Pockets Of Birding (And What’s To Come)

Hi all. Just a quick update on my birding in the last couple of weeks. Since my ‘episode’ with the ‘Yellow-legged’ Gull and the female Lesser Scaup (which itself has a confusing story behind it) at Loch of Skene I haven’t managed much birding at all due to school. The last time I was in the field was Saturday 21st Jan when a check of Girdle Ness produced a blank for any white-winged gulls and didn’t produce an awful lot of birds. The best that I could manage was 47 Purple Sandpipers from Greyhope Bay (Girdle Ness is the county hotspot for this species), a couple of Red-throated Divers in Nigg Bay and a few Razorbills and Kittiwakes going past offshore. This trip brought me up to 108 for my 2012 year list; see the page dedicated to my 2012 year list for species I have managed so far this year.

Since this occasion I have had a couple of interesting sightings whilst going about my business in Aberdeen. Last Thursday (26th) I came across a colour ringed juvenile Herring Gull gorging on lunchtime leftovers at my school (Aberdeen Grammar School). The ring was yellow, signifying that this bird was ringed by the local Grampian Ringing Group. As with all Grampian ringed gulls, this gull had a yellow colour ring which started with the letter T, but I was unable to make out the three digits following this which was frustrating despite getting good views of the bird in flight and on the ground. It would have been great to get the full code for this ring so I could have found out when it was ringed and its progress before I saw it. It may well be a bird that’s always stayed local, but nonetheless it would’ve been fascinating to know. I will keep an eye out for it in case it returns.

Also of interest, more or less whilst typing this there is a large flock of winter thrushes on my street in the trees opposite my house; I’dsay some 50-60 Fieldfares but probably more as they keep flying over into the gardens. As far as I can see there’s about 15 Redwings amongst them, but this once again could be an underestimate. It must be that these are birds that have arrived in the last few days with the high pressure at the moment that’s caused a cold snap over in the Eurasian continent and here, as this is the single largest winter thrush flock I’ve seen all winter so far. Great stuff.

I am currently doing exams and have been revising for these, hence why birding’s been limited. However, most of them are this week so I’ll be able to get out birding regularly again from this weekend onwards. I’m hoping to get out to the dunes at the mouth of the Ythan Estuary to have a look for the local wintering Twite flock and see if there’s anything amongst them, as well as do a bit of gulling at Peterhead and Fraserburgh to try for a Glaucous Gull or two as well as see what Icelands and Kumlien’s are around… There’s still piles of white wingers up there so it will be great to have another look. A post on that is to come, plus a yearly review done over several and also a review of my winter patching at my new occasional patch in Norfolk; Costsessey House Private Estate (for more on the patch, see pages dedicated to it).

Until then thanks for reading,

Joseph

Mystery Gull at Loch of Skene (15th January 2012)

'Yellow legged' Gull, 15/1/12. Digiscoped. A blurred Herring Gull stands behind it.

note the full chest in particular here

On the afternoon of Sunday 15th January , I came across this very interesting but distant adult ‘Yellow legged’ type gull at Loch of Skene just outside Aberdeen whilst twitching a female Lesser Scaup. It was standing on the ice in the middle of the Loch for 10-15 minutes, but the distance of the bird made it really hard to call an ID on it; with Yellow-legged, Caspian Gull, hybrid Herring x Lesser Black backed to and eastern baltic race Herring Gull all possible. Furthermore, the bird was not seen through the scope in flight so I was unable to study the primary pattern of the bird, which would have allowed for potential identification. As it is this bird has remained unidentified despite expert help, partly due to the photos not doing it enough justice; it is virtually impossible to tell what species it is from these photos. It’s interesting to note however that a local birder had a possible Yellow-legged Gull (ssp. michahellis) at the gull roost there a few weeks earlier, implying that this mystery bird has been in the area for some time. During my time watching it, and having looked at the photos, the following features were noted:

• long, conspicuous yellow legs
• virtually unstreaked, flattish, squarish shaped head
• full chested
• darker backed and mantled than surrounding Herrings
• upright posture, elongated appearance
• bill narrow and long
• in flight longer wings in comparison to Herrings; also slightly larger
• A seemingly all white P10 (Pic 1)

