2015 - could do better

It's traditional at this time of year to write a review of the highlights of the past year but, as this blog mostly details my birding exploits at Topsham Recreation Ground, this year there won't be one. Frankly, it's been a poor year at Topsham Rec. Sure, Topsham and the surrounding area had a fair selection of quality birds in 2015 (Penduline Tits, Gull-billed Tern and American Golden Plover for example) but for some reason none of them showed up at the Rec (the Pendulines did drop by briefly but that was in December 2014). So while 2014's notables included Ross's Gull and Kumlien's Gull, this year's competition for 'Topsham Rec Bird of the Year' has been a toss up between Little Gull and Yellow-legged Gull. They both gave a lot of personal satisfaction but neither are even Devon rarities.

So I'll wind up 2015 with the customary, but still genuine, wish that you all have a splendid 2016.

Finally here's a few photos of a Grey Phalarope I bumped into earlier in the week in South Wales (didn't find it myself, just out for a walk when told by a passing birder). As usual, tame as anything and always nice to see up close. Not immediately obvious what age it is but the tertials look rather faded and worn so presumably retained juvenile feathers - adults should have replaced all these by now. There's a lot of dark feathering on the crown and around the eye, perhaps that also indicates a first winter bird.

Grey Phalarope - 28/12/2015, Sker Pool, Glamorgan

Grey Phalarope - 28/12/2015, Sker Pool, Glamorgan

Grey Phalarope - 28/12/2015, Sker Pool, Glamorgan

Away with the gulls again

26th November 2015 - Topsham

 

Gulls never let you down. When there's nothing else about there's always a few gulls to look through and, not surprisingly, the more you look, the more you see. Certainly, having just a handful of regular species to scan through does tend to concentrate the mind, even one as prone to wander as mine.

So, today I made my usual low tide visit to Topsham Rec and as usual there's a couple of hundred Black-heads, fifty or so Herring, a dozen Common, a handful of Lesser Black-backed and single Great Black-backed. After a superficial scan for anything really obviously unusual. i.e. rare, I picked out an adult Med Gull, a colour-ringed bird (white 34K4) with a long history (see previous post). It landed near another adult, this one did not co-operate but spent all the time sleeping (Med Gulls tend to be rather inactive I've noticed). While checking my photos later I noticed it too was colour-ringed - red, right tarsus (so probably a Polish bird) - and this has been around on and off for a week though I've yet to read the code.

Mediterranean Gull 34K4 >17cy - 26/11/2015 Topsham

Mediterranean Gull 34K4 >17cy - 26/11/2015 Topsham

Mediterranean Gulls - 34K4 at back, red c-r taking it easy - 26/11/2015 Topsham

Now, folks, it's time for my occasional feature - the Topsham Mystery Gull - no prizes, in fact probably no definite solutions.

Further up the river the big gulls have their own bathing and loafing area. A quick scan produced nothing but the usual Herring Gulls and four LBB but then I noticed this slightly different individual. Light conditions were not great and the bird was not close - the usual excuses, I know - but the main points are obvious.

Larus sp. ad (it's the one at the back) - 26/11/2015 Topsham

 It's clearly darker grey than the 'normal' argenteus HG and the legs look a bit different too, not quite so pink maybe. I started thinking nominate argentatus but the mantle looks a little too dark and the tone is odd, it should be a bluer grey. A view of the spread primaries would help so I waited for it to fly.

Larus sp. ad - 26/11/2015 Topsham

Larus sp. ad - 26/11/2015 Topsham

Not looking too good now, is it? The white mirrors on P9 and P10 are just about OK for argentatus (also fine for argenteus) but the amount of black is not ideal. Another odd thing is irregular shape of the black areas plus they seem to be a little paler on P8-10, almost like something went wrong in pigment production, like the bird couldn't decide quite what it wanted to be. Maybe it's an odd argentatus, maybe it'll have to go down as another hybrid?

As ever, comments welcome.

My oldest Med Gull yet

15th November 2015 - Topsham

I should now be writing about - and proudly posting 'top quality' photos of - a cracking 1st winter Caspian Gull that performed beautifully to a small but appreciative crowd at Topsham Rec over the weekend. Sadly, despite wishing really hard, said Larid did not put in an appearance. Instead I made do with a distant 2W on the Axe, an impromptu visit following a text from the estimable Steve Waite. No photos - it must have been at least 300m away - but great value and almost certainly the same individual as Mike Langman's 11th November bird, see Axe Birding for the details.

I've only once seen Caspian Gull at Topsham Rec - back in 2012, actually it was 2013 - but naively thought my chances of another were good this week. Meanwhile, I make do with colour-ringed Med Gulls.

