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>From Jack Bowling jbowling at direct.ca Tue Jun 6 11:37:47 2000
Subject: Western european rarities in spring 2000

Re. the following message forwarded to Tweeters by Mike Patterson:

<<<<<
This spring a to my opinion unusually large number of rarities from the
Alps and southern countries has turned up in northwestern Europe, or at
least in The Netherlands. This cannot be explained by the usual factors
such as increased number of birders, better optics, or even a climatic
change. If the number of rarities is significantly larger indeed, then
looking for another explanation is tempting. Suppose that those Bee-eaters
and others just lost their way by being disoriented. As bird orientation
is said to be related to the sun, among others, I thought that maybe this
year's high activity of the sun (sun spots and so) may have something to
do with this, causing some birds to disorientate and stray off to regions
where they are welcomed by excited birders... Has something been said
about this before? Or is this just too weird?

John van der Woude Kudelstaart,
The Netherlands, jvanderw at worldonline.nl
birding trip reports with photos of scenery and neotropical bird sound
recordings at http://home.worldonline.nl/~jvanderw
>>>>>

For the record, a huge ridge of high pressure was situated over eastern
Europe from late April through the 3rd week of May 2000. Not only did this
result in record breaking or near record breaking temperatures across most
of western Europe during this period, but the prevailing winds were from
the south or southwest. Note that most of the strays picked up in western
europe this spring were those that use the Gibraltar/Iberian Peninsula
migration route. Although the increased solar cycle influencing birds by
distorting their assumed magnetic reckoning function cannot be ruled out,
the weather may also have had an effect.

------------------
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
mailto:jbowling at direct.ca