More Northern Delights and a Troublesome Larid

I managed to squeeze in one more morning's birding north of Aberdeen on Saturday. The plan was to hit the Ythan area (just 15 minutes away) shortly after dawn. At the A90/ A975 near Newburgh I stopped to watch a murmuration of perhaps 10,000 starlings - always a beautiful sight.

I was going to head to Meikle Loch first but something drew me down a minor road in the opposite direction - the coast. I arrived at a village called Collieston and was delighted to find several thousand gulls strung out along the coast, doing battle with the elements as a savage sea threw towering waves at a series of small rocky inlets.

I haven't done gulls for a while, in fact most of my 'gull-watching' was from last winter at Milton Tip. I quickly picked up a 3rd winter Iceland gull. There were red-throated divers offshore, a passing common scoter and a long-tailed duck. I settled down for the morning and eventually found another Iceland gull - a 1st winter feeding in the surf.

2nd winter herring gull, presumably argentatus - sometimes get mistaken for smithsonianus when this dark

Adult Argentatus herring gull - large, dark bird from Scandanavia with reduced black on wing-tip

1st winter Iceland gull

3rd winter Iceland gull

kittiwake

Then to top it all (or so I thought) I saw this.

It appeared to be a 2nd winter Kumlien's and I rattled off hundreds of pics despite the poor light. (Perhaps surprisingly I've not seen Kumlien's gull in the UK or Ireland - just a couple of adult-types in Canada, but I did see a probable Thayer's-Kumlien's intergrade in Oxfordshire a few years back.) Just before I had to leave I spotted it roosting on a nearby pier and snuck up on it for some digiscoped action. Had I have looked at it properly I might have picked up on some anomolous features but as it was I was behind schedule and raced back to my in-laws from where I headed south with the family to Cheshire where we had an overnight stop at a hotel on our way further south. I stuck a pic of the gull on Facebook and had some interesting feedback (from Ollie Metcalf, Rich Bonser, Julian Hough and Ash Howe - thanks guys) which caused me to go through my photos on the journey, looking at the bird more carefully. The bird was not an obvious Kumlien's - it was too dark and large-billed and the tertial/ covert pattern, pale eye and primary pattern were all questionable. The dreaded 'H' word raised its ugly head. I'd been complacent and forgotten to consider hybrids, a schoolboy error! It now appears to have been a glauc x herring, a common cross in Greenland and Iceland (often given a name in its own right, 'Nelson's' technically for a Smithy cross in N America or 'Viking' gull). I've seen one or two myself and found no problem realising what they were as I was watching them, but this one was smaller, herring gull-sized with much paler primaries than those I'd previously seen and it had got me. I think it's important to admit when you've made a mistake, learn from it and move on. Though I quickly realised it wasn't a Kumlien's I was slow to accept it as a herringxglauc as it did not fit my search image of this, so well done to Richard and Julian for pursuading me. A wise man once said he who professes to truly understand the complexities of Larid identification is merely a novice...OK, actually that's bollocks, I've just made it up myself, but I'm sure my meaning is clear - gulls are a headache and if you're not a Larophile yourself you're better off phoning a friend (who is)! Or checking your photos before putting a name to something. Photography is in fact a mixed blessing - it is absolutely invaluable for help with complex i/d's but tends to take over from watching the bird - now I tend to base most i/d's on a quick look before I spend the rest of the time taking pictures, and often I forget to watch and enjoy the bird! I think with tricky gulls a sound i/d should not be made prematurely but only after you've carefully examined the evidence and considered all possibilities.

UPDATE 3/1/14  Having spoken to various others and examined lots of shots on the web it appears the identity of this gull is likely to remain unresolved as a Larus spp, probably a hybrid of some description. Some favour a Viking-type (though it's rather small and the primaries are somewhat paler and plainer than those of most herring x glauc crosses I've looked at), others a dark Iceland gull and at least one other local observer has seconded a suspicion I'm currently harbouring - could it be an Iceland x herring gull? Just a thought - I guess we'll never know.

could it be a herring x Iceland gull hybrid?

