Mega City!

The past week or so has been particularly rewarding birding-wise with three MEGAs and some excellent back-up birds to boot. First up was an osprey - nothing mega about that you might think but its location, in the skies above my house, instantly promoted it to 'monster' status. Yes, a house tick and one of the best birds I've ever had from my humble abode with its tiny garden and general lack of interesting habitat for miles around. YET - it's my 8th raptor species here and furthermore the last 3 house/ garden ticks have been in a league of their own. Just a week before the osprey I was going through some pics of redpolls that had been visiting my feeder last winter - one was quite clearly a mealy! Not sure how I missed it at the time, but there's no question as to its I/D. The other five star bird from last winter was waxwing, with a number of birds which visited on 4 separate occasions and got me grinning from ear to ear.

mealy redpoll - retrospective identification!

A look at my first pied-billed grebe for 15 years was next on the agenda when I was offered a lift for one at Rutland Water, a locality tantalisingly close to Cambridgeshire on a very typical date for an arrival of this rare yank. The bird was present just 2 days so I was lucky to see it on its second. I went with Brendan and together we arrived rather late, with a longer walk than expected. We had views to around 100 metres, with a summer plumaged great northern diver and a single osprey providing distractions from the star bird.

After missing the 1999 crag martin in the Midlands/ Yorkshire (I was in New Zealand and I wasn’t confident I could get to it in time, it being an unpredictable hirundine n’ all) I was delighted to hear last week of the presence of one at Flamborough, though somewhat dismayed to realise that news had broken some two hours before I knew anything of it! I had Ben for the morning so I may not have been able to go but still…thtat's amateurish!

I hastily laid plans and decided to hot foot it north without trying to fill the car. I just wanted to be there as soon as possible. But I was still behind with news and it took a long time for news to come through to me that it had done a bunk. By this time I was just an hour away and I decided to divert to Hornsea Mere, aware of how the last bird had shown up at reservoirs and gravel pits.

As I drove in to the car park a female mallard was being gang-raped by a bunch of drakes. I broke up the party a couple of times but my efforts were futile and their efforts immediately resumed. Here I met Will Soar and we spent the rest of the afternoon checking the hirundines, with 150+ sand martin present and up to 3 swallows. A black swan, female long-tailed duck & velvet scoter along with a pair of tree sparrows and 40+ goldeneye and a sleeping fox provided welcome distractions but there was no sign of the martin.

non-crag martin

After some local fish and chips we headed to the Crown & Anchor pub in Kilnsea where we joined Ash Howe and headed onwards to the Warren at Spurn where we spent the night.

We were up at 6 and vis-migging all morning, hoping for a lucky flyover. A few migrants appeared – little tern, whimbrel, wheatear, LRP and a handful of hirundines, mainly swallows, but still no martin. The other 2 left at 11am, just 20 minutes before a serin flew over – excellent for me but unlucky for them. That was to be my lucky flyover but 20 minutes after I left, it apparently returned to the obs and showed well in the bushes along with a 2^nd bird – it was my turn to feel gripped off when I saw the photo later on Twitter.

sunrise at Spurn

flyover serin - honest!

With no crag martin sightings for some 24 hrs I headed for home but was stopped in my tracks roughly half way by the news the martin had been sighted again, still in the area of Flamborough Head, though it had been lost to view. I waited at the services for more news. It came. I burned rubber and the VTEC engine system on my trusty Honda Civic Type-R got me to Flamborough in record time. True birding in the fast lane!

As I neared Flamborough it started to rain. This was not good news and I was convinced I'd miss the bird. But on arrival it was showing well at North Landing and soon afterwards was swooping over our heads, sometimes just 3 or 4 metres away - bloody awesome, and 15 years of hurt instantly evaporated!

crag martin!

