Yesterday in Dumfries & Galloway, a potential mega

MARBLED DUCK of unknown origin on River Dee by Cumstoun Bridge just north of Kirkcudbright (D & G), showing well

Just a snapshot of the current madness - Juvenile Ascension Frigatebird yesterday on Islay, Scotland - not seen after 9am unfortunately, but of course those rabid twitchers among you know that

I am fattening my twitch fund as best I can ing funds and just bought a scope but come October I am following lines on maps, I am definitely getting sucked into the the twitching game



-- Edited by John Doherty on Saturday 6th of July 2013 08:33:56 AM

News just in, the White-throated Needletail was killed after colliding with a wind turbine, what a terrible end for one of the best birds ever to be seen in Britain.

Pacific Swift at Trimley Marshes, Suffolk, found yesterday, still present this morning

It was illuminating to have Henry Cook's views on the plumage tones of the Margate Dusky Thrush, especially based also on his first hand experience in the field. As Henry states in his post below, seen in life, the underparts did not show such a rusty suffusion as some of the published photos suggest, and I fully accept his reasoning on this point concerning saturation of colours.
The latest photos by Simon Warford and by Rob Adderley (in the gallery here) do indeed back up Henry's assertion and indicate rather more reassuring greyer tones to virtually the whole of the underparts.
- Perhaps another cautionary tale to illustrate how the camera can sometimes serve to deceive.

Regards,
Mike P.

Mike Passant wrote:

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Female Dusky Thrush (intergrade?)

I couldn't face the long tortuous trek to Margate alone on Saturday (my usual potential team members being away on the Isle of Lewis), so wistfully studied the available internet photos instead.

I then began scratching my chin somewhat at the underparts of this bird and was struck by the extent of rusty suffusion on the underparts, especially obvious on the rear flanks.
I compared the images with the range of plumages depicted in the Helm guide "Thrushes" (Clement and Hathaway), and concluded that this bird most resembles an intergrade Dusky/Naumann's, based on the following characters:

1. Mantle a shade paler than true Dusky; - more like Naumann's.
2. Edgings to greater coverts and to secondaries forming unduly pale panels (though this could be age-related).
3. Underparts generally suffused with rusty tones, and more particularly with a concentration of this on rear flanks.

Image 121h on plate 41 is the closest fit, though the Margate individual has a paler mantle.

Coincidentally, I received a telephone call from a contact who had made the journey yesterday (Neil Osborne). During our conversation Neil independently voiced similar misgivings about its "racial purity".

None of this of course detracts from the quality of this particular mega rarity, though after the inevitable debate which will ensue, will observers dutifully "tick" this bird, and if so, in line with retaining a clear conscience, what as?

I'm glad I saw the original Naumann's Thrush, (but definately wish I'd seen the Leigh bird as well!)

-All part of the fun!

---

Hi Mike.

Saw this bird pretty well on Saturday, and although you are right about the (perhaps atypical) features including the mantle and wing feathers, the bird was almost completely greyscale on the underparts apart from a few mahogony diffuse chevrons on the side of the upper breast only. This mahogony was not the rusty colour I would have expected from Naumann's influence. In the field I could not see any rufous along the lower flanks, this area seemed appropriately dusky in appearance.

Perhaps what led you to the rusty underparts character was that many photos posted online show the colours over-cooked compared with what I experienced, presumably to tease out that popular clichéd, hyper-realized shot. Many of the photos in question have also brought out a much stronger than life orange tone to the secondary panel, just to back up my previous comment.

As this was an extremely washed-out and therefore quite pale individual, I find it hard to reference any particular feather plumage tone to expected colours. The mantle tone therefore being paler than expected is a factor of the overall paleness of the bird. The particularly striking wing panel, white fringed great coverts (not rufous) and greyish (not pure black) underpart chevrons were also a factor of this.

