Remembering July rarities
7/22/202639 min
Welcome to the third episode of The BirdGuides Podcast! Join Josh Jones, David Campbell and Ian Lycett as they take a thrilling trip down memory lane to look back at the jaw-dropping mega rarities that have sent British twitchers into a frenzy during previous Julys.
What you'll learn in this episode
- Why midsummer, typically thought of as a quiet time of year for birding, can deliver some of the rarest vagrants.
- The legend of Brean Down legend: we look back at the incredible story of the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross in 2007
- Reliving the legendary first twitchable Amur Falcon in Cornwall that drew hundreds of birders overnight.
- The mega frigatebird photographed by tourists in Scotland
- Which mega species should you be scanning the skies and coastlines for right now?
Episode timestamps
00:30 – write July off at your peril and favourite midsummer twitches
03:25 – the 2007 Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, released in Somerset and touching down in Lincolnshire
06:20 – the 2013 Ascension Frigatebird in Scotland
09:30 – one rare tern deserves another
14:00– the Sheffield Audouin's Gull
21:00 – time for another Caspian Plover?
24:07 – break
24:30 – Amur Falcon twitch
28:30 – Fair Isle's Brown Flycatcher in 1992
34:32 – what to seek out in July
Links
Get in touch by emailing podcast@birdguides.com
Stay updated with the latest news at www.birdguides.com/podcast
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Music by Matt Phelps
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDavid Campbell· Host0:00
The Bird Guides Podcast.
Josh Jones· Host0:01
[bird chirping] [upbeat music] Welcome to The Bird Guides Podcast with me, Josh Jones, and I'm joined by David Campbell. Hi, David.
David Campbell· Host0:35
Hiya.
Josh Jones· Host0:36
And Ian Lycett. How you doing, Ian?
Ian Lycett· Host0:38
Uh, Josh, I'm all right, thanks. Yourself?
Josh Jones· Host0:39
Very well. Thank you very much. Now, it's warm outside, the sun is shining, the days are long. It's a quiet time of year for birding overall, but write July off at your peril. This month has produced a smorgasbord of extreme rarities over the years, and in today's episode, we'll be looking back fondly, and sometimes not so fondly, at some of July's biggest British and Irish birding moments. Now, Ian, what does July mean to you? You must have seen a few good rarities in July over the years.
Ian Lycett· Host1:09
Yeah, one or two. I always find it's a month where you kind of think you can not quite hang your bins up, but you expect it to be a little bit quieter than maybe the peak months of sort of, you know, May and October, and then sometimes something left field will come out. And of course, waders start coming back, so I've seen a few good waders over the years. I was looking