Long-billed Dowitcher photo shoot

I've never yet been fortunate to come across a lone dowitcher in the Britain or Ireland. Admittedly I've seen a lot of them (over 15 in fact), occasionally in braces, since the first stonking adult that I was lucky to see on the Weaver Bend, Frodsham back when I was just a young lad in 1990. Add to this three on the Azores and throw in a couple of Short-billed Dowitchers at Rosehearty and Lady's Island Lake for good measure, and hell yeah, you'd think I was some sort of expert on them. Well no, nobody is to be honest and the more you look at adults (juveniles are slightly easier) the more you realise that things are not always that straightforward. And these guys have fried with my brains to be honest. Unless you get them to call of course. Which these birds did thankfully, or at least the birds that called were Long-billeds! All photographs taken at Shollenberger, Petaluma, California in some nice crisp evening light on 6th August 2012.

Long-billed Dowitcher possy Shollenberger, Petaluma, California 6th August 2012

In the US, habitat preference is a fair indicator according to the correspondence I had with Californian legend Rich Stallcup. Short-billed with a major preference for tidal, saltwater situations while the Long-billed are much more inclined towards freshwater, where these shots were taken. Obviously any vagrants in the UK won't be as habitat faithful... and you'll also see that bill length and moult timing are both variable to say the least.

Tail pattern isn't that much of a decent feature, which isn't how I envisaged it or what I wanted to hear. Nor really is wing projection beyond the tail. Basically Long-billed are pretty variable with either even bars or broader dark bars. But, then again, have a look at these images to see the variability in just this one flock. Have a read of this to get you thinking even more, and this one too that contradicts a lot from the previous link! It'll totally screw your head up, just like it has mine.

Also, primary and secondary feather moult takes place in Long-billeds at migration stop off sites while in all subspecies of Short-billed Dowitchers they moult their primaries predominantly on/near their wintering grounds (per O'Brien, Crossley and Karlson).

Any comments appreciated, as adult dowitchers are more baffling than I thought a few weeks ago.

adult Casp at Rainham today

I had to have an hour or so off writing my dissertation so headed to Rainham. It was back to familiarity here, with unfortunately none of the last couple of week's Western or Glaucous-winged Gulls greeting me. However I quickly clapped eyes on this adult Caspian Gull: -

Metal-ringed, it seems to be the bird that Steve Arlow photographed (admittedly much better than me!) at Pitsea tip, Essex on 4th August 2012 with images reproduced on Birding Frontiers and Steve's own site here.

Loads of other gulls, including many Yellow-legged Gulls and my first juvenile Common Gull of the summer.

Elegant Tern photo shoot

Elegant Terns have typically been midsummer visitors to Britain and Ireland, and it's likely just a very few individuals have been involved. To be completely accurate though, the species still is yet to be admitted formally to the British list and lies in continual limbo amid the threat of pseudo-Elegant Terns and their offspring from further south (France and Spain). Anyway, I saw a fair number of Elegant Terns on Californian beaches last week so felt duty bound to take some shots from the core range and at a time of year that we may expect them here. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

One thing that did grab me though, which doesn't seem to be in the literature too much (though is mentioned in Birding World's orange-billed tern article from July 2003), is the fair amount of adult birds that do not have fully black legs - pretty crazy orange markings in some birds to rather more subtle markings on the foot base on others. In a flock of 122 Elegant Terns on a San Francisco beach on 9th August 2012, 20% of adults in this flock did not have what I would class as black legs. If you don't remember the putative Cayenne/probable hybrid/generally mashed up looking tern at Cemlyn in June 2006, then have a look at some images here - those leg markings remind me of what several Elegants looked like last week. Perhaps the Anglesey bird was therefore the offspring of a mixed Elegant x Sandwich Tern pairing, as I've not experienced that spangled leg look in any of the other species I've seen - and over the years I've seen a fair few Sandwich, Royal and Lesser Crested Terns.

adult Elegant Tern with jazzy orange, spangled legs

same bird as above, with dependent offspring still begging for food

As these photos show they're variable in moult timing and bill colour, structure and length too. Lots of the birds look like those 'classic' carrot-billed birds with decurved paling bills (from blood orange at the bill base) while others are rather less obvious in appearance. Some adults showed rather squat, deep based and concolourous yellow-orange bills similar to what you'd expect in Lesser Crested Tern. Although no birds were solidly black-headed, a few birds did have just a hint of white mottling on the forehead. Also note the neat dark primary wedges on the underwing on all the flying birds.

Note the shortened bill on this bird, as it is not a full adult (dark centred tertials and coverts).

Just a few shots to show the white rumps. I didn't find any birds that showed obviously grey rumps. Admittedly the light was quite bright at times which made assessing this pretty tricky.

And, just to finish off, here are what the 1st year birds look like. Notice the varying leg colour - one bird that I saw had wholly salmon pink legs, to some with seemingly all dark legs.

Appreciation at last

A few days ago, the 4th August to be precise, I spotted this chap chilling out on the mud at Spud Point, Bodega Bay, California. Always on the lookout for colour rings, I was nicely pumped when I was able to get close enough to record the details and take the photo below.

