Hampshire is a great county for both birds and birders. It has rich and varied habitats together with an excellent historical record of the species to be found there. Beginning with Gilbert White’s Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, first published in 1789, the ornithological record continues with three avifaunas and, since 1958, increasingly comprehensive annual bird reports. Rare Birds of Hampshire adds another impressive and well-researched volume to the county’s ornithological literature. 

After a short introduction, which includes the criteria used by the author to define a rare bird, a concise history of bird recording in the county introduces some of Hampshire’s early rarity finders, from Gilbert White through to the present day. These include Edward Hart, who built up an extensive skin collection, and Canning Suffern, who encouraged the Portsmouth Group of young birders to begin systematic bird recording on the Hampshire coast. It continues to explore other, more recent developments in Hampshire’s birding scene and sets the background for the bulk of the book, which consists of accounts for 186 species, plus seven distinctive subspecies, all meeting the rarity conditions and approaching half of the county list of 389 species. 

The chosen definition of a rare bird includes any species assessed by BBRC since its formation in 1958, one that has occurred in Hampshire on fewer than 200 occasions and one that has not occurred annually in the twenty-first century. This doesn’t restrict the accounts to just accidentals and vagrant species. Instead, it boosts the list by including breeding birds that were once relatively common but have now been lost from the county and those that were once rare but are now increasingly common. These two categories balance each other out, with eight species in each. Examples include Wryneck Jynx torquilla and Tree Sparrow Passer montanus in the losses and Little Egret Egretta garzetta and Cetti’s Warbler Cettia cetti in the gains. In this way, the book highlights some of the longer-term changes in Hampshire’s evolving birdlife and links these seamlessly with the shorter-term and often one-off appearances of transient visitors from much farther afield. 

Each species account begins with a brief status summary giving the number of county records in the modern (post-1950) era. This is followed by a recording history beginning with the first county record and cataloguing all subsequent records up to 2020. The accounts vary from species to species, opening – where possible – with the original written account, or extracts from it, of the first record. Coupled with photographs taken in Hampshire and the excellent field sketches and paintings by Dan Powell, these descriptions bring to life the exhilaration and excitement of finding a rarity. For some species, graphs are provided to show how numbers have varied from year to year and from month to month. Each account ends with a brief summary of the species’ current status in Great Britain.

The species accounts section ends with a series of appendices, some with intriguing headings such as ‘The ones that got away’ and ‘Suspect old records of interest’. The former includes species such as Masked Booby Sula dactylatra (2007) and Lesser Spotted Eagle Clanga pomarina (2001), neither of which has yet made it to the British List, and a probable Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata misidentified as a Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos (1969). Suspect records include Gyr Falcon Falco rusticolus, White’s Thrush Zoothera aurea and Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator, all claimed as seen or collected in Hampshire but, following a review by Hampshire Ornithological Society, not admitted to the county list. Another appendix lists ‘Records in parts of Hampshire transferred to Dorset in local government reorganisation in April 1974’. Many of these emanated from the Hart collection. Almost half a century later these have not yet been accepted into the Dorset avifauna and therefore risked being lost down the recording cracks. They are now logged for posterity in Rare Birds of Hampshire.

This is a well-produced, attractive book that will appeal to many birders. The accounts will certainly bring back vivid memories to the rarity finders themselves, all of whom are named in the book, as well as to the innumerable visitors who travelled to catch up with new or unusual species. It will also act as a valuable reference when future rarities turn up in the county, particularly since it contains a large number of photographs. The book is the first published review of rare birds in a county or region of Britain since the advent of digital photography, and might set a trend for more rarity-rich counties to produce a similar volume.

John Eyre