PDA

View Full Version : We have an illegal imigrant



Pete Woods
01-10-2008, 02:13 PM
Just been on the news a White Crowned Sparrow has found it's way to Norfolk. It is not camera shy either. Even the News Crew filmed it. the people who first spotted it in their back garden now have an army of watcher (twitchers/Photographers) on their doorstep.....

Native to North America, they say it was blown off course and came across on a boat it was sheltering on.

No I will not be jumping in my car to go see/photograph ;)

Fabs Forns
01-10-2008, 02:35 PM
I wonder how ti got there???? Maybe it caught a ride in a ship??

Steve Foss
01-10-2008, 03:06 PM
Pete and Fabs, I think you're right about the ship. Passerines just aren't built for that type of uninterrupted overwater flight.

Several times I've been out trolling for salmonoids on Lake Superior along the North Shore, and in September when the warblers are migrating they'll sometimes cut across Lake Superior. Many of them start to expire before they make even that short (compared to a trans-Atlantic journey) overwater flight, and several times I've had some of them drop into the boat exhausted, find a sunny spot out of the wind, seem to go to sleep for half an hour and then wake up and fly the remaining couple of miles to shore.

I've seen others just drop into the waves because they were too tired to fly anymore.