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From: David Shepherd <dave.ju...@nf.sympatico.ca> 7 May 2007 Subject: Whence cometh the Ibises indeed? Ken Knowles alluded to it in his fill-in column for Bruce Mactavish in Saturday's Telegram, so here's a load more circumstantial evidence. Did the Bonavista Ibises come from Europe? Well, the 5 Bonavista Ibises arrived, or at least were first seen on 25 April. Now there had been an influx into Newfoundland of Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets that came in on strong SW winds. But that was back in the first week of April and records were spread out back down to the Burin Peninsula. Then the winds switched to the NE and stayed there as we all know too well. To my knowledge there have been no other reports of Glossy Ibis in Maine or the maritimes. Let's switch to Britain now. Glossy Ibis is a rare bird at the best of times, but in April 2007 there was an exceptional arrival. On 19 April a flock of 6 were seen in extreme SW Ireland. Then on the 20th there were 3 in Cornwall and an amazing 17 arrived at Slimbridge just north of Bristol. Another flock of 17 over Cornwall on the same day was possibly the same. This was the largest flock since 1934! Several more flocks of up to 7 birds were seen on subsequent days all in the extreme SW of Britain. How many carried on, out into the Atlantic? Back now to Bonavista. Five European Golden Plovers (of known origin) arrive on 23 April, the Ibises 2 days later. Winds throughout were strong ENE/NNE. Shorebirds typically fly at 45mph, herons at 25 mph. So you'd expect the Plovers to arrive 2 days earlier. Bit of a stretch, you say. Well, it's not unprecedented; Little Egret, Reef Heron and Grey Heron have managed it, so why not Glossy Ibis? So what else is out there?
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