My kind of birding or, the blog still lives

January 2nd 2017 - Topsham

OK, it's been a while. Several reasons come to mind but mostly it's just idleness and bloody-mindedness. Early in the autumn I decided the theme for the season was going to be 'patch loyalty'. I'd turn my nose up at all the fancy vagrating exotica turning up elsewhere and spend my time in and around Topsham; yeah, I know I twitched the LG Shrike in September but that was only 40 miles away and it was a shrike, plus my plan hadn't fully developed by then. So I daily scanned The Rec for rare gulls, stood by suitable bushes at BGM and Highfield Farm listening for the calls of lost Siberian passerines, and checked the pools for transatlantic waders. The result - zero. Nothing to trouble the BBRC (or even the DBRC for that matter). I could have become discouraged; maybe it was the patch, maybe it was me. But The Rec has had some great birds in the past and I've even found some of them myself. This is where bloody-mindedness comes in to its own, persistence in the absence of encouragement or, no birds yet - keep plugging away. At this point I should be able to report a major rarity find but as you'll know that hasn't happened just yet. Still, a new year and all that; January and February to come and still the chance of a decent gull, we've turned the corner on winter and spring's now in sight. I decided to refresh my birding batteries, join the crowd for a day and spend a few hours just pottering around Topsham on my bike for some New Year's Day birding - I know it was the 2nd but the 1st was a shocker so I postponed. Maybe it was the weather, sunny though not warm, maybe it was bumping in to old birding mates, but more than anything it was the birds - nothing rare, just variety, a bit of spectacle and some real quality. I had a really great day; I also took a few photos.

First the Yellow-browed Warbler found by The Rec's other regular 'patcher' Martin Elcoate. Always a pleasure to spend time with one of these, I just wish they'd sit still a bit more often.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

 Tracking the bird and focusing through the branches was a little difficult at times.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

 Showing the faint pale crown stripe.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

The tail feathers appear to be worn and pointed indicating, not surprisingly, a 1st winter bird.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

Constantly searching for, and finding, food - overwintering caterpillars presumably.

Bowling Green Marsh and the VP were, as expected, heaving with people, Avocets and ducks so after an hour scanning the estuary for a few year ticks I went on to Goosemoor. The long-staying Spotted Redshank gave its usual close views as it swam and probed for worms (ragworm?) as soon as the falling tide allowed.

Spotted Redshank - Topsham Goosemoor 2/1/2017

Spotted Redshank - Topsham Goosemoor 2/1/2017

Spotted Redshank - Topsham Goosemoor 2/1/2017

Spotted Redshank - Topsham Goosemoor 2/1/2017

  And possibly even more elegant, a fine Greenshank.

 Greenshank - Topsham Goosemoor 2/1/2017

Greenshank - Topsham Goosemoor 2/1/2017

Greenshank - Topsham Goosemoor 2/1/2017

I dropped back in on The Rec later for the low tide gulls and another seesion with the Yellow-browed Warbler. The gulls failed to deliver but the YBW continued to perform and our wintering Goldeneye and Long-tailed Duck looked good enough to photograph, so I did.

Goldeneye - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

Long-tailed Duck - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

Long-tailed Duck - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

Long-tailed Duck - Topsham Rec 2/1/2017

A few final thoughts: is Topsham really the best place in the world? Why does birding these days feel like an episode of  'Last of the Summer Wine', and why is every other birder I know called Dave?

Yellow-browed Warbler

18th February 2014 - Topsham

On the 29th January Steve Waite emailed to tell me of a report of a Yellow-browed Warbler seen at the Rec - edit: I can now say that it was found by Stuart Green (see below); a good find and thanks to Steve for passing it on. I spent a good two hours the next day looking and listening but drew a blank. Three weeks later I was doing my daily round and paused at the end of the field to see if the Black Redstart was still around (it wasn't), from behind me I heard a thin but insistent 'tse-weet' - it's a pretty unmistakeable call but before any doubts set in I picked up the bird moving through a magnolia just behind the hedge. Normally I hate looking into gardens for birds and it's even worse pointing a camera but sometimes I make exceptions.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham 18/2/2014

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham 18/2/2014

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham 18/2/2014

Yellow-browed Warbler - Topsham 18/2/2014

I'm surprised I got anything even remotely in focus - it moved constantly and the autofocus was confused by the intervening branches.

