Faint signs of life in the blog yet...

2nd February 2016 - Somewhere in the Midlands

It's symptomatic of the state of the birding around here right now that not only is this my first post of 2016 but that I had to travel a couple of hundred miles to find anything I felt like writing about.

Tuesday found myself and Martin Elliott in Tring talking with Hadoram Shirihai about our Tubenoses/Seabirds books projects. On Wednesday we spent several hours standing in a hedge by the A5 in Leicstershire; HGVs belting along behind us and a few hundred LWHGs on a pool in front of us. The occasional sleet shower wasn't too bad but the standing still was chilling - at least that's one excuse for the poor photos.

Highlights were at least two 1st winter Caspians but a couple of Yellow-legs and hundreds of argentatus Herring Gulls would have made it all worth while on their own.

Caspian Gull 1W - Shawell, Leics. 3/2/2016

Caspian Gull 1W - Shawell, Leics. 3/2/2016

Caspian Gull 1W - Shawell, Leics. 3/2/2016 - typically bolshy with the other gulls, almost a classic ID feature.

Caspian Gull 1W - Shawell, Leics. 3/2/2016 - a real beauty but the first bird was even smarter.

Herring Gull argentatus - Shawell, Leics. 3/2/2016 - classic primary pattern.

Herring Gull argentatus - Shawell, Leics. 3/2/2016 - with Lesser Black-backed intermedius.

Herring Gull argentatus - Shawell, Leics. 3/2/2016 - maybe my photo processing has made these darker than necessary but they really did look strikingly different to typical argenteus, some approaching graellsii in shade. Rarer than Caspian in Devon but is that just observer bias?

How many species of gull in this photo?

30th August 2014 - Topsham

I took this photo at Topsham Recreation Ground yesterday. Three adult gulls, clearly three different 'types' but are there three species involved or just two?

OK that was clearly a leading question and regular readers of this blog will know where this is going. Those who, inexplicably, find gulls uninteresting might want to skip to the end of this post for a photo of a Tree Pipit.

Larus spp. 30/8/2014 Topsham

The middle and right hand birds should present no problems - Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull - but what about the bird on the left? Medium grey mantle - good for Yellow-legged Gull if perhaps a little 'blue' - but pink legs? I think it's clear we're looking at another hybrid, the parents presumably being Herring and Lesser Black-backed.

Here's some photos showing the primaries more clearly. As you'd expect in late August it's in moult but the relevant feathers are all present. P1-5 are new and fully grown, P6 is nearly so, the old P7 has been shed and the replaced feather is not yet visible, P8-10 are old. There are good sized mirrors on P9 and P10 with a fair amount of black on the outer three primaries and, unlike many apparent hybrids, there is a complete black band on P5 - the overall pattern suggesting michahellis or graellsii rather than argenteus.

Larus hybrid 30/8/2014 Topsham

Larus hybrid 30/8/2014 Topsham

So my answer is: three gulls, two species, presumably one and a half Herring and one and a half Lesser Black-backed (I do realise it may not be that simple since it can't be ruled out that there's also some michahellis mixed up in there and of course it might not be a first generation cross). Never a dull moment with gulls or, to quote a good friend of mine: "welcome to the wonderful world of Larids!"

Meanwhile, here's the Tree Pipit (one of two) taken from the back door a couple of days ago. It's not a garden tick - I've had a few flyovers before - but it is the first one actually in the garden.

Tree Pipit - 29/8/2014 Topsham

Two 2nd year gulls - contrast and compare

24th April 2014 - Topsham

Fresh juvenile Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls can look confusingly similar (to me anyway) in late summer, here's how different they can appear by the following spring. Both birds from Topsham Rec this morning - apart from newly arrived Reed Warblers singing and a few Greenshanks still fueling up it was a quiet day.

First a 2nd calendar year/1st cycle Herring Gull; all scapulars 2nd generation but very  worn and bleached, all tertials and coverts retained juvenile feathers and also much the worse for wear, the median and lesser coverts are particularly pale, the darker marginal coverts just visible at the bend of the wing have presumably been more shielded from the elements.

