTH ATLANTIC/INDIAN OCEAN

Currently accepted records of Elegant Terns from Europe, and other relevant records of unidentified Orange-billed Terns, are as follows:

1) 1974 - 1984 at least, Banc d'Arguin, Arcachon, Gironde, France: 1 individual, not annually; paired with Sandwich Tern - initially ID'd as Lesser Crested Tern

2) 22 Jun - 3 Jul 1982, Greencastle Point, Carlingford, Lough, Down, Northern Ireland, UK, 1 individual

2b) 1 Aug 1982, Ballymacoda, Co. Cork, Ireland, 1 individual, considered the same as (2)

3) 1984, Banc d'Arguin, Arcachon, Gironde, France; second adult in the same colony as (1), both birds paired with a Sandwich Tern; as previous bird, initially ID'd as Lesser Crested Tern

3b) 1985-1993 at least, Banc d'Arguin, Arcachon, Gironde, France: still one individual; likely to be one of the 1984 birds, but it is unclear which one - caught, color-ringed and finally ID'd as Elegant in Jun 1987

3c) 9, 10 & 28 Aug 1985, Sables d'Olonne, Vendee, France: 1 adult, considered probably one of the 2 previous birds

3d) ?? Aug 1991, St-Nazaire, Loire Atlantique, France: 1 adult, definitely the color-ringed bird from Banc d'Arguin (3b)

4) 24 - 30 Apr 1993, Llobregat Delta, Barcelona, Spain: 1 adult, photographed

5) 1995-96 at least, Ile aux Moutons, Archipel de Molene, Finistere, France: 1 individual, photographed in a Sandwich Tern colony, considered possibly same as (1) or (3)

6) 12 Jun & 15 Jul 1988, Zeebrugge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium: 1 adult, photographed - originally rejected because of a possible hybrid origin but currently under review and could be found acceptable as Elegant (or, at least, no less acceptable than other European records)

7) 8 - 21 Jul 1999, Lady's Island, Co. Wexford, Ireland: 1 adult in winter plumage

8) 30 May - 11 Jun 2000, Langi, Esbjerg, Vestjylland, Denmark: 1 adult male in summer plumage, displaying in a Sandwich Tern colony. Pictures here.

There are a number of additional claims/sightings from France, for which record submission/acceptance is uncertain, e.g.:

9) 2 Jun 1996, Loctudy, Finistere, France

10) 6 Aug - 1 Sep 1996, Sables d'Olonne, Vendee, France

11) 13 May 2000, Banc d'Arguin, Arcachon, Gironde, France

Situation is further complicated by an additional Elegant-like bird trapped at Banc d'Arguin in 1987, for which a hybrid origin could not be discarded but that is considered very probably Elegant anyway. This bird was seen at Banc d'Arguin until 1996 at least.

Rejected record:

1 Aug 1997, Saline di Siracusa, Siracusa, Sicily, Italy: 1 adult (documentation and observation duration considered insufficient to allow a correct determination).

2001 records

12) Co Mayo, Ireland

2002 records

In 2002, there were a series of claims of Elegant Tern, including potential firsts for Britain and the Netherlands. Dates and locations are:

13) 18 May 2002 and again during period 8 July to 20 July, near Dawlish Warren, Devon, UK

14) 9 - 10 Jun 2002, The Hague, Netherlands; pictures in Surfbirds European rarity photos gallery here: 1, 2

15) 20 Jun 2002, Happisburgh, Norfolk, UK

16) 18-23 Oct 2002, Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland (photos on Irishbirding site)

The identity of these individuals has been the subject of intense debate and speculation. These and a number of the earlier records are discussed on the ID Frontiers and Surfbirds discussion groups. An analysis by Laurent Raty including the photos of each bird is included on the latter site on an Orange-billed Terns page.

2003 records

17) summer 2003, Orange-billed Tern - Banc d'Arguin, Arcachon, Gironde, France (see Birding World vol. 17 no. 6, p. 235); currently of unknown parentage/ID - though has been DNA sampled (cf. comments of Laurent Raty, ID Frontiers, 7/6/05, and Pierre-Andre Crochet, Zestforbirds article; rumours June 2011 that the results of DNA analysis reveal it is likely a hybrid Elegant x Sandwich Tern.)