5cy Caspian Tern Bodega Bay, California  4th August 2012

I got amongst it and submitted the report to the USGS, and within a couple of days got notification that this individual had been ringed as a nestling in San Francisco Bay in 2008. Not exactly earth shattering news, but I'm not used to getting a 'certificate of appreciation' for my efforts!

Guess it's better than the usual response I get (or at least what the ringers are probably thinking) which is something along the lines of 'thanks for your skanky gull report that was ringed on a freezing cold, stinking pile of shite last February. It has only travelled a few miles up the Thames so it really is of no interest whatsoever to you, nor us for that matter'. Perhaps us Brits have a lot to learn from the US. Then again, I quite like those no frills emails to be honest...

California pelagic to the Farallons

I headed out on Sunday to the Farallon Islands, lying just short of 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco - a pelagic I'd been looking forward to since the day I got it booked. And it did not disappoint, as these islands are the largest US west coast seabird colony south of Alaska so it was a pretty stunning spectacle. Especially this was my first time out at sea in the Pacific Ocean...
Heading out of Sausalito it was pretty obvious that it was going to be one of those legendary mill pond like seas, and within an hour or so the first of 1000s of Grey Phals were whizzing about and putting on a show. Some of them were still a bit red, so guess the yanks have some excuse for the name change.

A couple of the 1000 or so Grey Phals

The commonest breeder on the islands are Guillemots, although Pigeon Guillemots are a common breeder on the Farallons too so it was excellent to get some good views of this interesting species - again literally 1000s of them, including some nice creche rafts.

Pigeon Guillemot (adults and juvenile in the bottom pic). One to look out for in the future?

To give it even more of a Pacific mix, auklets were well represented with diminutive Cassin's Auklets in their low 100s and a few Rhino Auklets too.

Cassin's Auklet

And last of the alcids, and the reason why a load of punters had paid their cash for this pelagic, were stunning views of Tufted Puffin. Truly mega birds, big black boys with massive honkers - would certainly have been nice if the Oare bird had lingered... but with that ice cap continuing to melt, perhaps we'll get another go at one of these sometime.

Tufted Puffin - properly mega close views

And then it was out to the open ocean, and soon enough the massive rafts of Sooty Shearwaters started - amongst the 1000s of them, one white-headed, leucistic bird.

Sooty Shearwater - the commonest shearwater by a long way

It wasn't just the bird action that was impressive, as at least a couple of Blue Whales and 40+ Humpbacks put on a show, the latter whales right beside the boat.

Impressive Blue Whales with Sooty Shears crusing above them

Two of the forty or so Humpback Whales

Small numbers - probably less than a dozen, Pink-footed Shearwaters added to the mix while out of the blue came this immature Black-footed Albatross. Pure class to add to the quality already seen.

Pink-footed Shearwater

Black-footed Albatross

There were also a couple of Californian listers on board, as they'd made the voyage out to see the state's first Northern Gannet - a first for the Pacific I believe. And, with one guy having given it five shots already you could see how pumped he was when it turned up on one of the ledges. A massive deal here, as apparently this was only the second boat that had connected. Real California score I guess.

California's first and only Northern Gannet

And then on the way back stuff like Brown Pelicans, Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants, loads of Heermann's and Western Gulls followed the boat in as we headed under the Golden Gate Bridge and into harbour. A fantastic day.

Brown Pelican

You could, after reading this, think that North Atlantic pelagics really suck. And perhaps they're not as impressive as this type of stuff for sheer numbers but you bet I'd have liked to have been on the Azores last week too. I guess you just can't be in two places at once...

Dude cruising under the GG Bridge coming back into harbour

Oregon update

We spent just a couple of nights in Oregon, heading south down the Pacific coast. First stop off was at Cannon's Beach - a beautiful area of the world where, just offshore, lies Haystack Rock. Up to seven Harlequins lazed around in the swell at the bottom of the rock while amongst the hundreds of Pigeon Guillemots and Guillemots (Common Murres here) were a couple of Tufted Puffins; apparently it has been a poor year for them here according to the locals I talked to, but they were still pretty easy to see though a bit distant.

Harlequins chilling out at Haystack Rock, Oregon August 2012



Loads of gulls on the Oregon beaches too - a big change from the Seattle area with the dominant large gull now being Western Gull (though the mantle colour in Oregon is paler than down here in California...). Surprisingly few Glaucous-winged Gulls but also Mew, Ring-billed, California and Heermann's Gulls all noted in varying numbers.

adult Western Gull Brookings, Oregon August 2012

juvenile California Gull Brookings, Oregon August 2012. A nice cinnamon breasted morph of this species - probably the largest of the small gulls, or the smallest of the large gulls?

The odd Black Oystercatcher was present on the rocky coasts, but I saw surprisingly few 'peeps' - just a few Western and Least Sands. Passerine wise, limited to White-crowned and Song Sparrows. But, to be honest, having birded Washington relatively extensively and with the draw of California to the south, my efforts didn't do Oregon any justice at all. The scenery was pretty special though so I'll leave you with a few Oregon coastal scapes for now.