Herring Gull 2cy - 24/4/2014 Topsham

Herring Gull 2cy - 24/4/2014 Topsham

Now at the other extreme here's a 2nd calendar year/1st cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull. It's basically the same age as the Herring Gull, and likewise the scapulars are all 2nd generation, the coverts and tertials are all retained juvenile feathers. The rear lower scapulars are later grown and plainer and darker than the older upper scapulars. The tertials and inner greater coverts are fairly worn though still quite dark, the rest of the wing coverts are still pretty fresh - dark with neat pale fringes.

Lesser Black-backed Gull 2cy - 24/4/2014 Topsham

Lesser Black-backed Gull 2cy - 24/4/2014 Topsham

As I said somewhere else: never a dull moment...honestly!

Suspect gulls, odd godwits and Cormorants under the radar.

Pressures of work, concern for my carbon footprint and a determination not to miss anything good on my own patch have predictably resulted in me seeing little of note in the last month. Still, two weeks have gone since my last post so I thought I'd drop these in before my absence is noted.

2nd September 2013 - Exeter Quay

I've still only seen one definite Yellow-legged Gull so far this Autumn. Nothing has shown up yet at Topsham so I tried again at Exeter Quay. Along with a couple of other suspects - intriguing but ultimately unsatisfying - I found this individual.

Here's what I got of it in flight - not a crop, it was really close.

Inexpert as I am, I was initially of the view that this was a michahellis but after Martin Elliott put me right on a few things our (well, actually his) conclusion was that it's most likely to be a graellsii Lesser Black-backed. In favour of Yellow-legged, the best character here is the tail, a fairly narrow, neat black band with a lot of white in the outer retrices. It's moulted a few scapulars and has replaced a couple of greater coverts and tertials on the left wing and a central tail feather (somewhat unusual for a Lesser Black-backed so maybe due to damage?). The main reason why it's probably not a michahellis is the freshness of the plumage - typically by now the coverts should be a lot more worn and there should be many more 2nd generation scapulars. So on balance of probability it's most likely an atypical graellsii; still I can't help complicating things by mentioning the western Iberian lusitanius Yellow-legged Gull, which is typically a month behind michahellis in moult and presumably extremely hard to tell from graellsii?

7th September 2013 - Topsham Recreation Ground

I don't get many close photo-ops with waders at the Rec so I grabbed a few of these obliging Black-tailed Godwits.
The first is a fairly standard first year bird showing typical juvenile coverts and scapulars with a few new adult winter type feathers on the mantle and possibly, though it's hard to tell, inner wing coverts.

The next one is a striking bird which still puzzles me. The head and body look fine for a juvenile if possibly a little well barred on the breast and flanks. The mantle and coverts show no plain adult winter type feathers, they're all apparently the same generation, again right for a juvenile. But the feather pattern looks very odd for a juvenile, the coverts, tertials and scapulars should look more or less dark with some faint barring and neat gingery fringes - pretty much as in the first bird. The strong barring - particularly along the length of the tertials - looks much more like that of a breeding adult.

 

Edit 14/9/2013 - I should have checked a little more thoroughly - or pay more attention to common birds; the boldly barred juvenile Black-tailed Godwit is apparently not unusual in the race islandica which, of course, is the usual subspecies on the Exe.

10th September 2013 - Topsham Recreation Ground

No identification issues here, in spite of the atrocious photo. I was surprised to see a good sized flock of Dunlin, not common this high up the river. I knew there were a few Curlew Sandpipers in the area and, sure enough, here are two of them with their white rumps gleaming as the flock took off. No prizes for picking them out but if you can spot a Little Stint - a patch tick - in there I'd be delighted, I couldn't.

11th September 2013 - Topsham Recreation Ground

Finally a nice pair of Cormorants, both apparently second year birds, and both showing the only 'safe' identification character of the form sinensis.