Last birding trip of the period was one made after work to the Ouse Washes. One particular site near Pymore has racked up an extraordinary collection of rarities in recent weeks, including a drake green-winged teal which was my target on this visit. I joined Nene Washes warden Jon Taylor and started scrutinising a tiny flooded dyke in the distance, the only water for miles around. The light and distance involved made for tough viewing but eventually a rare teal did materialise - but despite being a drake with a white vertical stripe between the breast and flank it wasn't the green-winged, it was the relocating drake Baikal from Fen Drayton! Soon afterwards the GWT appeared, trying to impress the female teal with its head-bobbing display. There wasn't time to search for the nearby great white egret or American wigeon and apparently the following day a pair of glossy ibises and a ruddy shelduck were present on the same area of water as the teal, and a day later still, a cattle egret showed up nearby at the Welches Dam reserve. A real purple patch for one of the best birding sites in this part of the country - As Arnie once said - 'I'll be back!'

That lil' bit o' water - Rarity Central!

Tale of a Teal and a Perplexing Pipit Puzzle

Since my last update I’ve seen a few bits n’ bobs. The dusky warbler in Suffolk – an elusive little thing, I was surprised to see it on arrival, but failed to get decent views in the 3.5 hours I waited.

 

Then there was the teal. A drake Baikal in fact, just 20 minutes from home. It was found on a WeBs count a fortnight earlier and news wasn’t released at the time as it was assumed to be an escape. But when Mike Everett came across it and put the news on the Cambirds Google Group it was MEGA’d by the info services – ensuring it was taken seriously by the birding community.

I was in London when news broke but got it at last light, having spent an hour trying to find the right spot on a right wild goose chase – or should I say plastic duck chase? Who knows where it’s from, but with the species now firmly established in Cat A of the British list I don’t see why this one won’t be given the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway I had a MEGA on one of my local patches so was happy to give it the benefit of the doubt, returning a few days later for seconds. These two trips gave me my first migrants of the year (garganey & sand martin though I’d also had a few singing chiffs and blackcaps prior to this) and some notable mammals – badger and weasel crossed the road in front of my car on the outskirts of nearby villages and a large bat was hunting over the guided busway close to where I’d parked on my first visit. It could have been a noctule but was inaudible and quite low-flying (and possibly not quite big enough) leaving me with thoughts of Leisler’s. I returned with a bat detector on my second visit but couldn’t relocate it, neither did I notice the nearby mink, which was apparently lying freshly dead on the busway just yards from where I parked.

A quick stop at Connaught Water a few days later failed to produce the hoped-for smew (and no mandarins either) but there was a nice sinensis cormorant in breeding plumage.

continental cormorant (sinensis), Connaught Water

I don’t usually check these but as this one was conveniently close with an obvious whitish head and some deep orange bare facial skin I thought it would be a continental one so grabbed a passing shot, one that shows the correct shape of facial skin for this form, with the rear border falling at roughly a right-angle to the gape-line. A useful plate illustrating this difference can be seen here http://www.irishbirding.com/birds/web/Display/sighting/48370/Continental_Cormorant.html

Yesterday I headed to the Ouse Washes for a few hours. The Washes were graced with typically good numbers of birds – 2 pairs of garganey, 50+ ruff, a few hundred black’wits and at least 80 pintail were all noteworthy. A spoonbill over the back (present since the previous day) represents only my second county record, and a flyover yellow wag was my first of the year.

And then I came across this pipit.

 

I’ve had some tricky gulls to sort out recently but passerines have generally been straightforward. Not so the small blushing pipit creeping about near Welches Dam Hide. It was on its own and so was I. And I didn’t know what it was. It spent much of its time part hidden in the vegetation in windy conditions and took on different appearances as the sun peeped in and out of the clouds; I went from water pipit to Littoralis rock but it was clearly neither of these, and I was forced to consider other options – coutelli water pipit and Siberian buff-bellied (spp japonicus) can both show similar toned underparts to this bird but I’m not that familiar with them, though I knew the whole rock-water-buff-bellied pipit complex consisted of birds with plain mantles, unlike the one I was watching. I knew meadow pipit can sometimes be rather pinky-orange below, but this bird had a grey head, too, though several other features seemed to fit meadow pipit. It was time to get some photos and sort it out afterwards.

