Remarkable! Met Mark Pearsonat Flamborough y’day. Despite already scoring heavily at Filey this spring, he had one more up his sleeve. Cheeky! Sent these pics for comment though I hardly gave him ‘news’ I think. Read Northern Rustic’s Word here:
Also he wrote:
“here’s the only shots I got at a pipit which landed on Carr Naze yesterday evening (30th April) – very briefly, and right in the sun – which I’d like to hear your thoughts on. The bird called twice, and if I had to put money on it, I’d say it ‘squeaked’ more like an OBP”
Of course assessing bird ID from photos is not the same as field birding and this one is somewhat hampered by strong back lighting. However I see: plain upperparts, lacking streaking of Tree Pipit, very white super, lovely buffy/ orange fore-supercilium, strong black lateral crown strip (above supercilium) gorgeous inky black BIG breast blobs, and obvious dark mark below pale ear coverts spot. Well looks to me, given the light, as if it’s a straightforward Olive-backed Pipit. Any disagree?
So worth seeing. Been a great learning curve. Surfbirds Jedi Master, Brian S. sent me an animated text t’other day: see these photos! Taken by Brett Richards at Flamborough Head I could tell the bird was not a ‘normal’ Pied Flycatcher and having already been musing on Pied X Collared hybrids, thought that at least a good starting point. However Brian had just come back from Sicily, guiding with Andrea C. and he was in the ‘Atlas Flycatcher zone‘, having (remarkably) seen 2 birds there. He was right. The Flamborough bird possessed more than a passing resemblance to a 2cy Atlas Flycatcher. Andrea C soon confirmed as he especially has wrestled with ‘speculigera‘ more than most.
Stunning looking bird with its deep velvet black uppers, extraordinary white in the wing and Atlas Flycatcher forehead patch. Tried to record the call. Nothing definitely heard and windy and cold conditions didn’t help.
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Forget the minutiae for minute (look at the wood and not the trees!)
Most important thing? Much understanding on appearance of Atlas Flycatcher is seemingly based on far too small sample size- sometime less than 10 individuals. This takes no account of variation within this species. Iberian Pied may also come into that category.
So- 3 Simple things that struck me about the bird:
Incredible deep velvety black above (you could see expensive jewellery off its upperparts).
White forehead patch shape being (excuse the pun) ‘spot-on’ for Atlas. Some Iberian Pied Flycatchers show similar. NO idea of a Collared/ Pied hybrid could have same shaped patch and same similar plumage combo.
Extra white in the wing. Most especially the tertials, with white on middle and innermost extending well onto inner web (usually black on inner web of these tertials in both Pied and Collared as far as I know). Seemingly very good for Atlas (and Iberian Pied), but with caveat, surely more to learn here.
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Comments on other hotly debated bits of the bird
* White in greater coverts. This is funny one. While literature states adult male Atlas should have wholly white greater (secondary) coverts, most photos of presumed Atlas seem to show otherwise: a mix of white inners and degrees of black on outers. Guess this is due to limits of original sample sizes. Andrea C’s comments here are apposite. See pattern on greater coverts of Flamborough bird below.
* White in outer tail feathers. The bird had retained at least 2 juvenile outermost tail feathers with obvious white edges. I just wonder if all the other tail feathers are really adult feathers as has been suggested, or some are still retained juvenile. Looks like the T4 on left side has thin lick of white along the edge, and some v. thin white along edge/ base of T3?
* Innermost secondary. Feature mentioned by Krister Mild in excellent series in Birding World. White on outer web of innermost secondary extends further towards tip (up to 2/3 length) in Atlas and Collared. On Flamborough bird only extends to a little more than 1/3 length. Again don’t know if significant or not given small sample sizes.
* Other bits: Rump patch, primary patch, head pattern, any collared effect all very nice, not very ‘Pied Flycatcher’ and OK for Atlas but also other things too. There other bits and pieces about wing formula and stuff but I am not a birding CSI!
Video from Steph’:
Outer 2 tail feathers (T5 and T6) visible on right side are retained juvenile feathers with obvious white on outer webs.
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3 outermost greater coverts are retained juvenile feathers. The rest are new adult feathers, white with (partly obscured) black bases.
Hmm…. Amoung other things you can see white along the fringe of (presumably T4 – the 3rd tail feather in) and a tad of white licking the edge of T3 at its base. Folk who ring a lot know about these things. My question: Is T4 really a replaced adult feather or retained juvenile? Look quiet brownish on outer web in several shots.