This is one of the few opportunities for birding with a protractor, as all birders with a nerdy tendency know. The only way to be certain of sinensis is to measure the gular angle (the gular area/pouch is that yellow skin at the base of the bill, the gular angle is the angle formed by the gape line and the rear edge of the gular skin - try to keep awake, there may be a test at the end).
So of course, I cropped and enlarged the photos and measured the angles. The top bird is pretty much exactly perpendicular, the lower not quite but close so I'm pretty confident of these angles. According to Newson et al (2004) the overlap in angles between nominate carbo and sinensis is 66-72°, these both exceed that by some way so must be sinensis.

The last Devon Bird Report (2011) contains only a single record of this form. I find them to be fairly frequent on the Exe so I guess nobody else is looking.

Reference

Newson S.E., B. Hughes, I.C. Russell, G.R. Ekins & R.M. Sellers 2004. Subspecific differentiation and distribution of Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax
carbo in Europe. Ardea 92(1): 3-10.

Mostly Juveniles

9th - 17th July 2013 - Topsham

There is, of course, a down side to the current bout of what I hear is called 'summer'. On the Exe at Topsham Recreation Ground gull numbers are highest during afternoon and evening low tides when they drop in to bathe, preen and rest. Right now this means looking west with bright sun behind the birds - deep shadows and blown out whites and generally pretty frustrating. Although I don't think I'm missing out on much, I can only assume that the really good birds - like a nice juv Caspian Gull? - are waiting for the bright overcast days when their photos will look much nicer.

Wader passage is slight, a single Green Sandpiper, a few Curlews and a handful of Common Sandpipers (one of 15 on the 17th shown above). More of interest to me right now are the juvenile gulls. The first to arrive were the Black-headed Gulls, showing a few variations on the basic pattern - dark scapulars with neat pale fringes, and a dusky head with a dark 'shawl' - most are fairly brown on the mantle but a few are almost black. The second bird appears to have already moulted a few smaller scapulars and median and lesser coverts.

Then the first of this year's Herring Gulls showed up, barely out of the nest and still growing their outer primaries. Mostly pretty straightforward with their sandy brown tones, well notched tertials and pale inner primaries.

And a few Lesser Black-backed for comparison. Generally darker and often much less brown than Herring (though the light can alter that dramatically). Classic thin tertial fringes and more solidly darker outer greater coverts easy to see on the first two, and the dark inner primaries is the clincher.

And maybe it's cheating but here's an ID feature not mentioned in the books - these youngsters are still at least partly dependent on their parents for dinner. Easy now, aren't they?

Surprising as it may seem, there are birds other than gulls, here's an egret with yellow legs. Could this really be mistaken for a Cattle Egret?

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for one of these...

Plenty of Chiffchaffs and some Gull Movement

Cornwall and Devon 25th-27th March 2013

Sometimes you've really got to feel sorry for birds. A few days ago there was a massive arrival of Chiffchaffs - OK, sounds good so far - signs of Spring and all that. I first noticed them in numbers Marazion in Cornwall on Monday afternoon, there were dozens of them feeding frantically along the water edge. I felt a bit guilty grumbling that the pasty shop had just sold out. Over the last few days I've seen them just about everywhere, in my garden, by the river even at the roadside when waiting at traffic lights (I was waiting, not the birds). And that's the problem, they should be finding territories, singing from the treetops and getting ready to breed, instead they're desperately searching for food on the ground. Apparently this has been the coldest March since 1962, bad for us but potentially catastrophic for insectivorous birds - there are hardly any insects on the wing yet. This morning I watched a Chiffchaff chase a bluebottle around the garden, I felt like cheering when it caught it.

Here's one from Marazion a few days ago, thinking about diving for tadpoles.

On a brighter note there are signs of gull movement (put like that it sounds like an unusual bowel complaint). The Common Gulls have mostly gone and I'm seeing a few intermedius type Lesser Black-backs each time I visit the river. I suppose you can never be sure that these are definitely Scandinavian birds, but they mostly look as dark as this bird, as dark as the two Greater Black-backs squabbling over a Cormorant's stolen lunch.