That’s like going to Cornwall and finding it fresh out of tiny chickens.
You probably won’t see many Camberwell Beauty records from Camberwell or Deptford Pinks in Deptford. England of today bears little resemblance to the England when high profile species got their English names.
No Arctomecon californica in California. But that is because it was named in 1844, when California referred to a larger territory that included the type locality for the species, now known as Las Vegas, Nevada.
Andalusian hemipode
New Forest burnet
Sandwich tern
Dartford warbler
Ah, well, that’s because it’s the Kentish plover, not the Kent Plover. Kentish implies somewhere near Kent, or like Kent, that is not actually Kent. If one surmises that the region that could reasonably be called Kentish is anywhere within 50 miles of the county of Kent, the ones seen in France would qualify!
I had done a bit of research. Apparently in the past this bird was very plentiful in the city of Kent when it was first described, however the bird has no longer bred in the entire UK for 40 years, and it is a rarity to see one as a vagrant there
Is there a particular reason? They don’t seem to be rare in other places.
According to the Yorkshire post it was very plentiful in the UK and an established breeder but over hunting and egg destruction for taxidermy eventually pushed the bird to the brink in the 1900’s and by 1979 it was completed extirpated, only being rarely seen as a vagrant
Apparently it’s not doing too well in Europe since global populations are decreasing and it’s gotten to a point that in Poland it’s illegal to even photograph a Kentish plover
Wow, illegal to photograph is a way to not get any info on potential breeders and migration. That’s wild!
It’s #7 on the list of plovers on iNat based on number of observations and in my own experience it’s not numerous, but nothing like seeing a Dotterel or Sociable Lapwing.
True, seeing a sociable lapwing is basically completing life in all aspects. I’m surprised they even exist in my country, albeit for 2 months per year
I don’t know the Polish law. It is illegal to photograph most rare birds at the nest in Britain without a licence from the government conservation agency. It is actually disturbance at the nest which is illegal, but most nest photography would be considered disturbance. This doesn’t really hamper bird monitoring as there are plenty of amateur ornithologists who are licensed to disturb for conservation purposes. They have to be properly trained to gather the data with the minimum risk to the birds. Frequently they ring the nestlings. Some are also photographers, but not all photographers have the safety of the birds as their main priority. There are cases of photography being used as a cover to steal the eggs. So it makes sense to put limits on the freedom of photographers.
Not necessarily. After all, Spanish means from or originating in Spain.
Haha fair point!
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