18) 30 Jun 2003, reported from Bouin, Vendee, France

19) 14 Jul 2003, reported from ile d'Aix, Charente-Maritim, France

20) 25-31 Aug 2003, single presumed sub-adult at Corsept, Loire-Atlantique, France. A good series of pictures from 31 August available on the digimages site.

2004 records

21) 2 Apr 2004, the identity of this individual on Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, was debated

22) mid-Jun 2004, Banc d'Arguin, Arcachon, Gironde, France

23) 4 Aug 2004, Orange-billed tern, Noirmoutier Island, France, 4 August, see picture in Surfbirds European rarity photos gallery; same as 17) above.

24) 26 Sep - 5 Oct 2004, Brokdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, pictures here and in Surfbirds European rarity photos gallery here: 1, 2, 3

A detailed account and discussion of these records is found on the Club300.de pages here (includes a useful reference list).

2005 records

25) 13 Mar 2005 - Orange-billed Tern, Krom River estuary in Eastern Cape, south of Port Elizabeth, South Africa: see Feature article on Zestforbirds website. This individual is same as 17), 23) above. It was originally thought to be a hybrid offspring from a mixed pair of Sandwich Tern and Lesser Crested Tern but this conclusion was based on erroneous information. Bird looks rather large in comparison to the adjacent Sandwich Terns in the photo, and Lesser Crested Tern, at 33-40cm, is typically smaller than Sandwich Tern, 37-43cm. Also, the bird appears to have a white rump and was reported as having a pink-flushed breast. Nevertheless, beak looks on the small side and crest not prominent enough - perhaps an Elegant x Lesser Crested Tern hybrid?

26) 10 May 2005 - Stanpit Marsh/Mudeford, Christchurch harbour, Dorset, UK. Photos by Kit Day - clearly show long narrow bill, bright orange with yellowish tip, and a white rump

27) 6-10 Jun 2005 - Lagune du Dain, France; photos 1, 2, 3, in Surfbirds European rarity photos gallery

28) 18 Jul 2005 - Gormanstown, Co Meath, Republic of Ireland (13:45-14:05hrs) (2 "reliable observers")

2006 records

29) 18-23 Jan 2006 - Strandfontein Sewage Works, South Africa (first for Africa!); Hardaker photos, Gous photos, Graham photos

2007 records

30) 27 Jan 2007, Mile 4 Salt Works in Swakopmund; relocated on 11 Feb at Wlotzkas Baken photos 31) 12-14 Jul 2007 - Chipiona, Cádiz province, Spain

32) April 2007 - Buenos Aires province, Argentina, photo available

2008 records

33) 22 Feb 2008 - Buenos Aires province, Argentina, single

34) 25 Feb 2008 - Buenos Aires province, Argentina, four, with three the following day!!! This latter observation is a remarkable new development; photos in Surfbirds ID Discussion gallery here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; discussed here where a sighting for the Falkland Islands by Mike Bingham on 9th August 1996 is also mentioned (no photos).

[27-28 Apr 2008 - Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, single; photos here; if confirmed, another remarkable new record!]

35) Possible at Cabo de Gata, Almería, Spain, 9 August video clip

2010 records

36) By 26 April - Noirmoutier, Sébastopol polder, Vendée, France - "as usual" (info per Xavier Hindermeyer on coches-fr mailing group, per Pierre-André Crochet on WestPalBirds).

2011 records

19 August 2011, Algés, Portugal (photos via surfbirds discussion)

2012 records

37) 10-15 April (at least), Aimakapa Pond, Big Island, Hawaii (photos, HawaiiBirding yahoogroup)

38) Possible at Cabo de Gata, Almería, Spain, 11 August video clip

39) One on salt pan at Tapa El Puerto de Santa María, Bay of Cádiz nature reserve, 13 August (photos and video); a different one (yellow colour ring), same location, 14 August (photos and video); yet another, same location, 18 August (photos & video). The colour-ringed bird is presumably the same as that discussed immediately below, and for which genetic results are indicating Elegant parentage (further below).