Mediterranean Gull Adult (17yo at least) - Topsham, 15/11/2015

I've seen this individual on the Exe at Topsham for a few days now but only managed to read the ring on Sunday - 34K4. From the colour and code it was a Dutch or Belgian bird so I sent off the details to Camille Duponcheel. By very quick reply I learn that this bird was first ringed (as >3cy) in May 2001, in Antwerp, Belgium. So, if it was at least in its 4th calendar year in 2001, it fledged no later than the summer of 1998 making it now at least 17 years old (in its 18cy). It's been seen many times since first ringed (now on its second c-r); while apparently usually wintering in Somerset, it was regularly seen on the Axe Estuary in the winter of 2011/2012 and once on the Exe at Lympstone in November 2014. A few spring and summer sightings from the Antwerp area suggests that it returns there to breed.

As for the Caspian Gull, I know you're out there somewhere - just need to be there...

A New Beetle

11th November 2015 - Topsham

I found this outside the front door last night. Coming home from the pub, I noticed it on the wall by the front light. I didn't immediately recognise it so popped back out with a specimen tube and saved it for this morning. As I was photographing it I assumed it was a Longhorn Beetle (Cerambycidae) but when I tried to ID it using various keys it just wouldn't fit. On a hunch, and noticing the obviously enlarged back legs, I wondered if it might be an Oedemera or something related - Oedemera nobilis (Scopoli) is common around here (and just about everywhere) but is much smaller and bright metallic green, this chap looked like he might be a larger relative. After a bit of searching and checking photos I'm confident that this is Oedemera femoralis (Olivier), a male judging by the swollen hind femora.

Oedemera femoralis (Olivier) - 11/11/2015 Topsham

Oedemera femoralis (Olivier) - 11/11/2015 Topsham

Its distribution is said to be local in England and Wales and it's a new one for me but, as it's apparently nocturnal, this may not be surprising.

Identification checked using the excellent Watford Coleoptera Group website - highly recommended for British beetle info. Distribution data from Beetles and Beetle Recording in Great Britain - also well worth a look.

Short-eared Owl

1st November 2015 - Topsham

A walk around Highfield Farm, Topsham yesterday produced a Firecrest - views too brief and light too dark for photos - and this Short-eared Owl, flushed from the wet meadows by the river. It got up just a few metres away and settled at only a short distance atop a hedge. Before we could approach the local Jackdaws took real objection to it and chased it off down the valley, I lost it in the distance over Darts Farm - maybe still in the area?

Both Firecrest and Short-eared Owl new birds for the Farm, though oddly I've recorded both from our garden which is just a stone's throw away.

Short-eared Owl - Highfield Farm, Topsham, 1/11/2015

Short-eared Owl - Highfield Farm, Topsham, 1/11/2015. Chased off by Jackdaws.

C

Short-eared Owl - Highfield Farm, Topsham, 1/11/2015

Isabelline Shrike, and why 'Daurian' just won't do...

15th October 2015, South Huish, Devon

This blog's been quiet of late and, to be honest, there's been little to write about. I can't remember the last decent bird I saw in Topsham. I've also been busy (which is good) and haven't been out and about as much as I would like recently (which is not so good). Still, news of an Isabelline (notice I didn't say 'Daurian') Shrike in South Devon got me out for a few hours this morning. Some of you may recall that many years ago I wrote a little piece for Dutch Birding on the subject of small eastern shrikes so you could say I have a 'professional' interest in these birds.

Luckily it didn't take much finding, in fact I walked right into it and for the next couple of hours it regularly appeared on the phone line or on the hedge by 'The White House' as described. While views were often very close - the bird was extremely tame and approachable - it nearly always stayed on the wrong side of the lane, backlit by the early sun. Once only it sat in a hawthorn on the 'right' side, I got a few photos through the branches but before I could edge round for a better view it was disturbed by a passing car - oddly, it didn't seem alarmed by people, only cars. Still, it performed well and regularly for the rest of the morning, hunting along the sunny side of the hedge and flying up to the wire to eat - mostly wasps.

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

Here's the little beauty in the hawthorn, as nice a nominate isabellinus as you'll get. The important thing is the paleness of the upperparts and the lack of contrast with the pale, but slightly warm-toned, underparts; a typical phoenicuroides would be darker above and whiter below. The ear coverts are perhaps a little darker than average (though most of the time they didn't look that striking) but the supercilium is poorly defined and the scalloping or wavy bars (squamations, anybody?) on the breast and flanks are faint and, in the sun, looked gingery; they're usually bolder and darker in phoenicuroides. Another good character is the distinctly buff-tinged pale tone of the underparts, rather dirty-looking where a phoenicuroides would look cleaner white.

