Corvo late autumn 2012?

I'll be heading off to Corvo again this autumn and, having just got my holiday dates, it'll be a late one so I'll be on the Azores from 27th October to 3rd November. So, if there is anyone who fancies a late autumn stroll on a volcano and enjoy searching for some good vagrants, please give me a shout [an email] if you fancy just coming along.

Corvo's caldeirao - the crater lake

Ribeira as Cancelas; one of many valleys on the east side of Corvo favoured by American passerines

Exciting birding in one of the most scenic places you'll ever visit. And there's likely to be no more than a handful of birders present - and a likelihood you genuinely can find some vagrant birds. Just like this White-tailed Tropicbird that I found at Vila Nova do Corvo in October 2011: -

White-tailed Tropicbird, Vila Nova do Corvo, Corvo, October 2011

I've now visited Corvo for three consecutive late Octobers, and the yank roll call is topped by Northern Flicker, Summer Tanager, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat (self-found), Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Chimney Swift, Buff-bellied Pipit and two Indigo Buntings (1 self-found).

Summer Tanager, Fojo, Corvo, October 2011

Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Lower Fields, Corvo, October 2009

Indigo Bunting, the airfield, Corvo, October 2010

The quarry at Cabo da Praia on Terceira is really exciting too, and you just never know what's going to be in there on each visit - and the views of the birds are good too. A fair few yanks will be seen here too. Highlights of the last three Octobers have included Great Blue Heron, a mega flock of 19 Blue-winged Teals, Least Sandpiper, American Golden Plover and multiple Long-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated Plovers, Lesser Yellowlegs, White-rumped, Semipalmated and Pectoral Sandpipers.

Great Blue Heron, Paul da Praia, Terceira, April 2010 (also seen in October 2010)

Pectoral Sandpipers, Cabo da Praia, Terceira, October 2010

Lesser Yellowlegs, Cabo da Praia, Terceira, October 2009

Long-billed Dowitcher, Cabo da Praia, Terceira, October 2009

Is spring here yet?

I'd spent the last couple of days in Hampshire with my parents, relaxing in front of a log fire. So much for it being May. Although, for a couple of hours early on today, the sun was shining and there was a enough of a southeasterly to waft a Whinchat and 8 Wheatear into the paddocks. A Hobby was also a welcome sight, as well as the first real numbers of Swifts pushing through - including 100+ at Southmere along with c.70 Swallows (and lesser numbers of Sand and House Martins). The Thames, however, was naff with just the usuals and no waders.

It was back to business at Crayford, where with no sign of the recent Iceland Gull, I immersed myself in gull rings and plucked half a dozen NTGG birds out of the birds feeding on glass(!) at Viridor Recycling Centre. If ever anyone thinks their birding is quiet, go and have a look at your local gulls for rings - I've now had near on 50 ringed birds in London this year.

So, with it all quiet on the local front, John A and I needed a fix and met up with Graeme S to have an afternoon at Elmley RSPB, Kent. And what a jolly nice jaunt it was too. People go on about the walk at this reserve. It's not that far you know you lazy, useless pussies. Honest, it isn't so that myth is over with. So a couple of Black-winged Stilts were seen on the flood from Southfleet Hide; nice for a few seconds before the realisation set in that having tons of Avocets in this country is bad enough, so why do we want even more raucous, territorial wader monsters to overpower our lovely indigenous waders?

A poor photograph of two waders

So, I quickly moved on to a quality bunch of 5 Spotted Redshanks - not quite jet black, but they were getting there. So much better than Avocets and Stilts! And even better were a couple of continental Black-tailed Godwits near Counterwall Hide; picked these birds up at range initially based on their overall peachy/orange appearance, leggy look and then the bills were both gleaming orange from the base to a 2/3rds to 3/4s to the tip. Also good to compare these to a totally separate flock of passage Icelandic birds that looked more squat and with a redder bill base and darker tip. And they never mixed... so interesting stuff there.

An equally poor photograph of two different waders

Upwards of 80, probably 100 or so, Whimbrels present too plus a couple of Barwits, a few Turnstone, 3 Grey Plover and a Little Tern. With Yellow Wags, Marsh Harriers everywhere and 85+ Med Gulls Elmley is a seriously under-rated spot. Many thanks for the late Gordon Allison for making the reserve what it is today.