Aberrant meadow pipit ('whistleri-type' or erythristic), Ouse Washes

Aberrant meadow pipit ('whistleri-type' or erythristic), Ouse Washes

Aberrant meadow pipit ('whistleri-type' or erythristic), Ouse Washes

Aberrant meadow pipit ('whistleri-type' or erythristic), Ouse Washes

Aberrant meadow pipit ('whistleri-type' or erythristic), Ouse Washes

 After doing some reading up at home I was happy the bird was an aberrant meadow pipit, one of the ‘funny’ ones occasionally misidentified as red-throated pipit and regularly attributed to the claimed Irish & Hebridean race whistleri, but possibly just an erythristic (excess red pigment) form of nominate pratensis. Among the features which indicate this bird is a meadow pipit are the small pale bill, virtually complete white eye-ring only broken marginally at either end (more obviously in front of the eye in rock/ water-types), clean cut black streaking below, heavily streaked mantle, streaked crown, indistinct supercilium and pale legs. Its call seemed less squeaky than a normal mipit's and it didn't call on take-off. It shows moult contrast on the greater coverts but I think this can be shown by both young and older birds, rendering ageing perhaps unsafe at this time of year. Of note is the fact that the pinky-buff of the underparts is echoed throughout the bird's plumage forming the ground colour of the mantle and also showing through on the grey of the head. Could this be more suggestive of a pigment condition perhaps? Personally I'm not sure I buy the whistleri theory - only a tiny proportion of whistleri look anything other than nominate pratensis and some individuals seen elsewhere (eg here) have been in heavy moult and perhaps more local in origin than from the Celtic West. 'Whistleri' is however a good search term for Googling if you are wanting to see more pics of these birds. There is a marked peak in records in March and April and this bird fits the pattern neatly - what are they and where have they come from? We may yet find out. For another at this time of year in Cambridgeshire (from 2006) see here. 

A couple of my own pics taken in the Hebs last year appear below and show just how similar most birds are to nominate pratensis. For further reading see Richard Porter's article on these aberrant type meadow pipits in Birding World (2005) with particular reference to one photographed on Blakeney Point.

meadow pipit (pres race whistleri), Harris (August 2013)

meadow pipit (pres race whistleri), Harris (August 2013)

 And to finish with I noticed this pair of great tits at my garden feeder this morning. The female is very washed out - they're like chalk & cheese! Could this be down to simple variation? The colours are similar to some juvs I seen but it's too early for a juvenile and there's no yellow flanges. I've seen some odd great tits before, including a couple of melanistic-looking ones in the Midlands. Or perhaps it could even be a bird of eastern origin? Comments welcome! 

References
Porter R. 2005 Birding World Volume 18 number 4

 

Gulls, Gulls, Gulls

The Rise and Rise of Cachinnans

Over the last couple of winters I have made Milton my local patch in an attempt to learn more about gulls. The refuse tip attracts large numbers and recently Caspian gull has chosen this site as one of its favoured British overwintering locations - at times Milton has been THE best spot to see Caspian gull in Britain and being less than 20 minutes from my home it's a convenient spot to watch. A few weeks back there were 10 gull species regularly visiting, though the most I managed in a day was 9.

 Dick Newell has photographed many Caspian gulls in the wider area (see http://www.magikbirds.com/image.asp?title_id=169&show_thumbnails=True) but my first few attempts at locating them were largely unsuccessful. I found an adult beside the A10 at Landbeach in 2005 but any others were generally only possibles or probables and I found adult argentatus (Scandanavian herring) in particular to be at times tricky to rule out. They can be large, just as dark above and have a very similar primary pattern to Caspian.

Then about 3 years ago I found a distinctive first winter on the tip. I had only made a handful of trips at this time and it seemed to be a pivotal point as thereafter I started to come across more of them. Part of it may have been related to 'getting my eye in' but then again I had seen a number of Caspians previously elsewhere round the country, including a first year in Norfolk.

Caspian gull (1st yr), Milton Tip, Jan 2011. Classic and striking bird and in view all too briefly as they often are in the feeding mellee on the tip.

 I started concentrating on Milton (rather than Landbeach or Cottenham) soon afterwards and found Caspians to be constantly present in small numbers. I think at the same time some other landfill sites may have closed as the overall number of gulls here seemed to increase around this time. But they are recorded everywhere more regularly these days with birders knowing what to look for and with their range expanding westward into Central Europe, though they remain very rare in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Many are seen  in particular in the Thames Valley/ Estuary where photographs of ringed individuals have enabled observers to trace their movement history and country of origin.