Out of the abovementioned features (and in the pics) the most immediately striking were the vivid yellow legs,  the full chested appearance and the length of the bill, the latter two of which I think can be seen best in Pic 2. This immediate jizz veered me towards Caspian Gull, but with no prior experience of this species I couldn’t rule out Yellow-legged Gull, and gulls can of course be a nightmare to ID even as a larophile (which I am not) . I would comment that this bird certainly didn’t stand out as a hybrd  in the field (the most likely possibility being hybrid Lesser Black Backed x Herring). The head was square and a virtually unstreaked clean white; I would expect a Herring x LBB Gull to show more streaking than this bird. Furthermore the mantle and back were too light for a hybrid, the elongated apperance was unlike either species, and it seemed larger than Herrings nearby. The bird was so distant it really was too difficult to get an ID or pick out any absolutely clear cut Yellow-legged/Caspian features, especially without any way of inspecting the primary pattern. The bird remained on the ice for some 10-15 minutes before it flew off with several Herrings. I was unable to scope it here which defeated my purpose of studying the primary pattern, but through the bins it seemed longer-winged and somewhat larger than the Herrings around it; pro either Caspo or Yellow-legged. With a local birder stating that they had a possible Yellow-legged Gull a few weeks earlier and from examining the photos after others’ comments, it seems that Yellow-legged could be more likely than Caspo. A ‘guller’ on Birdforum thought Yellow-legged was the best of the possible candidates, commenting that the breast was full but not high and that the legs were vivid rather than paler yellow as expected in Caspian. Indeed, I did notice these features in the field. Regardless though, there is nothing conclusive on this gull to eliminate any of the 4 possibilities.

I was unaware whilst watching the bird that there is a race of Herring Gull which shows yellow legs and Caspian/Yellow-legged gull features and have since been made aware of this. Herrings from the eastern Baltics, can show an all white P10 (or not for that matter) as well as outstanding yellow legs, and can look deceiving like Yellow leggeds and Caspos in head shape etc.

adult 'yellow-legged' Eastern Baltic Herring Gull taken in Latvia. Image courtesy of Chris Gibbins

A different Eastern Baltic Herring taken by Chris in Latvia; quite noticeable head and neck streaking on this bird and absence of white P10

Thanks to Chris Gibbins for sending me these two shots of Eastern Baltic Herring Gulls from Latvia. In the first pic, the outstanding long yellow legs, dark mantle and back, thick bill with pronounced gonys, largerly unstreaked squarer head all look good for adult Yellow-legged. However this individual has an all white p10, a pro Caspian feature, and it doesn’t seem overly full chested. Whilst the former can be seen on a small percentage of Yellow-legged Gulls it is rare, thus making this bird immensely tricky to ID. The second bird looks even better for Yellow-legged, with the absence of an all white P10 and the abovementioned features all on show plus what seems to be a black band on P5, another pointer towards Yellow-legged. However, the head streaking seems rather heavy and extensive for a typical adult Yellow-legged and once again the chest isn’t that full. I cannot comment on how either of these are Eastern Baltic Herrings but they are certainly anomalous birds. Certainly, this subspecies throws a spanner in the works for IDing less clear cut and most importantly distant Yellow-leggeds or Caspians.

If my bird was an Eastern Baltic Herrings, it would be a local rarity in itself . In fact, any ‘yellow-legged’ type gull in Aberdeenshire is a rarity so I am hoping this is re-found and an ID confirmed.  However, it has not been seen since then and it’s likely it’ll never be seen again.  I will have to continue speculating on what it was, but personally I’m inclined to rule out hybridity and keep michahellis Yellow-legged, Caspian Gull and Eastern Baltic Herring Gull as possibilities.  The ‘gull that got away’ is a fitting description; a fascinating gull.

Thanks for reading,

Joseph

White Winged Heaven

Firstly, welcome to the blog! Whilst its clear this is my first post on my blog, I will do an introductory post at some point in the near future. In the meantime, I have some white-winged gull drama to whet the appetite.