Flamborough Flycatcher

I said to Ash today 'I've seen this bird better on the internet than I have today'. Not that it showed poorly. I knew all its feather detail before it even popped out onto a branch at South Landing. That's modern birding for you. And to cap it all off, field birders like me can't be sure what it is with any degree of certainty - that's a fact. If I were a betting man, which I'm not, I'd still be laying my money down on the Pied x Collared side (those coverts still don't seem right); but let's wait and see - its identity lies in the hands of the scientists! Bring on those men in white suits.

Ficedula sp., Flamborough, East Yorks May 2012

Anti Atlas?

Atlas Flycatcher. The real deal.

Now you clicked on here and thought that was taken at Flamborough? Wrong, as if you have a close look it's a nice adult male Atlas Flycatcher looking how they should in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco - I took this in early May 2007, and saw the species again in the same area a couple of years ago too.

I haven't been to Flamborough for the flycatcher. Loads of people looking to others to see what they're doing and asking around on what the various information services are saying. Well, BirdGuides and RBA have got it bang on the money 'you cannot go any further than 'possible Atlas Flycatcher or hybrid' on current knowledge. And Birdline are going on what's in the available printed literature - it's a Collared/Pied hybrid. I wonder how many people would have travelled to Flamborough if that RBA message 'possible Atlas Flycatcher' had read 'possible ATLAS FLYCATCHER'? That's what today's birding world has come to.

Some folk have just slapped their shots on the web under the banner 'Atlas Fly' and had done with it - see the Surfbirds gallery. Yeah nice shots, but it ain't an Atlas Fly unless you're better than these perceived experts who joe birding public continually put on a pedestal. This is the problem with the UK these days, and not just birding; it's all about catering for the lowest common denominator... and this situation just exemplifies exactly that. But there is no point trying to educate the uneducated. Trust me, it's my day job.

I used to be right on for going for stuff like this like a fly on shit. The never-ending saga of stuff you kind of know has a whiff of the proverbial when you go for it - basically identifications that people are making up as they go along and general hearsay - and it never comes to anything. Caspian Reed Warbler at Filey, Common Merganser in Belfast are just a couple that immediately spring to mind. But DNA has changed all this... and within a week or two, those feathers that dropped out at Flamborough on Monday hold the key.

I now realise that Small and Etherington's original article, along with Nils Van Duivendijk, have oversimplified things on the greater coverts but what I still am yet to be convinced on is, bar the outer couple of greater coverts, surely the central and inner greater-coverts of Atlas Fly should be white based (or at least have an extremely marginal black base - say less than 5% of the feather). And this ain't good on the Flamborough bird.

I am looking forward to new literature on the Atlas Fly/Collared x Pied hybrid subject, but I would expect this to come from Morocco/Tunisia with a sufficient sample of birds in hand and of 2cys (perhaps 3cys?!) and adults. Conjecture and focusing on the minutae of Mediterranean vagrant apparent Atlas Flycatchers without the sufficient DNA evidence to prove anything beyond all reasonable doubt will not push this extremely tricky subject forward with any definitive conclusion. Call me cynical if you like.

Bad weather decent birds

When those weather warnings came up on the news on Friday, warning about strong north-easterly winds and heavy rain, I just knew that I needed to be out and about. Excellent light and balmy weather, that’s just for pussy birders and pure photographers. You’ve got to get soaked sometimes if you want to be in the game. Only problem I had this weekend was with BT, where a fault on the line meant no internet (or landline) until today so hence the late posting.

So Saturday (28th) comes, and it’s relatively drizzly with a bit of northerly wind. I was at Crossness from 7am, by which time the Barking boys (Paul H and Dave Mo) were producing with a couple of Turnstone and a Whinchat early on. John A and I felt like there should be something around on the south side of the river, and then at 8.40am an adult Kittiwake flew upriver past the outfall – nice. Another call from the Barking boys, while we were heading to the paddocks, as the 2 Turnstones had reappeared and a couple of Barwits had dropped in on the foreshore. We had a Whimbrel head northwest at 9.50am, and there were 3 Wheatears and 2 LRPs around too, before John and I headed back to the shore where the Turnstones and Bar-tailed Godwits had remained for us. Things slowed up after that, and late morning I headed back to Rotherhithe where, despite a decent flog of the place, I only managed 1 Common Tern...