I usually see 2 - 4 individuals on a winter visit to Milton and sometimes as many as 5 (though I usually miss out on the ringed birds!). Others have seen 7 or 8 in a day and there was one day when 9 different birds were seen (with the combined efforts of several birders). The only British gathering I know of which surpasses that number is the 11 seen at Dungeness in December 2013 and certainly this number of individuals has been recorded at Milton over a long weekend.

Caspian gull is a favourite among Larophiles as at a site like this it gives you something to look for (while hoping for something rarer) which is likely to be actually present. They can be very handsome and elegant in appearance - sometimes striking, sometimes more subtle. And anyone birding in the nineties will remember that not so long ago they were not known about - It was 1996 a ground-breaking paper appeared in British Birds alerting us all to their presence, based on the documentation of birds present at Mucking Tip in Essex. Within a couple of years we were all out looking for them; they were known as Pontic gull, or sometimes as Eastern yellow-legged as they had not yet been split from Western. It was a number of years before BOU finally made the change after what was a considerable delay, even for them, but gull taxonomy is tricky and decisions are often left for years pending scientific research.

Anyway, here's a gallery of Casps, followed by a few other gulls of interest. Most of the pics are taken at Milton but some later on were taken in Scotland. I don't have access to the tip at Milton so the birds are sometimes distant (apologies for the poor quality of some pics!), particularly as their favourite field (bordered by Butt Lane & the A10 just by Milton Park & Ride) is the size of a small county! I have used the old age class system (1st winter, 2nd winter, etc as opposed to x calendar year) for ease, though it's a little crude in the context of gull moult which does not like to be pigeonholed in this way!

1st year

1st winter Caspian gull, Milton Tip, Jan 2014. Rather large, dark bird with distinctive bill pattern. Note ad YLG below to the right

1st winter Caspian gull, Freckenham, Jan 2014. Large, classic, striking bird with c150 gulls beside the A11

1st winter Caspian gull, Milton Tip, March 2014

1st winter Caspian gull, Milton Tip, Nov 2012 (with presumed 4th winter argentatus herring gull). Caspian gull moults earlier than herring, but this bird is exceptionally advanced, showing moult contrast in the scaps and coverts (2nd & 3rd gen) in November; normally this moult would commence the following spring or summer but this bird has already replaced its lower row of scapulars. It shows off the beautiful grey shawl of streaking superbly. It is standing in the shade of the bank which gives a good flat light for assessing colours and shades. Bright sunshine can make it very difficult picking out subtleties.

1st winter Caspian gulls, Milton, Jan 2013. I was photographing the preening bird at the back (here showing the tail pattern nicely) and only noticed the front bird later on when examining photos. It hadn't been present at the start but had 'photobombed' the image.

  2nd yr

2nd winter Caspian gull, Milton Tip, Jan 2014. As well as the obvious bird centre left, the bird in the middle at the extreme right is also a 2nd winter Caspian, albeit a rather camera-shy one!

2nd winter Caspian gull, Milton, Jan 2014. Though the mantle looks a bit pale here, it looked fine in the field with all relevant features present. Note very long wings giving the bird an attenuated, phalarope-like rear end.

2nd winter Caspian gull (or hybrid), Milton , Jan 2013. I had this down as a cachinanns x argentatus hybrid for a long time but believe now it could well be within variation of Caspian gull. It shows a rather heavy bill and unusually short, thick legs for this species.

3rd yr
 

3rd winter Caspian gull, Milton Tip, Jan 2013. Like many subadult Caspians this bird retains traces of streaking on the nape, all that is left of the distinctive 'grey shawl' so obvious in its first year. Similar to adult, but note dark tertials and primary coverts (and sometimes dark slivers on the tail)

Adult

Adult Caspian gull, Milton Tip, Nov 2012. P10 underside just visible

Adult Caspian gull, Histon, Feb 2014. Dark eye and small head obvious here, giving the bird a rather common gull-like appearance. One of three birds in this particular flock in a flooded field a couple of miles from Milton Tip.

