Yesterday morning, whilst walking to work, Tom Hibbert found a Chiffchaff with an interesting song on the riverside path in Newark behind TX Maxx, tweeting a short video in which the song was audible. The suggestion, from someone at RBA, was that it was a Siberian Chiffchaff (tristis), which appeared to be confirmed by a sonogram (see here).
I headed down there first thing this morning, finding Mark Dawson already on site, who had located the bird. We were joined shortly after by Tom. It was singing intermittently and somewhat quietly from the riverside shrubs and willows. It didn't show particularly well, and was obscured a lot of the time, but it did emerge on occasionally, and responded to two short bursts of Siberian Chiffchaff playback by flying towards us and over our heads.
The brevity of the views, and my desire to get some pictures meant I didn't scrutinise it as much as I would've liked, but my impression was it had greyish-brown upperparts lacking any olive component, buffish-white supercilium and underparts without any hint of yellow (with buffer flanks and upper breast and paler belly), very black bill and legs, and a faint green tinge to the fringes of the remiges. So good for a Siberian in terms of plumage.
I have no prior experience of singing Siberian Chiffchaff - it's a wacky and distinctive song. Listening to recordings on Xeno Canto, this bird sounded like a good match, albeit delivered at perhaps a slightly slower pace than some (but I'd need to listen to more recordings to be sure of this). Several phrases of song can be heard in a video I posted on twitter. However, it did occasionally throw in the odd standard Chiffchaff phrase, audible in this clip... It wasn't heard to call.
Further research suggests that this may throw a safe ID of this bird as a tristis into doubt. This article in BB indicates that 'fulvescens' needs to be considered, which may (or may not) be an integrade occurring in the overlap zone between abietinus and tristis, and that such birds can be mixed ('intermediate') singers - as in this case. The article (and the Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds) indicate that 'fulvescens' can look virtually identical to tristis... So maybe that's what we're dealing with here? Read the article though - it's complicated!
However, I do wonder if this could be a young bird (i.e. a 2cy), exhibiting song plasticity - i.e. responding to the Common Chiffchaffs it is hearing singing around it (of which there were a couple). My photos aren't really good enough, but I think a moult limit is visible in the greater coverts which would support this ageing. Note also that the BB article, on page 403 states "a certain amount of ‘mixed’ singing can result from one species adopting part of the song of another species which is present at high density in its natal area, and is not necessarily proof of hybridisation"
.
Anyway, whatever it is, it's come from a long way east... and this is one of the things I love about birding; there are always things to learn, even from a bird on a scruffy bit of land behind a retail park in the middle of Newark!
My birding during August has continued to be fairly low key. Saturday morning patch visits with the little one have been a feature, but are typically rather brief and superficial, and I have failed to manage many visits at any other times without an impatient 9 month old.
As a result, hopes of a Redstart, Spotted Fly or Whinchat, or a decent wader, have faded, and I've had to make do with generally low numbers of common passage waders at Mons, interspersed with the odd other highlights- a 2cy Med Gull which lingered at Meering before flying upriver on the 12th, a Whimbrel calling over Mons on the 16th, a Grey Wag south on the 25th (new for Patchwork Challenge in 2018), and a Garganey on Mons on the 27th.
The highlight of breeding bird activity has been the successful fledging of three Common Terns from the new tern raft on Mons Pool - build it and they will come! These young are still hanging around with their parents.
Elsewhere, I've managed a few visits to Cotham Landfill, generally on the way into work - the highlight there was an adult (or possibly 4cy) Caspian Gull on 20th. Work took me north on 21st, and a quick look at Hagg Lane Flash near Newington produced 2 Ruff, a Greenshank and a Dunlin, and 52 Little Egrets - a local had had 63 there that morning, and I know there was count of 70+ made a few days later. Pretty amazing given the status of this species not so very long ago... A visit to the new visitor centre at Sherwood Forest was generally unremarkable, save for a party of four Woodcock - at least 2 juvs, and one or two adults. I can't remember ever having seen a family party before.
Finally, birding from the garden has produced a couple of garden ticks - Hobby and Yellow Wag. The Swifts departed promptly and en masse, with 120 in a high-flying screaming flock being present on the 2nd, and then just the odd one or two in subsequent days. Having purchased a Swift box at the Birdfair, I hope maybe to have a pair nesting on my house in the coming years...
Small numbers of Green and Common Sandpipers have been frequenting the patch of late, plus the odd Greenshank, concentrated at Mons Pool, and I finally bagged my first Black-wit of the year on the 24th. Other bits of note include a female Red-crested Pochard (another patch yeartick), plus a female Mandarin, both on Mons Pool.