There are photos online of other female Dusky Thrushes which look nearly identical to this individual but they are few and far between which suggests this bird was a uncommon variant of an already very rare bird. This scenario is perhaps less likely than an intergrade granted but in the UK we do seem to receive pale vagrants on occasion, e.g. the Varied Thrush, and at a stretch, the House Finch. This may not be enough to infer a trend but it's possible birds with plumage abnormalities are more likely to fall foul of reverse migration or to being pushed off-course by winds. Plumage abnormalities are often a factor of poor diet which could leave the bird in a weakened state when it comes to staying on course. Just a theory.

It was great to see the bird feeding arboreally. I was initially worried with the numbers of twitchers there that it wouldn't be able to feed on the ground in peace (presuming incorrectly that's the only place it wanted to feed) but it didn't seem bothered and was catching the odd large caterpillar up in the treetops, a behaviour I guess our similar winter turdus, the Redwing, will be doing back in Scandanavia.

Cheers.
Henry.

p.s. Good to see you Phil down there and hope you had a good weekend in the region.

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Monday 20th of May 2013 11:50:51 PM

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Monday 20th of May 2013 11:52:36 PM

Female Dusky Thrush (intergrade?)

I couldn't face the long tortuous trek to Margate alone on Saturday (my usual potential team members being away on the Isle of Lewis), so wistfully studied the available internet photos instead.

I then began scratching my chin somewhat at the underparts of this bird and was struck by the extent of rusty suffusion on the underparts, especially obvious on the rear flanks.
I compared the images with the range of plumages depicted in the Helm guide "Thrushes" (Clement and Hathaway), and concluded that this bird most resembles an intergrade Dusky/Naumann's, based on the following characters:

1. Mantle a shade paler than true Dusky; - more like Naumann's.
2. Edgings to greater coverts and to secondaries forming unduly pale panels (though this could be age-related).
3. Underparts generally suffused with rusty tones, and more particularly with a concentration of this on rear flanks.

Image 121h on plate 41 is the closest fit, though the Margate individual has a paler mantle.

Coincidentally, I received a telephone call from a contact who had made the journey yesterday (Neil Osborne). During our conversation Neil independently voiced similar misgivings about its "racial purity".

None of this of course detracts from the quality of this particular mega rarity, though after the inevitable debate which will ensue, will observers dutifully "tick" this bird, and if so, in line with retaining a clear conscience, what as?

I'm glad I saw the original Naumann's Thrush, (but definately wish I'd seen the Leigh bird as well!)

-All part of the fun!

Amazing day at spurn again (unfortunately not for me) even more amazing is that the rock thrush and caspian tern were both found by Adam hutt!

Chatted to Tanmay about this as we were en route to this mega bird

A brief hesitation turned into solid plans early afternoon and a short while later a car of four Cheshire listers was wending its way across the Pennines towards the hallowed East Riding of Yorkshire!! Myself, Dave Robinson, Mark Payne & Malc Curtin were a little slow off the mark but it was to prove very fortuitous later on in the twitch. After a nailbiting 3 hours we arrived at Spurn to find a good number of birders watching from the Bluebell car park. On getting out we were invited straight to the scopes of fellow NW birders and within a few seconds had ticked a superb female Rock Thrush. We then watched it for the next 20 minutes at mid range giving fantastic scope views as it fed along the fenceline, flaring its redstart-like tail every time that it flew. Three Wheatears and a Yellow Wagtail accompanied it in its feeding routine but soon we were having to turn straight round due to some members of our team having prior engagements.

I dragged it out as lons as I could persuading the guys to stay an extra 10 minutes and boy, were we glad that I did!! Just as we were about to get in the car we overheard a nearby walkie-talkie crackle into life with the message of " Caspian Tern flying north past seawatching hide now!". Racing back up to the edge of the beach we watched in disbelief as a summer adult Caspian Tern lazily flapped its way past us only 30m or so offshore giving stunning scope views of this huge rare tern species. Everything had fallen beautifully into place & all we could do was laugh in amazement at our good fortune, our timing had been absolutely perfect.

The final 'good' bird of the day was a Short-eared Owl by the road as we headed away from Spurn, all too soon we were back in Cheshire and it was day over, back to work tomorrow!!

What a day, a bit of a dash & tick but two great birds in about half an hour at Spurn, as they say, if Carlsberg did Birding Days................

