Armenicus Stonechats

Right then, back to work today after a restful break but still a load of stuff to go at from Egypt. And today's offering is some charming little Stonechats that had pitched up in the greenery at Lahami Bay. Before I go on about the birds, a word of advice to anyone staying at Wadi Lahami - just walk south along the bay to the next hotel, and you'll find well-watered gardens dripping with migrants if you're there in spring (and presumably worth a shot at any time of year). Get amongst it if you can.

male Caspian Stonechat ssp.armenicus

Right then, back to the job in hand - there were at least three Eastern Stonechats Saxicola maurus present on 6th April, all presumably armenicus Caspian Stonechats. The male was a sure fire armenicus candidate; nice black and white plumage with a decent, extensive pale nape and a nice orange hue confined to the breast. So what about the tail? Well, most of the time it seemed pretty much all dark: -

Back on view; this bird showed a nice whitish unstreaked rump and when in normal posture perched, just a hint that there may be some white on the outertail feather bases

But when it opened up its tail, it exhibited an amount of white at the tail feather bases (but always less than half), largely on the outer webs - nothing like what you would expect on a male variegatus (check here for some more photos of similar birds from Kuwait). Some of those boys that I've seen in Kuwait almost mirror Pied/Black-eared Wheatears in their tail patterns!

So what about the females? Well, to be honest they were probably Caspian Stonechats too, presumably armenicus, but you just can't do them in the field and this is coming from a man who likes to get his hands dirty with them - have a look here for some commentary and in hand shots from Israel. If what Yoav says holds true, then you can't exactly move the uppertail coverts aside in the field, but it doesn't seem like there is any white at the tail base on these Egyptian birds.

Also, I like Yoav's thoughts on what our 1st-winter birds could be in the autumn in Western Europe - perhaps categorising these 1cy birds into the maurus category is unsafe, plainly ignoring variegatus? So go and see a male Sibe Stonechat kidz. Just to play safe that your autumn Sdark-tailed Sibe unequivocally wasn't a Casp if you've only had autumn birds...



Egyptian raptors

Back to last week's trip to Egypt, and one thing I haven't really mentioned yet were the copious amounts of raptors that we saw - at two spots (Marsa Alam and El Gouna) in two distinct waves. For a British birder, raptor migration is a real big draw for spring birding anywhere in the Middle East. Birders go crazy about the stuff that goes over Eilat for example, and for sure it's good as I've been there, but you've got to remember all those Steppe Buzzards and eagles are going up the Red Sea too, and the views in Egypt are properly good too! So eyes to the skies wherever you are. You've also got a few nice resident species of raptor in Egypt as well.

Black-shouldered Kite - common roadside bird in The Nile Valley

Right, I'll do a quick diary entry to give you a flavour...

4th April 2012 I'd had enough of the Nile Valley and was bloody glad to get out of the sprawl, as we'd headed up from Aswan early morning. Shit air quality, 100s of speed bumps and sprawl either side of the road - reminding you how much man has screwed up this planet in certain areas. Anyway, 17km west of Marsa Alam, Staines gets an eye full of birds high in the sky and soon enough, it's quick to see that something is going down with a few Steppe Eagles just chilling by the roadside in the mid morning sun.

2cy Steppe Eagle by the roadside west of Marsa Alam

Loads of Steppe Eagles are soaring low over a small bedouin camp, presumably they've typically either left a load of shit out or some goat has come to its end. Anyway, we set up stall by the road and for a couple of hours from 11am the notebook reads like this - Steppe Eagle 300 (pretty much all 2cys and a few 3cys), Steppe Buzzard 1000+, Black Kite 400 (some local birds as well as migrants), Booted Eagle 3, Short-toed Eagle 2, Long-legged Buzzard 1, Egyptian Vulture 5, Sparrowhawk 1, Black Stork 5 and Common Crane 4. Some birds were passing low, and some kettling high like nobody's business.

Steppe Eagle

Per Van Duivendijk on Black Kites 'rufous variant (most seen in the Middle East) with rather strong red-brown underparts, pale head... conspicuous dark band on underwing... wing formula sometimes intermediate between Black and Red with tendency for only 5 fingers'. Well, this Black Kite does what it says on that Dutch tin!

Egyptian Vulture

Every time I see large soaring birds in great numbers, it always brings me back to the first time. As a NW European birder, the first wave of eagles each trip makes me feel as rusty as an old car but then I quickly regain confidence and you can properly get into it. Just the spectacle is something I'd recommend to anyone, birder or non-birder. Good stuff again.

The Real Deal?

Yesterday, I managed to get myself up to Lincolnshire. It'd been a bit of a fraught time, as while in Egypt last week, I'd been told about a decent looking juvenile thayeri candidate - a bird that I was mega keen to see. Sounds a bit ungrateful given all the quality in Egypt, and it really does paint me out to be one sad gull-induced bloke.

Anyway, it all came good as just northeast of Brigg I managed to locate the bird early morning, sitting in a ploughed field with a load of Herrings and LBBs. Bob was pretty chuffed, having missed it on Saturday and he offered me a handful of Brazil nuts in celebration.

It showed fine, both on the deck and in flight, and overall I was pretty happy with it - a little snouty, but if that was all I was fussed about then it wasn't too far from being the real deal. I really liked those dark centred juvenile scaps - something Josh and I had been chatting about in Egypt - as well as the really uniform chocolate brown tertials. I've been a real basher of several recent claims (including this winter's bird at Enniskillen that shows remarkably hoary scaps), and having seen only seen the adult at Killybegs in 1998 and the Barnatra bird of 2005 (both accepted by the IRBC but do not make me sleep easy!), this in my eyes is the best Thayer's to have turned up in Britain and Ireland (along with the original Cork bird, and the juveniles at Newport Dump in 1998/1999 and Killybegs in 2003).