Bonxie, Crossness, London 29th April 2012

Sunday (29th)came, and after oversleeping having watched all the footy til gone 1 in the morning, I finally rolled up at Crossness at 9ish. Weather was proper grim, and you could easily have thought it was November bar all the Common Terns calling around the outfall. First up, a lone duck I picked up in the ming quickly turned into a Red-breasted Merg as it headed west quickly upriver at 10am – bizarrely my first at Crossness to Ian M’s surprise. Aware of a couple of skuas just downriver at Rainham, Ian M and I were primed although news from Dom suggested that the Bonxie was lingering at the stone barges. Then, at 10.25am with optics completely screwed up because of the weather, pandemonium broke out amongst the gulls and terns at the outfall which meant just one thing – the Bonxie was upon us. My first skua this far upriver, and a fantastic sight, it gave some show as it flew almost over our heads – lingering for 10 minutes or so – before it headed back downriver. Half a dozen Barwits in Barking Bay late morning were the last birds of note, before I had to head back if only to dry off.

Pelagics anyone?

There is a weekend of pelagics planned off Lanzarote on 18th and 19th of August. Anyone up for it? I'm already going. Ryanair flights from Stansted are reasonably priced for the time of year, and with South Polar Skua and Black-bellied Storm-petrel recorded on these last September then you never know what will be seen this year. As well as the possibility of extreme rares, you'd imagine that in amongst all those Cory's Shears you will get a few Madeiran, Wilson's and White-faced Storm-petrels. On each of the pelagics last year, all these species were recorded - have a look at the tally chart here (scroll down) for the scores last year.

Wilson's SP off Graciosa, Azores, June 2011

It's also a real shame that I can't go on Peter Alfrey's superb Azores pelagic this year though - just a conflict with dates when I'll be away with Karen this summer. Totally gutted as it was a brilliant experience to see Monteiro's Storm-petrel up close and personal last year, and it's only time before they record a Trindade or Black-capped Petrel. I'm also thinking about trying to get out to Hatteras early June, as flights aren't too bad price wise to fly into Norfolk, Virginia. Send me an email if you want any info on any of the above ideas as I'm lonesome on them all at present.

Looking forward to getting out on Saturday, because if the weather forecast is correct, there could be a few Black and Arctic Terns, and Little Gulls, in southeast London.

Flava fever

Yep, you guessed it. Back to Egypt considering all this cold weather, lack of migrants and the added frustration today that I was hemmed in by the London Marathon. I did receive info on one of the Black-tailed Godwits though (the bird in the photo on yesterday's posting, left leg, green and right leg, yellow over blue - ringed as an adult male at Farlington, Hants in Sept 2010, seen in May 2011 at Kuiabol, northern Iceland before being back at Farlington on 22nd August.

Now onto to the wagtails in Egypt. These birds were absolutely everywhere on the Red Sea coast, and the variation in flava wagtails was immense. I'll start with an obvious one, a nice 1st-summer male Citrine Wagtail of the nominate race citreola taken at Shams Alam on 7th April 2012. Interesting reading about a possible werae in Israel here and for something that bit more special have a look at this link for fantastic images of what is probably the first calcarata in the WP.

Right now for some rather interesting flava wagtails. First a straightforward one, a classic male feldegg - Black-headed Wagtail. Wholly yellow throat, nice black unmarked head. Those special guys at the BBRC would be happy with these two: -

Then things get more messy. Anyone remember the Maylandsea, Essex male from 1999? Well, that bird was rejected despite being well twitched due to an asymmetrical pale mark within its black head. I imagine this bird would not make the grade either, though presumably it'll be on its way to Romania or somewhere in the Balkans: -

And then note the whitish base to the bill on this bird. Presumably within range for feldegg, though the doubters would be out if it turned up over here: -

Now for some less clear cut birds: -

Could easily be passed over as a flava though the split supercilium and darkness, particularly on the ear-coverts, would suggest influence from elsewhere. Its call was remarkably similar to a nearby feldegg...

A properly smart bird, a male 'superciliaris' - a pretty obvious feldegg x flava/beema intergrade

Obviously, you have to speculate somewhat with these intergrades - putting square pegs into round holes - and the amount of birds that didn't fit the bill as either a regular feldegg or flava in Egypt was pretty high. And throw in a few thunbergi too, and the whole flava complex is to coin a phrase, a minefield. Interesting though.