Perhaps of greatest note is the successful breeding of Avocets at Collingham for only the second time (the first time being around 7 or 8 years ago, but I'd have to check). Two chicks suddenly appeared on the Silt Lagoon on the 12th, when they already looked a couple of days old. Quite where they bred, I don't know; an adult had been coming to feed on the Silt Lagoon, but I'd assumed this was one of the birds from Langford. Given the regularity with which I see Mr Fox on the Silt Lagoon, my guess is that the Avocets bred in the new workings (which has no public access), and walked the young over to the Silt Lagoon when they were big enough. However they managed it, the young are now pretty large and clearly doing well.
Other bits and pieces have included a Marsh Harrier through Meering on the 19th, although less good news from this site was the vanishing of the two nesting Common Terns - presumably the eggs/young were predated. Better news here was a female Tufty with 6 ducklings - an infrequent breeder in these parts, whilst one of the GC Grebe pairs at Mons Pool finally hatched two chicks, after previously being flooded out. Another pair seems to be on their third attempt nesting. Nearby, a pair of Grey Partridges have three chicks at Besthorpe Meadow.
Away from the patch, Swifts seem to be having an excellent year locally, with some big groups over William Street in the evenings (upwards of 40 birds), whilst a stroll out one night indicated that every street in my part of Newark had Swifts screeching above. A 'drive through' survey down the High Street in Collingham one night logged at least 70 Swifts, whilst at least 60 House Martins were over Besthorpe Village earlier in the week, with active nests on the chapel.
The complete lack of wader habitat at Collingham/Mons Pool is sort of being made up for by a succession of scarce ducks; after recent Scaup and Common Scoter, I added a Mandarin today to my patch yearlist. A female (or maybe an eclipse drake?), it was a bit distant (and heat hazy) hence the rubbish pics.
 |
| Mandarin |
Around 200 Lapwing failed to conceal anything more unusual; in fact the only other wader was a single Green Sand from the viewing screens, where there were also 16 Teal, 8 Gadwall, 3 Shoveler and a Wigeon, continuing the gradual build up of winter wildfowl.
Elsewhere, an obliging Migrant Hawker was in my garden in Newark, but it appears that all the Swifts have now disappeared; the last I saw were 7 over Sherwood Avenue on Thursday, with 13 over the house on Tuesday. Always sad when these depart.
 |
| Migrant Hawker |
So yesterday it was a Common Redstart on the patch, which I was pleased with. But it got better today... having had a late morning walk round the patch after treating myself to a lie-in (no early morning Crag Martining for me), we had a late lunch in the garden (for the first time this year). Towards the end, I spied a bird sat up on a neighbours roof. I was against the light but looked interesting, and what's more it was quivering its tail. I dashed indoors for my bins, and had my suspicions confirmed - a Black Redstart. Not only a garden tick, but a Notts tick!
I returned inside for my scope and camera, but when I got back outside the bird had moved position and I could only see its head poking out from behind a chimney pot. I fired up my camera neverthless, but by now it had disappeared from sight and I failed to get a shot. I waited for it to reappear, but it didn't and an hour and a half later there was still no sign of it. I reported it as a female, but I guess it could easily have been a first summer male; it had a bit of a pale wing panel forming a line along its secondaries, but my views were too brief to make out whether there were any different generations of feathers in the wing coverts.
Back to this morning, and a nice wonder around Collingham Pits again failed to produce Yellow Wagtail, House Martin or Wheatear, but a Black-tailed Godwit was on Mons Pool, along with a Dunlin and the first Ringed Plover for a while. There was no sign though of the Red-breasted Merganser that was reported here late yesterday, but there were plenty of butterflies, however, including my first Orange-tips, Green-veined Whites and Speckled Woods of the year, good numbers of Brimstones, and quite a few Peacocks and Small Torts too.
I got a tweet on the way home from fellow Newark resident Simon, aka @CrackedNature, about three black ducks on the River Trent at Staythorpe (viewed from Farndon), which he thought were Common Scoter. I had a little walk down there before supper, and indeed they were - two males and a female. Unfortunately they flew off north no sooner had a taken the lens cap of my camera, having seemed settled (and not been bothered by a 4x4 and some dogs). Check out Simon's blog for a picture.
There was actually a bit of passage over Collingham this morning - only a few Meadow Pipits and Skylarks, but an improvement on current form, and there were still a few Swallows hanging around. Waders included 6 Dunlin, 7 Ringed Plover, and single LRP, Green Sand and Greenshank.
There was even a bit of passage over Newark this evening, with a mixed group of 30+ Swallows and House Martins heading south just after 5pm.
Whilst sat on the bus this afternoon at the traffic lights on Beaumond Cross in Newark, I glanced up to see a Common Swift riding the wind above the junction, before shooting out of sight - my earliest Swift since at least 1998 (and possibly ever?). I then popped out to Cotham Flash, where there were 2 Yellow Wagtails and my first 3 Northern Wheatears of the year in the horse paddock to the south, with 8 Lapwings (4 pairs) and a Snipe in the fallow field.