Quality Red Sea migration

For the last three days of the trip, I chilled out on the southern Red Sea coast. As well as wandering around in the tropical, picture postcard mangroves of Wadi Lahami failing to see Goliath Heron (having visited this site on 3 trips, I've only seen it once) there were a shed load of passerines going over too - predominantly flava wagtails, Red-throated and Tree Pipits and Short-toed Larks. Once in the nearby gardens of Lahami Bay, though, colour and quality popped up all over the place. It was genuinely exciting birding...

male Red-spotted Bluethroat - dozens of these hopping around the flower beds of Lahami Bay

presumably another svecica, this time a female

Red-throated Pipit complete with tick

superciliaris Yellow Wagtail; a properly smart bird

Black-headed Wagtail... but would this feldegg get through the BBRC with a throat like that? I'd like to think so.

This feldegg is exactly what you see in the text book; though many birds had assortments of white head fleckings

an inquisitive, confiding Eastern Stonechat... probably armenicus?

male Caucasian Stonechat, presumably ssp. armenicus

large flocks of Short-toed Larks heading north with vitesse

Collared Pratincole enjoying an early evening visit to the swimming pool for a quick drink

As touched upon above, there were some really interesting identification challenges too, that I'll come onto in later posts. Particularly interesting were the varieties of Yellow Wagtails and the stonechats that were seen - seemingly all armenicus from what I can tell. The females, particularly, seem to be indistinguishable from maurus in the field, from what the ringers in Israel say about not being able to see the white in the tail unless its specifically spread in the hand.

Mourning Glory

I got back earlier this evening from a week long trip to Egypt with Josh and Staines. There'll be a fair few posts in the near future on bits and bobs that we saw - migration was in full swing on the Red Sea coast (both passers and raptors) and the Nile Valley WP specialities at Abu Simbel were also taken in.

Since I last visited in 2007, the first African Mourning Doves had been found at Abu Simbel by Belgian birders. And these birds had been lingering over the last year or so. I saw a couple, including one bird being particularly vocal and display flighting. They could be found in the gardens just to the north of the temple, and it's tempting to speculate how long they've actually been around, though numbers haven't augmented since they first turned up so perhaps they're not as successful at colonising as Collared Doves!

Also, another new bird for me within the Western Palearctic was Three-banded Plover. In fact, this quality species is now a breeding species and can be easily seen at Tut Amon near Aswan. We found a territorial pair on islands near the shore of Lake Nasser. The area is private so if you go be sure to contact the local birders Haitham (haythamibra@yahoo.com) and Hosny (goodhosny@yahoo.com) if you want a stress free, easy trip to this area. We also had a decent boat ride down at Abu Simbel where, given the time of year, we were happy enough with a couple of nice Yellow-billed Storks and some rather nice African Pied Wagtails along with loads of migrant waterbirds. I'll leave you for now with a few shots...

Andalucian Ibis in Essex

With too much time spent inside this week, and with the Mediterranean style weather, it was time to convert that into some bird action. So with school out, I whacked it up the A12 to Baddow Meads near Chelmsford, Essex, and shared a lovely couple of hours with my Iberian friend, ringed 8J9. Nobody else present - just me and a Glossy Ibis in the sun. Happy days.

So what's the deal with 8J9? Well, predictably it comes from Spain - ringed as a chick at El Rocio, Coto Donana, on 7th May 2007. It was still in the area three years later, being seen near Huelva (just 45km from where it was ringed) on 2nd April 2010. Next sighting wasn't until early 2012 at Borth, Ceredigion, from 2nd to 25th February, before heading straight through Britain to Heybridge, Essex, from to 16th March... and then appearing at this site on 24th March.

Kumlien's Gull - too hot to handle?

Last Saturday, I headed to Rainham to see the 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull that had been frequenting the tip and adjacent River Thames. Then during the week (on 19th and 22nd) this bird transferred itself to Beddington. So it was a real surprise that at 12.10pm today that I picked up a 'white-winged gull' crusing over us all at Pitsea tip while we were waiting to take a second catch. Within seconds, when it decided to bank and drop, it was obvious it was the same Kumlien's Gull that had been hanging around the London area (as the dock off tail band and primary patterning is a real giveaway): -

Pretty chuffed with things, as everyone managed to get onto it pretty quickly, the excitement started to reach fever pitch. The compactors had started to slow down on the main tip, so there was a feeding frenzy in the trapping area. And then, as if by magic, this northern beauty decided to take a sneaky peak. With some skilful cannon netting, this 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gull can now hopefully be tracked conclusively with its new bling: -

This was apparently the first white-winged gull that the NTGG had ever caught, so there was inevitably some rather good feeling around. Is this also the first ever kumlieni to be ringed in Britain? The bird itself was remarkably docile, and was quickly processed as the weather was rather warm to keep birds for too long. So here is what this bird looked like up close and personal: -

pretty pale eyed; very little dark flecking

birders who saw this individual at Rainham commented on the obvious retained, darker greater-coverts - still noticeable in the hand

A lovely tail band

Grey feathering appearing on the mantle

Note the dark outer webs, especially to P7-10; also this shot illustrates the transluscent ghost mirror coming through on P10