Rare cream-coloured courser in England

This video says about itself:

First-winter Cream-coloured Courser (Cursorious cursor), Golf Course, St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly, October 2004. Footage by Ashley Fisher.

From Wildlife Extra:

Very unusual bird spotted on Welsh border

Cream-coloured Courser on Kington golf course

May 2012. A very unusual bird has been spotted on a golf course on the Welsh border. First reports of the bird raised a few eyebrows, but the bird did prove to be a Cream-coloured Courser. The bird has been seen on Kington Golf Course over the last few days (The highest golf course in England).

Although not a rare bird across its range, this is only the fourth sighting in Britain in 70 years. Cream-coloured Coursers are usually found in India, Arabia and around the Sahara, where they live in open country, preferring semi arid stony deserts – Should feel very at home in The Welsh Marches then.

Until the end of the 20th century there were only limited numbers of autumn-winter breeding records of the Cream-coloured Courser Cursorius cursor. Here, we compile several autumn-winter breeding observations obtained mainly by amateur birders (citizen scientists) and we show that this phenomenon is more common when local conditions (especially rainfall) are favourable. These observations are from several parts of the species’ range, as far apart as Socotra Island (Yemen), Oman, and the Canary Islands (Spain), although the majority are from the region of Oued Ad-Deheb, S Morocco: here.

Autumn-winter breeding by Cream-coloured Coursers Cursorius cursor is more common than previously reported: here.

Related articles

• Shark study in the Netherlands
• Isles of Scilly bird news
• Genetic variability in the Eurasian Stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus)