Natural History Writing

UK Vagrancy

Nature-related news has never been bigger. Large swathes of the population are taking more of an interest as it moves up the agenda. Realisation has spread that the fate of the planet's other inhabitants and our own destiny are more connected than we once thought. More than half of us feed our garden birds and the BBC's Watches programmes are amongst their most popular. During 2020's pandemic-induced lockdown, interest in nature and wildlife soared whilst recently a wandering walrus has boosted tourism in the Welsh coastal town of Tenby and a number of records of whales in recent years in rivers such as the Thames has drawn hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of curious and bemused onlookers. People are interested in this stuff when it turns up on their doorstep. Starting with Lost & Found - my newly commissioned monthly column or 'vagrant species diary' in BBC Wildlife magazine - I have self-styled as a wildlife reporter highlighting some of the recent out-of-range species that have wandered to our shores.  Many records of vagrant taxa go unnoticed but more seem to be coming to light with the rise in popularity of wildlife photography and social media and a new generation of field guides covering all manner of wildlife.  My Lost & Found articles are available here: Unexpected wildlife visitors to the UK | BBC Wildlife Magazine - Discover Wildlife 

STOP PRESS***SUMMER  2026

No less than two Long-tailed Shrikes have made landfall in Britain - in Fife and Oxon/ Gloucestershire, the UK's 2nd & 3rd records. The Black-winged Kite remains in Norfolk and a Hudsonian Godwit continues in Essex. Orkney has enjoyed a long-staying island-hopping Blue-cheeked Bee-eater. Seabirds have included 'Yelkouan' Mediterranean Shearwater and in Ireland a probable Zino's Petrel.

The hot dry summer has produced a record influx of Queen of Spain Fritillaries (unless they are the result of a co-ordinated mass release) and at least one Camberwell Beauty has been seen. Several Cicadas have been recorded from back gardens (Cicada Barbara - Iberian species possibly a vagrant but could be accidental imports on olive trees) and a UK 2nd record of Verge Cricket has come from Portland, Dorset. Pick of the moth vagrants has perhaps been Blastobasis glandulella in Hants (3rd UK record).

In Scotland, a Beluga has been seen near the Cromarty Firth, with the same area playing host to a small group of Northern Bottle-nosed Whales, normally a deep water species more at home around the continental shelf. In Norfolk two beaked whale species live-stranded and died but - rather unusually - could not be identified to species.