Other Orange-billed tern records

See also the account of the orange-billed tern at Delta de l’Ebre (NE Spain) in breeding seasons of 2004 and 2005, and paired with a female Sandwich Tern. Successfully raised a single chick at l’Albufera de València (E Spain) in 2006. The bird had been ringed at Marismas del Odiel, Huelva (SW Spain) on 8 October 2002. The bird was trapped and measured, and blood samples taken, so its precise identity will surely become clear at some point!

Discussion

Considering the consistent series of records, stretching beyond the likely life expectancy of a single bird, and including some multiple sightings, the extreme improbability of these records all relating to genuine vagrant Elegant Terns is convincingly argued by Raty. He proposed three possible solutions, which are expanded here:

• We don't know enough about true range of Elegant - and it is not as confined to the Pacific coast as is supposed, i.e. it does occasionally wander overland and perhaps beyond its known southerly range limit (i.e. even as far as Cape Horn), and is not averse to pelagic voyages; the latter two issues could be accepted if coverage by birdwatchers was poor, but frequent overland travel would imply many more records on the well-watched US east coast!
• The birds all derive from "escapes"; this may seem a remarkable statement for a pelagic species, but it is the main suggestion of the authors of the species account in del Hoyo et al., (HBW 3), by M. Gochfeld & J. Burger, who state "Odd records from the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain & France (including hybridisation with T. sandvicensis) but provenance of such birds in question as species virtually unrecorded anywhere in North America away from Pacific Coast; probably attributable to escapes from shipments of exotic seabirds from wintering grounds in west South America"; these authors have published extensively on North American seabirds, so their view must carry some weight, but nothing further could be determined about any such trade!
• The birds are not Elegant Terns, but either some sort of hybrid which happens to look like Elegant, or an unknown variant of a resident species (i.e. Lesser Crested Tern, which is most similar); a possible problem with the latter is that the structure of the birds differs as well as plumage!

Further to this, it is interesting that bird 25) and subsequently 29) have occurred so far south of the typical wintering areas of Lesser Crested Tern in the Atlantic (should not be further south than north Africa!). Yet, the longitude corresponds to central Chile, which is supposed to be southern distribution limit of Elegant; if 25) is a hybrid that implies there may indeed be some Elegant Tern genes in it, whilst 29) should not really be a surprise if Elegant Terns are in the eastern Atlantic and migrating south in winter!

These latter records bring us back to the first explanation above, viz. the upsurge in European/North Atlantic records could be due to a few individuals rounding Cape Horn and getting into the wrong ocean, and this may also be consistent with their occurrence on the eastern side of the ocean, whilst the species is still very scarce on the US side. This latter explanation was my own personal favourite theory, but the new 2007-2008 records from Argentina, birds 32) and 33) (4!) call it into question again; in any case, it remains rather far-fetched and the truth is that until some of the outstanding DNA analyses are reported it would be unwise to leap to any hasty conclusions...

[Postscript - some interesting developments in June 2011 with reports that the Gironde bird may be a hybrid x sandvicensis, via DNA analysis (this thread on surfbirds - scroll down for the proper info from Pierre-André Crochet); if confirmed this would greatly strengthen the case for Elegant having occurred in Europe, but further only serve to re-emphasise the ID challenge for any individual bird.]

Incredible birds

Vagrancy in birds is a subject of great fascination and some mystery. This page considers some of the most incredible bird records of all time, focusing on species recorded in the Western Palearctic, though also beyond (see new section below). Assessing which particular records are the most 'incredible' is of course a highly subjective task, complicated by all sorts of uncertainties. However, the following list is a personal view of a few that are up there.

The top places on my list go to seabird residents of the North Pacific, though it's very difficult to balance these against the feats of, for example, small passerine migrants. For top spot I have selected the single Western Palearctic record of Aleutian Tern, a resident of the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific Ocean, which by the early 1990s had not even been recorded in Canada or the USA outside Alaska - a record which will take some beating!