Can only count 10 tail feathers here. Which are new (adult) and which old (juvenile)?
Thanks especially to Steph and Alan for excellent time together, to Brett- (Nice one!) for the in-hand pics and to Rich Baines and co. at Flamborough for making it such a pleasure to visit. Also thanks to Brian Small for quick intuitive response and always much shared learning and to Andrea Corso for his wonderful pioneering spirit and the Linosa guys e.g. Ottavio and Miki for showing me the washing line on which sat this 1st for Europe candidate. Cheers!
IF they call, listening to and especially recording calls can be very helpful in separating the black and white ficedula flycatchers in all of the ‘trickier’ plumages (i.e. pretty much everything that isn’t adult male!). Could be helpful with this most intriguing bird at Flamborough.
Here 2 Semi-collared Flycatchers are calling to each other in the famous Eilat date palms, late March 2012. This is I suppose the most helpful/ distinctive call type. I also recorded a more generic contact call.
Listen to 2 Semi-collared Flycatchers (female and 2cy male) calling <here>
and some pics:
Adult male Semi-collared Flycatcher, Eilat, late March 2012. This was by the entrance to my hotel!
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2 cal yr. male Semi-collared Flycatcher, Lotan, late March 2012. Older brown primaries contrasts with new tertials, the white patch at base of primaries is tiny but look how the white forehead patch looks more defined/ less broken than on the adult (above). 2nd cal year males did vary in appearance but all showed some white-tipped median coverts.
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female Semi-collared Flycatcher, Eilat date palms, late March 2012. Aging females seems to be a lot trickier.
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2nd cal yr female Semi-collared Flycatcher, Eilat date palms, late March 2012. This one has bigger white patch at base of primaries. I initially thought it looked 2nd cal yr but not so confident on aging females. However conversation with Brian Small bolstered my confidence saying he thought 2nd cal yr too, see the old-looking alula and outer primaries…
by Vincent van der Spek at the Gullfest, in Arctic Norway, April 2012
Pine Grosbeaks within touching distance after a hilarious dog sledge ride, flocks of King Eiders in all plumages and ages, Steller’s Eiders from the hotel window, the view on (and sound of) ten thousands of seabirds, up close and personal with a Tengmalm’s Owl… What possibly can I claim to be my bird of the trip?
Martin already picked out Tengmalm’s Owl, Tristan Reid Steller’s Eider. Thanks guys, that makes life (slightly) easier!
As in Tristan’s story, there’s a bird that regularly appears in my dreams (day or night) since my early childhood.
A mad twitch in Holland on a Monday afternoon in October 2005 included a car with three people that run away from their offices without notifying anybody – let alone their bosses. We had brilliant views. Yes, Hawk Owl was every bit as good as expected. Gone next day. Still the only twitchable in Holland ever. T-shirts (“Ladies and gentlemen – we’ve got him!”) and even tattoos were made after that twitch.
Hawk Owl still appeared in my dreams. During GullFest I was not to be disappointed. That very first found by Nils “wingformula” van Duijvendijk in Pasvik (and that reindeer trick pulled by Martin) was just the beginning.
There was that very distant one brilliantly found by Seamus (the birder that found a new species for science!); and that bird calling from inside a nest box; and what about that brilliant day along Tana river, where everybody saw six different birds and the group total for the day was an astonishing eight? One of these birds was even singing and another was caught red handed catching a vole!
So what’s so special about it? Well, it’s a species full of surprises! Actually it’s a rather odd case amongst the owls. For starters, the zebra plumage is almost as unique as it is striking.
A tail that long is unheard of amongst owls.
And then there’s the partly diurnal habits. Not unique, but not common amongst owls either.
What I find most striking, however, are the feeding habits. Instead of swallowing their prey whole, Hawk Owl plucks it, like a raptor! I managed to capture this on video near Vadsö.
I rest my case.
And after this trip? Well, they still appear in my dreams.
To compare. Getting a head around variation in wacky singing Chiffchaffs, so-called mixed singers and real (and variable) Iberian Chiffchaffs has proved testing (again) this spring. Having been asked to comment on birds in Sussex and Cambridge and still being an early stage learner myself, I revisited this bird. Found by Tim Isherwood at Grimston, East Yorkshire in June 2012, it represents, I suppose, the ideal, or at least, easier vagrant Iberian Chiffchaff. Looks and sounds the part – both song and call- without too much head scratching; indeed hearing one burst of song seemed to nail it.
