Winter Birds interim report (6)

["Geoffrey Dabb" <>]

Finally, the enigmatic Dusky Woodswallow.  This year was a stark contrast to what now seems an exceptional 2010 Winter  -  with only two reports of single birds.  While its breeding haunts are well-known, the where and the why of its movements in the non-breeding season are a mystery, showing how little we know of the life histories of some of our familiar birds.  Calling them ‘migrants’ is less of a science-based classification than an admission that, well, sometimes  they’re not here and we don’t know where they are.