Why desert dust brings hope to birdwatchers

Reports of Sahara dust in late autumn are a signal to search for birds displaced from the desert and on to our shores

Some Novembers see southern Britain bathed in unseasonably warm sunshine, in that phenomenon known as an Indian summer. But few can match the events of early November 1984, when temperatures reached highs of 19C, and balmy, southern breezes made it feel more like June than late autumn.

Then, on 9 November, car-drivers from Sussex to Yorkshire discovered their cars covered with a thin layer of fine, pale yellow dust. Amazing though it may seem, this really was sand blown here from the Sahara desert, more than 2,500km (1,500 miles) to the south.