Aleutian Tern (N Pacific only)	Farne Islands, Northumberland, 28-29 May 1979; first seen at 1.30pm by R. Haywood, warden on Inner Farne; seen down to 4m on the following day before last sighting at 5.30pm; little is known about the species, and it has not even been recorded off the west coast of North America south of Alaska, and it has only recently been found to winter off Indonesia and Malaysia.
Parakeet Auklet (N Pacific only)	Lake Vättern, Sweden, mid-Dec 1860 (after a severe Easterly gale); the implication is that this individual was already far from home (e.g. in Baltic or Barents Sea) before being caught up in the storm and blown overland to its final destination, some distance inland; it is hard to imagine what precise route it may have taken, but the species is normally confined to the North Pacific and does not occur in the Arctic Ocean; it is quite numerous with about 1 million breeding in Alaska, but confined to the coast (unlike next species)
Long-billed Murrelet (Brachyramphus perdix, formerly considered as a race of Marbled Murrelet Brachyramphus marmoratus perdix) (N Pacific only)	Zollikon, Lake Zurich, Switzerland, between 15 and 18 December 1997 - 1st-win. discovered dead in a fishing net, presumed drowned; the distribution of this species is confined to the North Pacific where it breeds individually in forest some distance from the sea (up to 70km for sister species, Marbled Murrelet), hence is well able to travel overland and indeed has been recorded as a vagrant in continental North America as far as the Atlantic coast; the population is thought to number 10's of thousands; nevertheless, assuming an eastern origin from the southern part of its range, the feat of this seabird in reaching western Europe, perhaps travelling in excess of 8000 miles overland, surpasses even the most extreme Siberian passerine vagrants; furthermore, there are plenty of large water bodies along possible routes; more likely the bird took a more direct route over the Arctic Ocean/Barents Sea, where it perhaps had chance to rest and feed. [References: OB 96: 172, 1999; NO 47: 40-41, 2000; Maumary, L. & Knaus, P. (2000) "Marbled Murrelet in Switzerland: a Pacific Ocean auk new to the Western Palearctic", British Birds vol. 93, pp. 190-199].
Long-billed Murrelet (Brachyramphus perdix) (N Pacific only)	Reservoir on River Olt at Porumbacu, Transilvania, central Romania, from 21 December 2006; photo; see also BirdForum thread. This occurrence supports the view that all three of these birds recorded in the Western Palaearctic have arrived more via an easterly route than westerly. Nevertheless, so far inland another utterly incredible record!
Long-billed Murrelet (Brachyramphus perdix) (N Pacific only)	Dawlish Warren/Dawlish, Devon, from 7 November 2006 - 1st-win, initially identified as Little Auk, see log. Fascinating that this one appears to be of 1st-win age (on basis of striations on breast) hence has arrived during, or at the end of, its initial dispersal as a juvenile. Hard to know which way it may have arrived, but interesting to note that a further Brachyramphus species had been reported migrating S at Skogsøy, Øygarden, Western Norway, Norway on 29 September 2005 in the company of Little Auk (c.f. netfugl.dk). Another all-dark alcid amongst Little Auk was reported off Whitburn, NE England, on 13 November 2004 - but not conclusively identified. And recent weeks have seen many thousands of Little Auk off the east coast of Britain (peak day count 7881, Farne Islands, 2 November 2006). Just possibly the bird got lost north of the species breeding range (in the region of Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk) and came over from the same region as the most north-easterly populations of Little Auk. Or, perhaps less likely, it may have dispersed the other way round the pole and joined up with Little Auks off Greenland - this route would also fit with an arrival on the west side of the British Isles. However, neither option looks very realistic, hence this record is high on the "incredible" scale and ranked above the next - a species sharing almost the same breeding range which also reached the same county of Devon in SW England.