2nd winter Kumlien's is highly variable in appearance (and little more than a hybrid swarm itself in the eyes of some) but compared to this bird should look 'cutesier' with a dark eye and smaller bill with clearer-cut tip. The brown wash on the primaries would be more obviously darker on the outer web and (usually) faded or absent on the inner primaries. It would usually look paler below with a different patern on the tertials/ coverts. Some pale Kumlien's are indistinguishable from glaucoides with only the faintest amount of brown along the primary shaft/ outer web

looking uncharacteristically dark in this pic alongside an Iceland, so perhaps not a good representative shot

Northern Delights

Traditionally I spend Christmas with my in-laws near Aberdeen and this year was no exception. I try to get out birding at least once and yesterday I decided to give Peterhead a try. I've never been before and wasn't sure what to expect though a check of bird news covering the previous 9 days revealed a red-necked grebe to be in the area.

I arrived for first light as I had to be back for lunch time. It was crisp, clear and cold and eventually the sun hauled itself lazily into the sky above the eastern horizon. I was pleasantly surprised by the birds on offer - I soon found the red-necked grebe which showed well off a small pier; there were plenty of purple sandpipers about (I counted at least 17) and offshore a minimum of 18 long-tailed ducks, one group with a fem/ imm velvet scoter. A juv great northern diver was hanging out in the harbour with many red-throated offshore. Nearby a small estuary held a flock of lapwing, one bird leucistic and closely resembling one I saw in Cambs a number of years ago.

I stopped at nearby Boddam on the way home and was pleased with a slightly oiled 1st year Iceland gull and a photogenic 1st winter drake long-tailed duck. All in a all, a productive morning's birding!

Great black-backed gull

Great northern diver

Iceland gull

Iceland gull

leucistic lapwing

leucistic lapwing

long-tailed duck (1st w drake - nb bi-coloured bill)

Red-necked grebe

shag

cormorants and shag

Arctic Ghost of Christmas Present

Ivory gull. A real five star rarity from the frozen north, this 'Arctic vulture' is a less than annual visitor to our shores and I'd seen just once previously, in 1997. 2013 has proven to be a mega year for rare birds and one of the highlights of its final month was an unprecedented arrival of ivory gulls - I think seven individuals were involved, beating the previous best annual total by one. Most didn't hang around but one in Yorkshire did and soon started to draw crowds as it paid regular visits to a feeding station where fish had been left out for it! I paid my respects on my birthday and enjoyed wonderful views.

It was initially distant, perched on rocks at the edge of the mud flat but was eventually flushed by a peregrine, after which it had a good fly around. It showed some interest in the feeding station but decided to sit on top of a roof for a while and only came in to the feeding station mid afternoon as the light was just beginning to go (not to feed but rather strut about a bit, pose for some photos and have a drink from a puddle!) We watched it at a range of about 20 metres on the ground and had flight views down to about half that so everyone went home happy!

Breckland MONSTERBILLS!

It's been more than 23 years since I've seen parrot crossbill in the UK. One at Gib Point in October 1990 and 4 at Holme, Norfolk a few days later. Part of a small invasion which also involved a good few two-barred. Just lke this year, except now there's even more, with perhaps HUNDREDS of rare crossbills in the country - flocks of up to 25 parrot and 17 two-barred are out there!

I'd already seen some TBC's in the Brecks this year but I resisted the temptation to twitch some of the parrot crossbills near the coast. The Mayday ones however were just 40 minutes from home so it would be rude not to try.

Yesterday was my second attempt. Crossbills were present most of the time I was there. Initially they were quite tough to i/d, a small group of both species (common & parrot) it seemed but had I been in Speyside I would have called most of them Scottish - they looked rather intermediate and it was hard to assess bill structure at certain angles as it should always be judged in profile. Eventually they departed and soon after a flock of better-looking crossbills came in - they looked like they were all parrots and included 'The Guv'nor', proclaiming his dominance on the topmost branch and proving steroid abuse is alive and well in the Loxia group!

The others were more subtle, as can be seen. They were not calling much and I found the call to be of less use than expected though I thought I'd heard the two clear types in the earlier flock. Then again on my first visit there was clearly a common giving a parrot-like call which reverted back to normal call in flight. Clearly it should only be used as a supporting feature.

The photos below start with the obvious brutish one and show some smaller-billed parrots as you go down, finishing with a couple of straightforward female commons (the one at the puddle actually photographed recently at nearby West Stow). Comments on I/D are welcome.

parrot crossbill flock

parrot crossbill flock

obvious female parrot even from this angle!

probably a large-billed common but initially thought to be parrot

Probably a pair of large-billed common, the female could be said to display the 'bull neck' and flat crown/ 'lack of forehead' typical of parrot crossbill but structural differences should be treated with caution when viewed from a single photo as the impression can vary with the bird's posture

presumably large-billed common

standard female common

standard female common

standard female common