November in Topsham

7th-29th November - Topsham

It seems like I've spent most of November chasing just one bird. I found a Water Pipit at the Rec on the 7th, got rather poor photos and virtually every day for the next three weeks it's been giving me the runaround. Here's a selection of some of my more 'successful' attempts.

Water Pipit - Topsham 7/11/2013

The first day (above) - not bad I thought, it's at least identifiable. It's likely to stick around for the Winter so I expected much better photos to come.

Water Pipit - Topsham 15/11/2013

A week later (above) and the bird is still only giving brief and distant views - though at least sometimes the light was better. It tended to fly at the slightest provocation and when it flew, it flew far. It's favoured stretch of shore was also alongside a path used by dog-walkers so even if I kept my distance, someone else would flush it sooner or later.

Water Pipit - Topsham 24/11/2013

This one (above) shows the diagnostic warm brown rump and upper tail coverts, clearly different from any Rock Pipit. There's an interesting difference in colour tones to the previous photo, due to light and me playing with the white balance to get a truer picture. Also just visible is a white-tipped outer tail feather. After nearly three weeks, and over 200 shots, these are still the best I've managed.

Water Pipit - Topsham 27/11/2013

I've been surprised at the attention this bird has attracted, I counted seven other birders at the Rec recently. Some might have been there hoping for views of the Bearded Tits still hanging around - although I still haven't so much as heard them. I can go weeks without seeing anyone but dog-walkers. It's clearly a quiet period in the Exeter area - Water Pipit is not exactly a rare bird, I find them to be virtually annual at The Rec.

Meanwhile, gull-watching goes on - someone's got to do it. Common Gull numbers are rising and often there's a Mediterranean Gull hiding among the Black-heads. Of course, the real interest is in the larger species, and here's my first michahellis of the Autumn at the Rec. I saw this bird probably on the 24th, but distantly and briefly and I got no photos, on the 29th it sat on the spit for a few minutes before flying off. There followed the usual procedure with such suspects: the bright white head draws attention, then the coverts and tertials checked out ok, I had reservations about the quite well-marked scapulars but they're certainly within the 'range', the head and bill shape isn't classic either but it'll do - actually the bill looked a lot more impressive when in flight. And when it flew it removed any doubt with an absolutely classic michahellis wing and tail; dark inner primaries and almost 'Lapwing-like' white rump, coverts and tail base with a thin, neat black band, narrowing to a point on T6. It's just a shame the light was so bad I had to do without my teleconverter and shoot at 250/sec - hence the blur.

Yellow-legged Gull 1st winter - Topsham 29/11/2013

Yellow-legged Gull 1st winter - Topsham 29/11/2013

I don't know how many Water Rails breed in the reeds across the river but I hear them nearly every day, sometimes I see one furtively creeping on to the mud on the far shore, very rarely I see one in the open on 'my side'.

Water Rail - Topsham 29/11/2013

Water Rail - Topsham 29/11/2013

Finally, we have a new addition to the already impressive collection of local birding sites, and another place to check when 'doing my rounds'. The new stretch of the Exe Estuary Cycle Route opened a few weeks ago; a raised boardwalk and a new bridge over the Clyst alongside the railway which coincidentally gives access to the RSPB's previously hidden Goosemoor reserve. Here's the new path, the fences still smelling of resin and freshly-sawn wood.

New Boardwalk/Cycle Path, Goosemoor

A view across the reserve, looking north to Fisher's Mill and up the Clyst Valley.

Goosemoor, Topsham

The water level is controlled by a 'regulated tidal exchange' device - basically a ballcock - which allows a limited amount of water in on a rising tide and lets it out when it falls. The result is a few shallows pools, low islands - for breeding terns and Avocets? - and a good extent of estuarine mud right in front of the path, nothing here today but maybe good close views of waders in the future? All the views across the pools are to the north or north-east which means none of the light problems of sunny mornings at the Bowling Green - and perhaps the birds might be closer?

Goosemoor, Topsham - exposed mud at low tide

There is a downside, the reserve can only be watched through narrow slits. I guess they're great for people of a certain height - mainly children, perhaps - but I'm a little over 6 foot tall and have to stoop to look through the highest gap, and it feels like peeping through a letterbox. The whole experience is a bit disappointing, it's potentially a great site for good close views of waders - and it's sure to get some quality birds in time. But while walking on the path there is nothing to be seen but fence, there are no wide views across and above the pools and no views at all without using the handful of viewing slits. While it's handy to be able to rest bins or camera on the wood of the openings, I've noticed that the whole structure shakes when a runner goes past. I can fully understand why it was necessary to screen the path to minimise disturbance to the birds but I wonder if more extensive facilities might still have been possible?

Goosemoor, Topsham - the letterboxes

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

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.

Juvenile michahellis finally arrives

23rd July 2013 - Exeter Quay

I was wondering when the first one would show up. In fact, I was starting to think that my rudimentary gull identification skills were leading me to miss them among the juvenile Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. So, after weeks of fruitlessly staring into the afternoon sun at Topsham Recreation Ground, I take Carolyn's advice and hop on my bike for the short ride into Exeter - maybe she thinks I could do with the exercise? Within minutes of arriving at the Quay I've got one.

It's a nice big bird with a fairly hefty bill, neat and contrasting scapulars and coverts and classic thin white 'thumbnail' tips to the tertials. The belly is white and fairly unmarked and the outer greater coverts get darker at the base.

After being quite unpleasant towards the other gulls (another ID clue) it eventually flew. The wings shows dark inner primaries (and a good dark wedge on the outer greater coverts); the black tail band is broad in the centre and narrows outwards while the upper tail coverts and rump are bright white with only a few dark spots. The underwing is well marked but nowhere near as dark as a Lesser Black-backed.

Now I could do with a few more, or even a nice fresh, photographable Caspian Gull...