Species previously on the Avon List

The following species have, at various times in the past, been included as part of the Avon List but were subsequently removed for a variety of reasons. 

Surf Scoter Melanitta perspicillata 

Listed by Wheeler (1874) as ‘rare, Ashton’ but, as the article does not include either of the commoner Scoters, I assume this was a mistake; the record was amongst a number excluded by Davis (1947) 

Tengmalm’s Owl Aegolius funereus 

A specimen shot at Winscombe in 1859 [Zoologist 1888 p176] and held in the Taunton Castle Museum, was reidentified in the early 1940s as a Little Owl Davis (1947), [British Birds v35 n1 p18] 

Hawk Owl Surnia ulula caparoch 

A specimen shot on Backwell Hill on 25th or 26th August, 1847 and identified as the north American subspecies, see Davis (1947), Palmer and Ballance (1968) and Zoologist 1851, pp3029-3032, was accepted for years but was removed in a recent review of old Hawk Owl records [May 2010 issue of British Birds] 

Ehrenberg’s Redstart Phoenicurus ] was samamisicus

A male near Keynsham on 22nd and 23rd September, 1989 was originally accepted by BBRC as being of this subspecies but was later found unacceptable following a review [2008 ABR] [British Birds 102, February 2008, p 84 – 97] 

Parrot Crossbill Loxia pitypsittacus 

Although listed by Cecil Smith in his ‘Additions to the list of Somersetshire Birds’ on the basis of a specimen shot at Clevedon [1888 Zoologist p176] the species was dismissed by Davis (1947) 

Black-headed Bunting 

Although the species is listed by Wheeler (1874) the Latin name given is Emberiza schoeniclus, that of Reed Bunting. To confuse the issue Rose (2000) mentions ‘some 19th century records’ but gives them a feral status while a male on a bird-table in Yate on 7th June, 2009 [Hayes (2019)] never seems to have been submitted to, or accepted by, BBRC.