Honey Buzzards in northern Germany -- Schleswig-Holstein and Helgoland

In correspondence on GermanBirdnet, a rather dismissive judgement is given on the view that Honey Buzzards were drifted over the North Sea by the easterly winds around the time of the movement in Britain.

In Die Meldungen aus SEPTEMBER 2000:Zurück zur Hauptseite Bird News at German BirdNet , Chris Engelhardt writes from Lübeck as follows:

The response refutes the suppositions of Brian Unwin. No large groups of Honey Buzzards have been seen this autumn in the Lübeck area, which lies on the southern extreme of the Jutland peninsula in Germany. Two topical records involving small numbers of birds are mentioned (also sent to the GermanBirdnet web pages cited above):

Further, an observation of the birds is reported in the easterly winds of 17/9. Honey Buzzards were observed to be drifting westwards until they were over the North Sea. They then corrected their course, regained their flight over the mainland and flying southwards continued their passage over Dithmarschen Speicherkoog in the western part of Schleswig-Holstein.

Another interesting observation on the German Birdnet pages for September 2000 is the absence of reports of Honey Buzzards from Helgoland. If birds were indeed being drifted over the North Sea from Denmark or Schleswig-Holstein, some would surely have been detected here.

See an account of Griffon Vultures in Holland Griffon Vultures did not cross the North Sea for similar behaviour.

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