-- Edited by Doc Brewster on Thursday 25th of April 2013 10:44:19 PM

Info for Baikal Teal, flew in off sea this morning, still present 7:30pm (according to birdforum), pics on surfbirds

The Alston Wetlands Killdeer was only present briefly this afternoon and hadn't reappeared up to just before 5 o'clock

Killdeer again on Alston Wetlands from central screens on Pinfold Lane at 14:25 today. Please drive through gateway on right past first viewing screen along Pinfold Lane and park in field then walk back to view from screens.

Myself and Ollie Wright were actually en-route for the Killdeer when unfortunately negative news came through.

A great bird and especially for the North West of England. Let's hope it gets re-found again.

A truly impressive bird and record but on a separate note, I couldn't quite understand why RBA decided to give it a "mega" status with 55 previous UK records for the species?


Take nothing away from it however, just a thought and nothing more!

Tanmay Dixit wrote:

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Killdeer at Alston Reservoirs (Lancs) on Birdguides; confirmed with photos.

If only I could get there, easter hols now over...

---

I should have added that the Killdeer was last seen at 11:50am flying off NE as I understand.

Ian McKerchar wrote:

---

Tanmay Dixit wrote:

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Killdeer at Alston Reservoirs (Lancs) on Birdguides; confirmed with photos.

---

Tanmay, sorry, I can't resist not commenting on this but I think the Killdeer was confirmed at the time of the finding by the finder himself (and not via photos) . Or are we now not believing anything until 'we' (birders in general) see a photo of it

---

Fair point, but what i meant was that I'd only seen it on birdguides (don't even know who found it, great find though!), and as we all know that's not always reliable (despite being a useful resource in my humble opinion), so i was just saying that it had been confirmed; was not just a 'probable birdguides report'!

Obviously no offence meant to the finder, all I wanted was to assure people on the forum that it had been confirmed (whether from photos or not, doesn't matter) and was not a questionable sighting at all.

Hope that's ironed out any misunderstanding or anything...I certainly believe people when they say they've seen something...but often that's a risk for people if they want to travel to see something (a comparatively inexperienced birder -such as myself!- may have made an honest mistake, or it could be a rare instance of someone not telling the truth...a sad occurrence and thankfully not common, but as you know it does happen) so, like i say, just to reassure people. All I knew was that there were photos which clearly showed a killdeer and that's why i posted what i did.

hope that's ok!

Killdeer at Alston Reservoirs (Lancs) on Birdguides; confirmed with photos.

If only I could get there, easter hols now over...

Hugh's photos on Surfbirds are truly drool-makers!!!

News from the pagers - PINE GROSBEAK on Tuesday in Shetland at Collafirth, this bird's ID was clinched from photos.

Mega News

Chestnut-eared Bunting Shetland still present Wednesday (24 October)
Siberian Rubythroat Fair Isle on Tuesday (23 October)
Pale-legged Leaf Warbler Portland on Monday (22 October)

Not one to rush for as there has been a relatively recent NW record - Blackpoll Warbler on Scilly today, on Bryher, which mega alerted on RBA Pager. The NW record, by the way, was at Seaforth NR in Liverpool on June 2nd 2000.

From birdguides, Belted Kingfisher Galway but no sign of Eastern Kingbird !

Eastern Kingbird in County Galway, Ireland

News broke two hours ago and for those involved those two hours mean everything

Popped down to rainham Marshes RSPB to try for the Baillon's Crake that is there at present. A bit of advice to anyone going:
Get there early, best views seem to be first thing & the reserve seems to be letting folk in before opening time at present. The walk to the hide is over a kilometre, so those with walking difficulties beware. The hide is up several steps so wheelchair access would be difficult. The bird is usually very elusive & views are through reeds and for a couple of seconds at a time only, not everyone in the hide gets the bird each time it shows. The hide can hold lots of people but gets packed, over 50 birders were in there when I was there! This can make it up to 6 deep so viewing can be hard!

I luckily got one view of the crake, as I say through reeds and for about 2 seconds. This was in a total of 6 hours in the hide & just over 6 hours travelling time. But as they say - that's twitching!!