birds of dawlish warren

International
A native to sub-tropical Africa, where 200,000 to 450,000 adults are nomadic and undertake short distance migrations N and S from the equatorial region. It favours wetland edges, floodplains and coasts†.

Europe
First recorded as a zoo escapee or deliberately released in Brittany 1975 to 1982 and subsequently from elsewhere in France. Feral breeding first noted in the 1990s and by 1994 colonies had increased to 280 pairs. Expanding rapidly, by 2008 an estimated 1,205 breeding pairs and in total 5000 individuals were in W France and c.200 in S France. A small colony exists in Italy and the species has also bred in Spain, Netherlands and Canary Islands†††.

Great Britain
Occasionally reported as an escapee from collections and also possibly a wanderer from the naturalised population in W France†. but not yet confirmed as a feral C5 vagrant.

Devon
There are only two records away from the Warren. The first presumably refers to the same bird at various locations in east Devon from 1994 to 1996†.  The other bird was a brief stayer at Bowling Green Marsh on 26/05/12. The weather conditions and associated arrivals indicate this could have been a genuine C5 vagrant†.