Southern SIGHTINGS MID-MAY TO MID-JULY 2023

Winter is generally a quiet time for rarities and the number of records at this time of year is invariably much reduced. This year, however, even a quiet time produced top-class birds that got twitchers' adrenalin flowing. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.

- TREVOR HARDAKER

HEADLINE NEWS

Probably the best record of the review period was southern Africa's ninth Hudsonian Godwit, found along the Paaltjies Road in Walvis Bay. It's the first record in nine years and also the first one that's turned up in winter. The godwit spent just two days in the area before disappearing, much to the disappointment of many twitchers who were hoping to catch up with it. The subregion's first record goes back to March 1987, when a Hudsonian Godwit was found at the Swartkops River estuary in Port Elizabeth. This was followed in February 1989 by one at Bottelary in the West Coast National Park, then a bird in February 1990 on the Berg River at Velddrif (which returned for a second season), then another at Geelbek in the West Coast National Park in December 1999. The following December there was a Hudsonian Godwit at the Walvis Bay Lagoon, another at Seeberg in the West Coast National Park in March 2010, a bird at Voelvlei near Vleesbaai in January 2012 and, most recently, one on the Kromme River estuary in St Francis Bay in February 2014.