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

Most of the time it gave views like these, very close but always against the sky with the sun in the 'wrong' place. The juvenile median and greater coverts are obvious, most or all of the contour feathers are by now second generation after it's first partial (post-juvenile or preformative, take your pick) moult.

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

 

 

This shot could have been so good, shame about the light, the camera and the photographer. It does show one thing however, see that long P9 (or P2 if you're an 'up-counter') on the left wing, it's nearly as long as the next one, P8, and might even be longer than P7; on arenarius, the other Isabelline subsp. that just conceivably could occur in Europe, P2 is usually the same length or thereabouts as P6, on all the specimens I've examined it's never been as long as on this bird.

I said it mostly ate wasps, this is how a shrike deals with the sting; squeeze the abdomen untill the business end comes off then swallow (see what I mean about the light?).

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

Isabelline Shrike - 15/10/2015 South Huish, Devon

To return to something I wrote earlier, why 'Isabelline' and not 'Daurian' Shrike? It's the same bird and 'Daurian' seems to have caught on in recent years. But does anyone know where Dauria is? I looked it up, It turns out it's an old name for the area east of Lake Baikal in the Russian far east; on old maps it used to known as 'Daooria' so maybe we're all pronouncing it wrong as well. All well and good, it sounds exotic, but the problem I have with the name is that you won't find too many 'Daurian' Shrikes in Dauria, Brown Shrikes certainly but not a lot of Lanius isabellinus. Our bird breeds mainly in Mongolia and northern China (the form arenarius appears to be limited to the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang). So if you want to give it a geographic name, why not 'Mongolian Shrike'? Personally I've always liked the sound of 'Isabelline' and if you really want to know why it's 'isabelline' (the colour of unwashed linen and not, by the way, 'soiled undergarments' as I've sometimes heard), stop me and ask me sometime.

Finally, here's one I made earlier, as they say. In March I was invited to Helsinki to talk about Shrikes, I was unsatisfied with my previous attempts so I painted this comparison to illustrate what I see as the main differences between 'typical' isabellinus and phoenicuroides - or Isabelline and Turkestan, if you like.

Isabelline and Turkestan Shrikes - 'typical' 1st winters

Many thanks to Richard Stafford for finding it, and Mike Passman and Alan Doidge etc for getting the news out.

Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters

Just finished another plate for the 'Tubenose Handbook' - a few corrections and alterations still to be made of course courtesy of the exacting Mr Shirihai. Here's part of it, Sooty (Ardenna* griseus) and Short-tailed Shearwaters (A.tenuirostris).

Short-tailed Shearwater: the English name must be one of the least appropriate of all tubenoses, it doesn't look particularly short in the tail and measurements suggest that it's actually longer-tailed relative to wing and body length than Sooty. Mind you, I'm really not sure there's an obvious alternative other than 'slender-billed' or even 'small-billed shearwater', but at least these have the advantage of some relationship to the scientific name.

Sooty Shearwater of course occurs annually in huge numbers in the North Atlantic but Short-tailed, an equally numerous transequatorial migrant in the Pacific, has never been proven in European waters. I presume all our Sooties come from South American and Falkands colonies but, since Short-tailed only breeds in Southern Australia and Tasmania, it's occurence in the Atlantic would be exceptional. In fact there are just three records: a sight record off Virginia January 1998 (Brinkley et al. 2001), a moribund bird in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida in July 2000 (Kratter & Steadman 2003) and a newly dead beached specimen in Bahia, Brazil in May 2005 (Souto et al. 2008). So Short-tailed Shearwater must be a distinct possibility off British and Irish coasts (I understand there have indeed been plausible claims from respected seawatchers). Seeing one well enough to be certain would obviously be difficult while getting it accepted another thing entirely; quality boat-based photos might do it?

References

Brinkley, E.S., Patteson, J.B., & Turner, C. 2001. Short-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris) at Norfolk Canyon. Raven 71: 84-89.

Kratter, A.W., & Steadman, D.W. 2003. First Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico specimen of Short-tailed Shearwater. North American Birds 57: 277-279.

Souto, L.R.A., Maia-Noguiera. R., & Bressan, D.C. 2008. Primero registro de Puffinus tenuirostris (Temminck, 1835) para o Oceano Atlântico. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 16(1): 64-66.

*Ardenna - recent genetic studies suggest that the larger shearwaters comprise a monophyletic group distinct from the smaller Puffinus spp. (and in fact Puffinus appears to be more closely related to Calonectris).

Seabirding

15th & 18th August 2015 - West Cornwall and Prawle Point

On Saturday I took up the offer, courtesy of Adrian Thomas (skipper) and Martin Elliott (spotter and chum operative), of a trip aboard the Mermaid II out of Penzance. Eight hours around Wolf Rock and the Runnel Stone produced a few hundred Manx and about ten Balearic Shearwaters, a couple of Sooties and a dozen or more Storm-petrels, a few juv Yellow-legged Gulls followed us for a while and a couple of Bonxies dropped in. Risso's and Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Porpoises, Minke and an unidentified larger whale added to the day's entertainment.