Ancient Murrelet (N Pacific only)	Lundy, Devon, 27 May 1989; found at 1.45pm and seen again at 2.45pm before flying out to sea; seen again the following morning before flying out to sea again; a group of birders who had set off for the island, despite the fact that it would be dark when they got there, miraculously encountered the bird at sea about 6 miles east of the island, and watched it at distances down to 2m swimming in the company of a much shyer Razorbill; the bird was subsequently seen by many thousands of birdwatchers up to 26 June 1990, between 4 April and 20 June 1991 and between 30 March and 29 April 1992 when it was last seen. The origin is most likely from the west. In the 1989/90 winter larger than usual numbers of Ancient Murrelet had been seen along the California coast, with 4 venturing inland. A possible scenario was the bird straying inland and somehow getting into the Atlantic late in 1989, then at spring migration migrating north and east looking for a coast (as it would in the Pacific) eventually arriving off the coast of SW England; congregations of breeding auks may then have carried it into the Lundy area. Crossing continental North America is the hardest step here, but the species is a regular inland vagrant here, far more abundant than any of its sister species. It can apparently survive well for some time on fresh water and there are three previous Atlantic records. A western origin is the expressed view of Rob Hume (BBRC) and Alan Knox (BOURC) in their comments on the original British Birds paper on the record [Waldon, J (1994) "Ancient Murrelet in Devon: new to the Western Paleartic, British Birds 87, 307-310]
Crested Auklet (N Pacific only)	45 miles NE off Langanes, Iceland, August 1912
Tufted Puffin (N Pacific only)	Laholmsbukten, Lagoset, Sweden, Jun 1994 - adult in breeding plumage offshore.
Glaucous-winged Gull (N Pacific only)	El Hierro, Canary Islands, Feb 1992 and Essaouira, Morocco, Jan 1995; both were adults and presumably the same individual.
Slender-billed Curlew (Siberia, winters NW Africa)	Druridge, Northumberland 4-7 May 1998; the breeding grounds of this species remain unknown; neither are there any regular wintering sites with only a handful of sightings of wintering birds in recent years. See linked document for more details about recent occurrences.
Jouanin's Petrel (Arabian Sea, vagrant to Hawaii)	Cimadolmo, Treviso, Italy, 2 November 1953; 3 seen during a storm, one was collected; must have arrived via the Red Sea.
Varied Thrush (USA/Canada W coast)	1st win. male, Nanquidno, 9-23 Nov 1982; an abnormally-coloured individual, lacking the usual orange tone; grey-plumaged individuals are rarely recorded in wild birds, but would seem even less likely for a captive bird; this helped to exclude the escape possibility for such an unexpected vagrant from the west coast of America
Swainson's Hawk (W USA/Canada)	2nd year, Røst, Norway, 6 May 1986; this species is only rarely recorded on the east coast of America
Swainson's Thrush (N America)	Ukraine, November 1893; to reach Europe over the Atlantic is one thing...to then continue as far as Ukraine is quite an achievement (presumably a reverse migrant)
Fox Sparrow (N America)	Liguria, Italy, 1930
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (N America)	Yugoslavia, October 1976
Black-throated Green Warbler (N America)	adult male Heligoland, 19 November 1858
Hermit Thrush (N America)	Luxembourg, August 1975; this bird had presumably arrived from America in spring or the previous autumn
White's Thrush (Siberia, winters SE Asia)	Greenland, Oct 1954
Siberian Rubythroat (Siberia/NE China, wintering SE Asia as far as India)	adult male, Iceland, 8 Nov 1943
Lanceolated Warbler (Siberia to NE China & N Japan, wintering between NE India and Philippines)	c. 70 nautical miles N of Bear Island, Arctic Ocean, 15 September 1982
Tickell's Thrush (W Himalayas, winters E India)	Heligoland, 15 October 1932
Long-tailed Shrike (Central Asia, wintering Indian subcontinent)	Howmore, South Uist, 27 October-4 November 2000
Shrenck's Little Bittern (China, winters Indonesia)	1st win. female, Piemonte, Italy, 12 November 1912
Eastern Crowned Warbler (China, winters India/SE Asia)	single collected Heligoland, 4 October 1843
Chinese Pond Heron (China, winters SE Asia/Indonesia)	Hettesylt, Norway, autumn 1973
Brunnich's Guillemot (Arctic Ocean)	Austria, 1882; also recorded in Romania!
Ross's Gull (Arctic Ocean)	Sardinia, January 1906
Royal Tern (USA, West Africa)	1st win. bird ringed USA, Kenfig Pool, 24 Nov 1989; there have been five British Isles records; finding a ringed bird was a remarkable occurrence and proved transatlantic vagrancy
Black-browed Albatross (S Atlantic)	female, Faeroes, 1860-May 1894, i.e. for 34 years
	Spitzbergen, June 1878 (rather a long way from home!)
	"Albert Ross", a female, first recorded at Bass Rock 1967-1969 and, not finding a mate there, presumably the same bird at the Saito outcrop, Hermaness, Shetland 1970-1995
Ascension Frigatebird (S Atlantic)	Tiree, 10 July 1953 (reidentified as this species in 2002, BB 96, 2)
Killitz's Plover (Africa S of Sahara, also Egypt; resident)	single, S Norway, May 1913
Moussier's Redstart (N Africa resident)	Dinas Head, Dyfed, 24 April 1988
White-crowned Black Wheatear (N Africa/Middle East/Arabia resident)	Kessingland, Suffolk, 1-5 June 1982