Caspian gulls, Milton, Feb 2014. This photo shows (at the front of the flock) a 3rd winter and an adult Caspian gull but they're far from obvious. I was trying to make up my mind on the younger bird when it gave the diagnostic long call (a first for me) starting with wings raised for the start, then folded with head thrown back 90 degrees (typically 45 on herring and wings not raised). It was posturing and squaring up to the adult which I'd overlooked - not an obvious bird (at a fair range admitedly) but I suddenly realised it was identical structurally to the 3rd winter and appeared dark-eyed with the right head shape and a longish bill (rather bright, indicating full breeding getup). In this photo only the long wings seem to stand out though the dark eye is hinted at too. But whereas the previous adult bird leapt out at me (so to speak), this one did not.

Other species

1st winter Glaucous gull, Milton, Jan 2013. Small bird and very pale, appearing almost white in the field. Superficially similar to a 2nd winter, it is actually a 1st winter, showing a dark eye and solid dark bill tip. The coloration is not down to wear but thought to be due to racial variation or colour morphing - white birds like this seem to be commoner to the west of the species' range.

1st winter Glaucous gull, Milton, December 2012. A large, dark bird (even recalling American herring in this pic) in contrast to the previous one, though note it usually looked paler in the field than is suggested in this photo

1st winter Glaucous gull, Milton, January 2014. Dwarfing a colour ringed LBBG

1st winter Glaucous gull, Milton, January 2014. Same bird as above

Gulls, Milton Tip, Feb 2014. There are 6 spp in this pic - can you spot the Caspian & glaucous?

1st winter Glaucous gull, Milton Tip, January 2014. Same bird as above

Adult yellow-legged gull, Milton Tip, November 2012. Always present in small numbers, with adults and older immatures most numerous; 1st winters rather scarce

Hybrids and other confusing individuals

Hybrid gull resembling adult Iceland gull, Milton Tip, January 2014. This bird showed grey on the leading edge of the primaries and very herring gull-like head and bill plus rather long legs. It could be a Viking type, (Glaucous x herring hybrid, rather common in northern latitudes) but the long wings are puzzling. We're told Iceland very rarely hybridises, but could this bird have had L glaucoides as one of its parents?

2nd winter Iceland gull or hybrid, Collieston, Aberdeens, December 2013. Not taken anywhere near Milton, this was the other interesting gull of the winter for me. It bears some similarities to the previous bird, hence its inclusion here, in that it appears to lie on or near the edge of the expected range of variation of Iceland gull but its true identity is not clear. It could be a 'Viking' gull, an exceptionally dark Iceland-type or an Iceland x herring hybrid. After seeing the last two birds, I'm left wondering if perhaps it's worth reconsidering the apparent rarity of Iceland hybrids?

2nd winter Iceland gull sp or hybrid, Collieston, Aberdeens, December 2013. Pale eye, rather heavy bill and slightly atypical primary pattern are among the featues seemingly at odds with my original identification of this bird as a 2nd winter Kumlien's gull. 

1st winter Caspian gull or hybrid, Milton Tip, March 2014. This bird took flight with the flock and I only got a couple of (very poor) shots. Looking at them later it's apparent there is dark blackish feathering coming through on the outer coverts around the carpal joint and on the scapulars. It doesn't look like oil or any other kind of soiling and looks too dark to me to be misrepresentative photo artefact, but rather some dark LBBG-like 3rd gen feathering, yet it looks too large, pale and long-legged for a nominate fuscus and looks otherwise to be a Caspian-type.

Adult lesser black-backed gull or hybrid (possibly with herring or GBBG) Figgate Park, Edinburgh, March 2014. An unusual bird for a lesser with very broad white trailing edge, pale pink legs and shortish primary projection. A number of apparent herring x LBBG hybrids have been photographed in this area and as some hybrids can adopt the upperpart coloration of one parent (rather than appear intermediate) it's just possible there could be herring gull genes in this bird. However it could still be within the range of LBBG - would welcome further opinion on this.

1st winter Ivory gull, Patrington Haven, Yorks; December 2013. The best gull of the winter and part of a record influx, added here to prove to Larophobes that gulls (even young ones) can be simple, straightforward and beautiful- sometimes!