Manx Shearwater - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

British Storm-petrel - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

Fulmar - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

Fulmar - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

Yellow-legged Gull juv/1W - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

Yellow-legged Gull juv/1W - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

Yellow-legged Gull juv/1W - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

Common Dolphin - 15/8/2015 Cornwall

Tuesday saw me at Prawle Point for a marathon 14 hour seawatch - part of the co-ordinated Balearic Shearwater Survey for MARINElife and RSPB. Tony Marchese and I recorded a respectable 32 Balearics, all before midday; also a couple of thousand Manx and a Bonxie - not bad for conditions better suited to sunbathing than seawatching.

Marsh Harrier, Ham Wall

6th August 2015 - Ham Wall, Somerset

Having to collect brother and family from Bristol Airport, I decided to indulged myself by stopping off at the Avalon Marshes en route. As planned, a few Marsh Harriers were up and about; I had brief and distant views of an adult male before this juvenile obliged. It loitered for a good hour or so, presumably practising its hunting skills while waiting for a parent to provide a proper meal.

Marsh Harrier juv - 6/8/2015 Ham Wall, Somerset

Marsh Harrier juv - 6/8/2015 Ham Wall, Somerset

Marsh Harrier juv - 6/8/2015 Ham Wall, Somerset

Marsh Harrier juv - 6/8/2015 Ham Wall, Somerset

Marsh Harrier juv - 6/8/2015 Ham Wall, Somerset

Marsh Harrier juv - 6/8/2015 Ham Wall, Somerset

Marsh Harrier juv - 6/8/2015 Ham Wall, Somerset

Some gulls are bigger than others

2nd August 2015 - Topsham

Male Herring or Lesser Black-backed Gulls often look massive next to small, dainty females. I tend to forget that, like people, smaller gulls also come in different sizes. This bird looked so tiny that for a second or two I wondered if it wasn't another Bonaparte's.

Black-headed Gull - 2/8/2015 Topsham

Black-headed Gull - 2/8/2015 Topsham

 Sanity (sort of) returned with check of the deep red legs - wrong; white nape - wrong; then the reddish bill appeared - wrong. Just a runt Black-headed Gull, of course, with the added issue of optical 'size illusion'.

Another Yellow-leg

19th July 2015 - Weymouth

At the risk of overdoing the gulls, here's another juv michahellis, this time from Dorset. We briefly popped into Radipole yesterday (we were dropping Carolyn's brother at Dorchester station so I suggested a quick detour to Weymouth). I thought there might be the odd one around, but this was practically the first bird I saw as we pulled into the car park. At this time of year, when the Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls are just fledging, birds as smart as this stand out a mile.

Yellow-legged Gull - 19/7/2015 Weymouth, Dorset

Yellow-legged Gull - 19/7/2015 Weymouth, Dorset

Yellow-legged Gull - 19/7/2015 Weymouth, Dorset

Yellow-legged Gull - 19/7/2015 Weymouth, Dorset

And here's a juv Herring Gull looking rather less impressive in comparison.

Herring Gull - 19/7/2015 Weymouth, Dorset

Yellow-legged Gull number 2

12th July 2015 - Topsham

It's that time of year folks: michahellis season. After my first of the year at Bowling Green on the 7th, I was happy to stumble on this one at the Rec this morning. For a change, it was close enough to get some reasonable photos - although the light could have been a bit brighter.

Yellow-legged Gull juv. - 12/7/2015 Topsham

Yellow-legged Gull juv. - 12/7/2015 Topsham

Yellow-legged Gull juv. - 12/7/2015 Topsham

Yellow-legged Gull juv. - 12/7/2015 Topsham

Yellow-legged Gull juv. - 12/7/2015 Topsham

Yellow-legged Gull juv. - 12/7/2015 Topsham

Yellow-legged Gull juv. - 12/7/2015 Topsham

Yellow-legged Gull juv. (juv. Herring Gull behind) - 12/7/2015 Topsham

For those who've asked how to pick these out (and on the understanding that I'm no expert) here's some of the reasons I noticed this bird: initially on shape: longer-winged and heavier-billed than Herring gull; then plumage: a dark individual but still showing classic scaps, coverts and tertial patterns; obvious differences in flight are the dark inner primaries and the white rump and tail base; also, clearly a bird that fledged several weeks ago - check the worn fringes to the scapulars and tertials - the Herring Gull (Lesser Black-backed would be similar), on the other hand, probably only left the nest a few days ago.