In addition to the above, the following two species have occurred on numerous occasions over recent years in the North Atlantic, yet their occurrence here still remains very much a mystery:

Swinhoe's Petrel (Sea of Japan, winters off SE Asia)

Several North Atlantic records in recent years, see linked document for more details. The species had never been recorded on this side of the world in earlier years and its sudden appearance here is still unexplained.

Elegant Tern (Mexico/USA - Pacific coast only)

At least 25 records for the North Atlantic, including known long-staying birds, since the first in France in 1974. The majority of records have been from the French Atlantic coast (especially Banc d'Arguin, Arcachon, Gironde, France) with 1/2 individuals many years to date, but with others reported from Northern Ireland (1982), Irish Republic (1982, 1999, 2002), Spain (1993), Belgium (1998), Denmark (2000), UK (2002), Netherlands (2002), Canary Islands (2004), Germany (2004) and finally an extraordinary record of one of the French birds, of uncertain ID, in South Africa (2005) (see linked document for more details). Some of these records will relate to the same wandering individual, e.g. this is known to be the case for the 2002 records in the UK and the Netherlands. The amazing thing about these records is that Elegant Tern is both a very coastal, i.e. non-pelagic, species by nature and is also a strictly Pacific seabird in terms of its New World distribution - there had only been one record on the Atlantic side of the USA before 1999! Thus there has recently been an interesting debate about the likely origins (and identification) of these birds, e.g. on the ID Frontiers website.

Beyond the Western Paleartic

Brown Shrike (W Siberia, Mongolia and China, wintering SE Asia)

single, Fairview, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 23/11/97-1/12/97; see this linked page with further information on this occurence; this record is a strong rival to any of those listed above due to the phenomenal distance involved; the location where the bird was observed could hardly be further from its usual range with approximate travel distances of 12000km for arrival from the west of 11000km from the east; the magnitude of the feat can be appreciated by first considering the latter option - this species is an extremely rare vagrant in western Europe and has already travelled a huge distance to get that far; to then imagine it crossing the Atlantic is unreasonable, though ship assistance might be an option (Halifax is a port with ships from Europe); nevertheless, other Siberian vagrants have penetrated west as far as Iceland and even Greenland (c.f. notes on Siberian Rubythroat and White's Thrush above); for arrival from the west, traversing of a major ocean can be avoided if it is assumed the bird crossed via the Bering straight; however, this just extends the travel distance and does not seem reasonable either! Further discussion is here.

Red-necked Stint (E Siberia, wintering SE Asia to Australia, a few reaching South Africa)	various records for US east coast, and Bermuda, e.g. single(s), Connecticut, July-August 2000; again, direction of travel is uncertain but the birds presumably originated in Siberia and followed a west-to-east route. The Little Stint, which breeds in Siberia further west than the Red-necked (as far as the extreme north of Scandinavia) and winters down into South Africa, has also been recorded on the east coast of the US, and Bermuda! Such birds must have followed an opposite east-to-west route, but may have originated from a region in Siberia neighbouring the breeding grounds of the Red-necked birds. Further, the Little Stint has also been recorded on the West coast of the US, e.g. California (Sept 1983). It would be very interesting to know if either species occurs at the southern tip of South America, as might be expected.
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Siberia, winters Australia)	Tristan da Cuhna, Jun 1950
Arctic Warbler (Asia)	Kilauea Point NWR, Kaua'i, Hawaii, 13 February 2000 - probably this species, see full account here; this was the first and only passerine vagrant recorded on the main Hawaiian islands.