The last bit of the Cambridge bird’s song here reminded me of what I recorded as ‘conflict’ song for the Grimston bird- given in response to short burst of ‘pishing’ (see sonagram and recording 5 below). The Cambridge bird clearly has elements of Iberian song ( I have only listened to the video,) no news there but there is lively and increasing illuminating discussion on this channel. The sobering comments by sharp (and annoyingly young) Spanish birder, Dani V are well worth a read.
The Sussex bird seems even less appealing and an analysis of sonagrams by David Cooper points more to variant Common Chiffchaff on that one.
Another thing? The Grimston bird at one stage called repeatedly in response to pishing- the downslurred note of Iberian (‘song and call’ below). Worth a pish next time?
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Iberian Chiffchaff normal song one – You can listen to the song <HERE>
(above) Iberian Chiffchaff normal song one
Iberian Chiffchaff normal song two – You can listen to the song <HERE>
(above) Iberian Chiffchaff ‘normal song’ two
Iberian Chiffchaff song and call – You can listen to the song and call <HERE>
(above) Iberian Chiffchaff song and call (call is present as on sonagram but a little quiet)
Iberian Chiffchaff, song variation – You can listen to the song <HERE>
(above) Iberian Chiffchaff, song variation
Iberian Chiffchaff, presumed conflict song – You can listen to the song <HERE>
(above) Iberian Chiffchaff, presumed conflict song- given in response to ‘pishing’
When Martin asked me to pick out a species that was a particular highlight from our recent trip to the first ever Arctic Gullfest on the Varanger Peninsula, I had to think hard. There were so many birding highlights! However there was one species that for me stood out above the rest, this was of course the iconic bird of the Varanger Fjord, the Steller’s Eider.
I started birding at a very young age and I remember at about age eight flicking through my Birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East (Heinzel, Fitter & Parslow). Now there were obviously many amazing birds contained within the pages of this book, however the one that stood out to my infant imagination was the Steller’s Eider! This bird looked liked nothing I had ever seen, it almost looked like a creation of a very imaginative cartoonist. Having locked onto this species I began to read where it came from, it came from the Arctic! The Arctic was of course an exciting place for any small child to dream about, I of course day-dreamed of becoming an Arctic explorer! However in reality as I grew older and older I never had any real anticipation of actually going to the Arctic or seeing this enigmatic Steller’s Eider!
How life and expectations can change! Fast forward to April 2012. I was in the Arctic and on the Hurtigruten travelling up the mighty Varanger Fjord. Soon watching Steller’s Eider would be a reality! Some of our group located some Steller’s Eider in Kirkenes Harbour, I was secretly pleased to have missed them; after all I wanted to locate my own! As we passed the epic Hornøya Bird Cliff and moved towards Vardø my eyes focused on a group of four small ducks flying in the wake of the boat. The distinctively striking plumage of the drake made these ducks instantly recognisable. BOOM I had seen my first ever Steller’s Eider! I was in the Arctic AND I had seen Steller’s Eider, this was nothing short of emotional!
Steller's Eider and Common Eider
When we settled into our hotel rooms I was astounded to see that I could see Steller’s Eider from my room! Every morning when I woke up I looked out the window and got my early morning fix of the iconic species!
Once the excitement of seeing my first ones had slightly (only slightly) calmed, there was ample opportunity to actually watch these birds in detail. Vincent van der Spek pointed out a very nice feature shown on the drakes; the isolated black spot on the side of the breast is a unique shape on each individual bird, sort of a Steller’s Eider fingerprint! Whilst watching a group of Steller’s Eider; Martin Garner and Nils van Duivendijk indicated to me how to age the females. Once I got my eye in, this was fairly straight forward; the key was the speculum, lacking the bright colouration in immatures.
Some of the immature drakes were fairly obvious showing the progression from brown duck into the white plumage of an adult. However Martin & Nils pointed out that there were a proportion of drakes that were still predominantly brown only separable from the females by their head shape and the tone of their tertials. Is there more to ageing Steller’s Eiders yet to be discovered?
So my experience of seeing my first Steller’s Eider was not only superficial excitement of the realisation of a childhood dream, but it had great depth and was also a fascinating learning experience! You’ve got to love Varanger
