Thursday, 25 July 2024

I'm just going to have to lump it

 The Morton Bagot list is set to go into reverse. Following the decision of the IOC (International Ornithological Committee) to lump all the Redpolls into one species, I have now lost Mealy Redpoll from my list....in a way. 

My Morton Bagot list has slumped to 158 species. Of course I've still seen Mealy Redpoll here, I just can't add it to my species list. Lists matter to a lot of birders and I can't deny I do like listing. On the other hand I won't really miss Mealy Redpoll because identifying them is very hard. 

The driving force behind the change is the science of genetics, and I gather further changes are likely. I shouldn't complain because throughout my birding life I have benefitted from far more splits than lumps. I can still remember when Water Pipit was split from Rock Pipit, a change that everyone thought was long overdue.

I'm grateful to the IOC for giving me something to write about, because the birding has been very quiet lately.

I did pop down to the patch yesterday hoping for some change, but it was all pretty much as I'd left it. The highlight was a Sand Martin heading south, while a Grasshopper Warbler continues to sing in the chat field.

I was only able to count 10 Green Sandpipers on the nearest flash, the Lapwing flock remains stable, and Teal numbers have doubled....to two.

The really bad news is that I can no longer upload photos to the site. I'm going to have to find out what's going on.

This could be the last post.





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