Would welcome any other suggestions from further afield for this section!

Recent North Atlantic records of Swinhoe's Petrel (Oceanodroma monorhis)

At 1.15am on 19 July 1989, a large petrel was seen and heard calling as it circled the trapping area where British Storm Petrels were being tape-lured on Tynemouth pier, north-east England. It departed unidentified. However, on 23 July, a similar bird was attracted to the tape and trapped. In the hand, the ringers were astonished to find a storm petrel superficially resembling Leach's Petrel, but with an all-dark rump. The bird was ringed, measured and photographed before release. On 26 July, an unringed bird, identical to the first, was trapped.

At the time, no certain identification could be made, as there were no obvious candidates amongst birds likely to reach the UK, but research began into the possibilities...

In 1990, a third individual was trapped on 6 July. The same bird was re-caught in July every year for the next 4 years, i.e. 30 July 1991; 29 July 1992; 21, 28 and 29 July 1993 and 11, 23 and 25 July 1994. This provided the possibility to use DNA analysis to assist in the identification. In 1991, a blood sample was taken by Dr David Parkin. Analysis of cytochroime-b mitocondrial DNA sequences in comparison to samples taken from Swinhoe's Petrels in Russia and Korea finally proved that the bird was of this species, this particular individual being a female.

More details about the taxonomy of the species, which is sympatric with Leach's Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa), are available from Sibley's sequence and in the Birdguides library. Some literature references are as follows:

1. James, P.C. & Robertson, H.A. (1985) "First record of Swinhoe's Storm-petrel Oceanodroma monorhis in the Atlantic Ocean", Ardea 73, pp. 105-106
2. Carruthers, M.P., Cubitt, M.G. & Hall, L. (1989) "The dark-rumped petrels in Tyne & Wear", Birding World 2, pp. 288-289
3. Bourne, W.R.P. (1990) "The first dark-rumped petrel", Birding World 3, p. 249
4. Bretagnolle, V., Carruthers, M., Cubitt, M., Bioret, F., & Cuillandre, J-P. (1991) "Six captures of a dark-rumped, fork-tailed storm-petrel in the northern Atlantic", Ibis 133, pp. 351-356
5. Cubitt, M. (1991) "The mystery petrels of Tyneside", Birding World 4, pp. 295-297
6. Cubitt, M., Carruthers, M. & Zino, F. (1992) "Unraveling the mystery of the Tyne Petrel", Birding World 5, pp. 438-442
7. Dawson, R. (1992) "Blood, sweat and petrels", Birding World 5, pp. 443-444
8. King, J. & Minguez, E. (1994) "Swinhoe's Petrel: The first Mediterranean record", Birding World 7, pp. 271-273
9. Cubitt, M. (1994) "The mystery dark-rumped storm-petrel", Birding 26, p. 125
10. Cubitt, M.G. (1995) "Swinhoe's Storm-petrels at Tynemouth: New to Britain and Ireland", British Birds 88, pp. 342-390
11. Brinkley, ES. (1995) "Dark-rumped storm-petrels in the North Atlantic", Birding 27, pp. 95-97
12. Bourne, W.R.P. & Simmons, K.E.L. (1997) "A dark-rumped Leach’s Storm-petrel in the South Atlantic", Sula 11, pp. 209-215
13. British Birds Rarity Committee Files (1997) "The Chalice petrel", British Birds 90, pp. 305-313
14. Force, M. (1997) "Comments on 'The Chalice petrel'", British Birds 90, pp. 339-342
15. Morrison, S. (1998) "All-dark petrels in the North Atlantic", British Birds 91, pp. 540-560
16. Bolton, M. (1998) "Swinhoe’s Storm-petrel ringed at Ponta de Almadena, Algarve, 27th June 1998", A Rocha Bird Observatory Report, 1998
17. O'Brian, M. Patteson, JB., Armistead, GL. & Pearce, GB. (1999) "Swinhoe's Storm-petrel: First North American photographic record", North American Birds 53(1), pp. 6-10
18. Palmer, P. (2000) "First for Britain and Ireland: 1600-1999", Arlequin Press

The species had been observed over a number of years on Selvagem Grande in the Madeiran Archipelago, where breeding has been suspected (see below). In addition to these records, further records have come from various parts of the North Atlantic in recent years, including Norway, Holland, France, Portugal, the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and Italy, as well as off the US east coast.

