Tuesday 16 January 2018

White-wingers on their way

I made my weekly visit to Cotham Landfill this morning (it's a pain having to go to work...). Having scanned the tip multiple time to no avail, I was giving it one last go when I noted what looked like a white-winger at the back, partly obscured. It soon revealed itself as a 2cy Iceland Gull; very nice too. However, it spent most of its time feeding just behind a ridge in the rubbish, making observing (and photo'ing it) problematic. And then I had to leave it. The fist white-winger of the winter here, and about time too!






Back to the weekend, and I managed two brief visits to the patch, adding Peregrine, Lesser Redpoll and Coal Tit, the latter two at Primrose Hill in Besthorpe village, a spot a only ever visit a couple of times a year...


Postscript (May 2017)

I've been meaning to do this postscript for quite a while. With the benefit of hindsight, I am now of the opinion that the white-winger pictured above is, in fact, the Kumlien's Gull which frequented the tip, Hoveringham roost, and Kilvington Lakes during most of February and March - something that has been suggested to me by a couple of other people. Comparison with photos of the Kumlien's (at similar angles) shows a number of plumage similarities:

Head ('white winger' on top, Kumlien's below):

Both birds show a dark spot in front of the eye, a pale arc beneath the eye (with a dark arc below that), and a dark area on the rear of the head



Wing tips ('white winger' on top, Kumlien's below):

Both birds show very white underwings, with shadowing from the dark hooked-tip markings on the upper wing showing through



Tertials and wing coverts ('white winger' on top, Kumlien's below):

A darker subterminal marking on the innermost tertail behind a unmarked white area is shown on both birds, along with a neat white line across the greater coverts part way up the feathering. The darker internal markings on the primaries of the top bird can just about be imagined (and indeed, weren't always obvious on the Kumlien's depending on angle and light).


So all in all, I'm happy they're one and the same. In my defence, the sighting detailed above was brief, distant and in very strong light, so I don't feel too stupid for missing this at the time..!

Thursday 4 January 2018

A short review of 2017

Patchwork Challenge

I haven’t got the time (or really the inclination) to do a month-by-month review of my year on the patch; it was unspectacular, lacking a top-notch bird... In total, I recorded 140 species, amounting to 166 points – my second highest species total, but only my third highest points score. Of these, 21 were two-pointers, and one was a six-pointer (Cattle Egret). This compares with:
  • 2016 – 153 species and 193 points (29 two-pointers, a three-pointer Temminck’s Stint, a four-pointer Glossy Ibis which I didn’t claim finders points for as it had been seen at Langford the evening before, and one six-pointer for a self-found Great White Egret).
  • 2015 – 139 species and 157 points (18 two-pointers, and nothing higher)
  • 2014 – 135 species and 162 points (14 two-pointers, a three-pointer GWE and a twelve-pointer self-found Glossy Ibis)
  • 2013 – 136 species and 167 points (15 two-pointers, a six-pointer self-found Pec Sand, and a twelve-pointer self-found Pied Wheatear – crazy that this gets the same points as a Glossy Ibis...)
Highlights for this year included not one, but two Cattle Egrets, Spoonbill, and Hawfinch (all patch ticks), as well as other notable species like Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes and Eurasian White-front. Other potentially tricky or erratically occurring species which I scored included Smew, Scaup, Little Gull, Black Tern, Arctic Tern, Bar-wit, Raven, Redstart, Spotted Fly, Whinchat and Gropper. A bird I know I dipped was Great White Egret (the first when I was on a stag do in the spring, the second over two dates at the end of November according to the sightings book in the hide – these weren’t reported at the time). Other misses included Ruff and Tree Sparrow (seen in all four previous years). Add to them Bewick’s Swan, Med Gull, Merlin, Red Kite, Sanderling, Tawny Owl and Turnstone (seen in three out of five years). We'll see what 2018 brings...

The second of the patch Cattle Egrets

Self-finds

2017 was one of my better years for finding my own. As well as two patch Cattle Egrets (the first being something like the 6th or 7th for Notts, the second still less than double figure), I had a Red-rumped Swallow in Suffolk in April and a Red-footed Falcon in Cornwall in May. Two weeks on Unst with Paul Eele produced co-found Red-throated Pipit, 2 Hornemann’s Arctic Redpolls and 4 Parrot Crossbills. Finding the latter, a first for Unst, was probably my most memorable birding moment of the year!

Red-footed Falcon
Red-throated Pipit
Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll
Parrot Crossbill

Twitching

I only added four species to my British list in 2017. One of these was the aforementioned Red-throated Pipit; the other three were the Pacific Diver in Northumberland in February, the Blue Rock Thrush in Gloucestershire in March (which I finally went to see for insurance purposes - which proved to be the correct decision), and the Elegant Tern in West Sussex in June. With the change to IOC taxonomy come 1st Jan 2018, I also gain a Bean Goose, but very frustratingly, lose a bona fide Fea's Petrel.  

Pacific Diver
Elegant Tern

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Starting over

I finished Patchwork Challenge for 2017 on 140 species, totalling 160 points - having failed to add anything new since Freya was born... more in another write-up. And despite the new arrival, I was allowed out for several hours on New Years Day (missing lunch with the in-laws), after dad duties had been completed in the morning. 

I didn't see anything of particular note, but notched up 70 species in 5 and a half hours, with highlights including 6 Whooper Swans still on the fields just north of Meering Marsh, a Stonechat on the western side of Mons Pool, 4 Curlew on Ferry Lane Lake, and a Barn Owl at Meering. Jack Snipe and Woodcock didn't show in their favoured haunts though, unfortunately. 

Tuesday 2 January 2018

Hawfinches at Rufford

New Years Eve, we had a walk at Rufford Country Park with some friends. I'd negotiated that we could arrive a little earlier so I could have a quick look for Hawfinches. After checking the yews nearest the abbey, I tracked them down in the yews furthest away, on the start of the exit road. They were feeding quietly, but then flew up into the tree tops in two groups totalling at least 11. With a baby strapped to my front, bins over my shoulder, and scope in one hand, I failed to get any shots (at least, none in focus!). Four more Hawfinches flew over as we walked through the Wilderness - more, or some of the same?