Page 20 - Out Birding Feb 2025

Muddled Book Titles: Answers
To Kill a Mockingbird
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest The Thorn Birds
The Maltese Falcon
Shroud for a Nigh􏰁ngale
The Pelican Brief
The Owl Service
The Crow Road
A Kestrel for a Knave
The Eagle of the Ninth
Too Late the Phalarope
The Flight of the Falcon
The Kite Runner
Wild Swans
The Song of the Lark
Harper Lee
Ken Kesey
Colleen McCullough Dashiell Hamme􏰀 PD James
John Grisham
Alan Garner
Iain Banks
Barry Hines Rosemary Sutcliff Alan Paton
Daphne du Maurier Khaled Hosseini Jung Chang
Willa Cather
The North Sea Bird Club
Author Andrew Thorpe
h􏰀ps://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/23670/
ISBN: 9781999988258
For 40 years the North Sea Bird Club and the University of Aberdeen collaborated to record and iden􏰁fy birds, and other wildlife viewed from 250 offshore installa􏰁ons by over 400 observers. A book has now been published.
Here are some findings.
1. Many common ‘garden’ birds regularly cross the North Sea;
2. Blackbirds, robins, chaffinches, blue 􏰁ts, crows and owls are all regularly reported from rigs;
3. Even 􏰁ny wrens cross the North Sea. In 1998, a total of 58 wrens was reported from offshore installa􏰁ons;
4. Thrushes can cross the North Sea in large numbers, usually in autumn. In 1979, over 30,000 blackbirds were reported offshore;
5. In November 1984, an excep􏰁onal number of birds landed on the Maureen pla􏰂orm during bad weather – 200-300,000 were es􏰁mated including 40-50 owls;
6. Starlings regularly cross the North Sea in spring and autumn in large numbers. A flock of an es􏰁mated 50,000 was seen to pass by Auk Alpha in 1984.
7. Ringed birds are o􏰃en found dead on rigs;
8. A starling that was ringed in Poland in May 1992 was found on the Hewe􏰀
pla􏰂orm in December that year. It had travelled over 1500km;
9. A blue 􏰁t ringed in Norway in July 1988 was found on Beryl B, halfway between
Norway and the Shetland Isles.
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