The origin of these birds is debated - vagrancy from the Indian Ocean round the Cape being one possibility and a small North Atlantic breeding population being another. In support of the latter is the fact that the first North Atlantic record, from 1983, was of a male on the nest of a Madeiran Petrel (see James & Robertson 1985); in 1988, a male was captured (Bretagnolle et al. 1991) and, in each year from 1993 to 1996, a female with a vascularised brood patch was regularly caught on a nest (Zino 1997). Bretagnolle (1991) suggests that there might be a breeding population on the Azores or Cape Verde Islands.

More information on European status is provided on Eurobirding and on international distribution on Avibase and Oceanwanderers:

* Swinhoe's Petrel on Eurobirding * Swinhoe's Petrel on Avibase (includes worldwide distribution map) * Swinhoe's Petrel Oceanwanderers

An exhausted bird at Eilat, Israel in January 1958 (Bourne, 1967) was the first record for in the Western Palearctic, and an obvious vagrant from the Indian Ocean. After the 1983 Maderia record, there been a further 16 confirmed records of Swinhoe’s Storm-petrel in the Western Palearctic, all trapped. In addition, Morrison (1998) documents 19 "dark-rumped" small Oceanodroma storm-petrels observed ‘at sea’ in the North Atlantic up to 1998 (though note that dark-rumped Leach's Petrel have also been identified by DNA analysis, so that any sight records must be uncertain). My own compilation of some of the more recent records (not necessarily all accepted yet) includes:

* single trapped, Revekaia, Klepp, Rogaland, Norway, August, 1997

* single trapped, Ponta de Almadena, Algarve, Spain, 27 June 1998

* single (sight record), Huisduinen, Den Helder, Noord-Holland, 11 July 1998

* single photographed, North Carolina Pelagic trip, USA, 8 August 1998

* single trapped, Great Skellig Island, County Kerry, Ireland, 1 July, 2000

* single re-trapped, Revekaia, Klepp, Rogaland, Norway, 27 July, 2000

* single trapped (different to last), Revekaia, Klepp, Rogaland, Norway, 16 August, 2000

* single trapped, Cove Harbour, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 5 August, 2000

* single (sight record), South Stack, Anglesey, Wales, October, 2000

* single, Eilat's north beach, Israel, 8 September 2001. The bird flew into a window of one of Eilat's seafront hotels. It was picked up and brought to the IBRCE, but died shortly afterwards. The information about this bird was not submitted to the IRDC, however, I. Tsurim and N. Sapir examined the skin, which is preserved in the Zoological collection of the Tel Aviv University (specimen #AV15980) and confirmed the identification. [This is the second record for Israel, after the first found dead at Eilat, January 1958.]

* single (sight record), Platja del Trabucador, Ebro Delta, Spain, 30 April 2003

* single re-trapped (same as above), Revekaia, Klepp, Rogaland, Norway, 4/5 August, 2003

Pictures of the third record for Israel at Eilat on 19 April 2003 are here. Yet another was found exhausted at the same place 21 September 2004, becoming the fourth record!

* single, Niedersachsen, Germany, 24 September 2004; a detailed account and discussion of this record is found on the Club300.de pages here.

* single, from pelagic 7 miles south of St Mary's (Scilly) for four minutes early afternoon (1.10-1.13pm), 21 July 2005.

* single, trapped and ringed at Hernyken, Nordland, Norway, 13 August 2006

* single, trapped on the Selvagens Islands, summer 2007 (had been ringed there in 1986)

The last-mentioned record here is hugely significant - this bird has been resident in the North Atlantic for over 20 years!!!

It remains a great mystery why this species should apparently have suddenly emerged in the North Atlantic after 1983, with no confirmed records prior to that. The great spread of the area over which the species has now been recorded, from the Mediterranean, off Iberia, the North Sea and off the US east coast adds weight to this mystery because records would be expected to be much more localised if attributable to a small breeding population. We may never know the origins of these birds...