I've been at The Rec nearly every day this winter and looked hard for this bird since it was first reported. If it had been around I think I'd have seen or heard it - I don't tend to look into the gardens too much but a calling Yellow-browed is hard to miss. So where's it been? There's a lot of gardens nearby so maybe it frequents somewhere else and drops by the river only occasionally; apart from seeing it again an hour later, I haven't had a sniff of it since. The Black Redstart did something similar, first seen in early December - I was at the wrong end of The Rec at the time - then absent until 31st and present almost constantly until early February at least.

Meanwhile, the search for an interesting gull continues; for the first time in ages afternoon low tide and near normal water levels coincide with an overcast dry day - perfect Rec gull viewing conditions.

LWHG - Topsham Rec 19/2/2014

Not the hundreds sometimes present but a big improvement on recent weeks. At least a few dozen Herring with 4 Greater Black-backed and 6 Lesser Black-backed - there's been only one around over the last couple of months so presumably this is the start of a spring movement? White-winger expected any day now.

Wild West Cornwall

8th-9th October 2013 - West Penwith

 

Having something of an interest in shrikes, I decided a trip to Pendeen was in order to see the adult Isabelline Shrike. My good friend and this blog's official gull consultant Martin Elliott was on his way back to Penzance so I gave him a lift and took in a couple of day's birding in West Penwith. As for twitching the shrike, it's been a long time but I should have remembered that a laid back and casual approach to such things rarely pays off as we arrived a day too late. The bird was clearly not present, notwithstanding the optimist who was convinced he had it in his scope; when told he was looking at a Whinchat, he insisted that it must be the shrike as it had a dark mask!

Having got the obligatory dip out of the way, followed by the obligatory pasty - McFadden's in St.Just, highly recommended - we decided some 'proper birding' was in order and dropped in on Sennen Cove to stare at the gulls.

Real gull experts (and I'm certainly not one) seem to see far more 'don't knows' than the average birder. It may be just that the average birder doesn't really look at gulls that much; if you look hard at a lot of large gulls you'll a). realise how variable they are and b). start to see birds that just don't fit. In fact the great thing about being a novice gull watcher is that one's lack of ability to identify birds can be seen as a sign of increasing competence. Of course it helps enormously if there's a real expert on hand saying 'I'm not really sure either'. So at Sennen Cove we found three 1st years which, with varying degrees of confidence, could be identified as michahellis. Here's bird number one (next three photos).

Yellow-legged Gull 1st year - 8th October 2013, Sennen Cove

This is a big bird with a fairly hefty bill and long (and quite pale) legs; it has many replaced scapulars showing a sub-terminal anchor mark though many are darker than on a classic michahellis.

Yellow-legged Gull 1st year - 8th October 2013, Sennen Cove

 In flight it shows a good wing pattern with fractionally paler inner primaries and a solid blackish tail band (although a little broader than typical) contrasting with a lot of white on the outer tail feathers.

Yellow-legged Gull 1st year - 8th October 2013, Sennen Cove

Suspect number two (next two photos) is a much daintier bird and, to me at first, not at all obvious as a michahellis; here hiding behind an adult Lesser Black-backed.

Yellow-legged Gull 1st year - 8th October 2013, Sennen Cove

It's a slighter bird with a much less substantial bill and might conceivably be a Lesser Black-backed but the replaced scapulars, the tail pattern and the flanks/belly lean more towards Yellow-legged. It seems to me that this game is all about combinations of characters - no one feature is diagnostic of michahellis.

Yellow-legged Gull 1st year - 8th October 2013, Sennen Cove

Number three (below) is an even trickier bird. It's not particularly bulky, the legs are not very long and the feet are not particularly large. There are only a few replaced scapulars - although the new ones look good for michahellis. The odd thing is the tail, there is a solid black band and the upper and under tail coverts are whitish and sparsely marked but the usually white parts of the retrices are washed with dark grey. On balance this is probably another michahellis, but a far from classic individual; typical Mediterranean birds should be much more advanced in moult than this, possibly it's a later fledging Atlantic coast bird?

Yellow-legged Gull 1st year - 8th October 2013, Sennen Cove

Yellow-legged Gull 1st year - 8th October 2013, Sennen Cove

October birding in West Cornwall should always include a spot of bush-bashing for migrants - basically just staring at a hedge while 'pishing' hopefully. We put in a few hours at both Porthcurno and Nanquidno and found Yellow-browed Warblers at both sites, a great little Phyllosc that I don't see often enough and have never photographed before (must try harder).

Yellow-browed Warbler - 9th October 2013, Nanquidno