With the recent incredible influx of Iceland and Glaucous Gulls, Aberdeenshire – which normally produces a smattering of both species per winter – has inevitably benefited immensely, hosting an amazing amount of these fantastic birds. A trip to both Peterhead Harbour and Fraserburgh Harbours on Saturday (14th Jan) – the best places for white-wingers in the region at this time of year – produced an astonishing 9 Iceland Gulls, 3 times more than I had seen previously (3) in one day! Strangely no Glaucs were seen, unlucky considering they were seen at both harbours by others during the day. Regardless of the lack of Glaucs seen, I am still utterly bowled over by the total of Icelands that were had, and what’s more, with the weather being perfect and the majority of the gulls being very obliging I can only describe this astonishing experience as ‘White-winged Heaven’ .

On arrival at Peterhead Harbour I was delighted to see that a boat was coming in; a sure sign of most of the gulls in the surrounding area coming together to gorge on the available fish. As the boat arrived, it chucked its remaining fish onto the ground very near where the car was stationed and duly I witnessed a pretty extraordinary sight as over 200 gulls descended and a feeding frenzy took place, but no Icelands or Glaucs were amongst them. Some gulls weren’t getting any look in whatsoever, but those that did were fighting as hard as they could for their bit. Several birds had their mouths round the same fish and were trying to tug it off one another. Inevitably it was the burly Great Black Backed Gulls that were most successful in winning the tug of war matches, many swallowing their prize in one go! Whilst this was somewhat unpleasant to watch, it was absolutely fascinating as I had never witnessed the behaviour at such close quarters before. Once they had dispersed we got out and searched further afield, and it wasn’t long before white-wingers were located, with 4 Iceland Gulls seen in quick succession, x3 second winters and one first winter, 3 of which were spread out on the same area of rocks. I was overjoyed by this; there are usually one or two white-wingers of each species around at Peterhead per winter which are hard to see, but to have 4 together in close proximity of each other and of where I was standing was something I previously would’ve found hard to imagine. There were probably more than 4 Icelands present, as we kept on getting glimpses of others.  About an hour and a half was spent admiring these spectacular white wingers and I set about photographing them, photos of which which are below.

this 2nd winter Iceland Gull at Peterhead allowed me to get within 10-15ft, and with the light behind me photo conditions were just perfect. Quite a dark bird in comparison to the other second winters present, extensive pink and noticeable black ring on the bill, a Glaucous like pattern.

first winter at Peterhead; uniformly much paler and more 'buiscit coloured' than second winter Iceland Gull pictured with more extensive black on the bill and dark iris.

the same bird as above lifting off

the final second winter present, note the very pale iris on this individual. Somewhat similar to the first individual but quite a bit paler

Some general birding at Loch of Strathbeg took place after Peterhead, where the highlights were a fine female Hen Harrier and stunning views of Whooper Swans at Fen Hide; a count of at least 147 was had of this spectacular swan species . This is a good but not unusual count here. Other birds seen that were new for the year included Pintail, the resident Tree Sparrow flock and Yellowhammer all from the Visitor Centre.

Whooper Swans

a whooping Whooper

Fraserburgh Harbour was our next and final stop of the day as we went in search of a thrid winter Kumlien’s Gull. Stationing ourselves in the harbour opposite the ‘Balaclava Pub’ , our first scan of the water produced 4 Iceland Gulls , 3 second winters and a first winter. The local text alert said there had only been one Iceland Gull present in the morning so these may have been completely new birds. As we delighted ourselves with these 4 Icelands we noticed two more white wingers flying in. One of these birds was another Iceland, taking it up to 5 Icelands. The other was the best candidate for the third winter Kumlien’s yet; a bird very much resembling an adult Iceland but with a paler yellow bill and a nice blackish ring round it. Inspection of the primaries revealed faint brown and greyish tips, confirming that this was indeed the 3rd winter Kumlien’s Gull. It proceeded to show extremely well along with the 5 Icelands and all birds concerned were watched as they loafed about on the same area of water until dusk; insanely good birding! I really couldn’t have asked for more; this truly was White-Winged Gull Heaven. 

the superb third winter Kumlien's Gull, note the abovementioned features, the bill a good indicator of its age

although not that obvious, note the grey/brownish tinges to the primary tips

the Kumlien's as the sun sets

two second winter Iceland Gulls together

a different second winter from the Icelands above (pale iris)

2nd winter present in the harbour; notcieably darker than others. Interesting contrast between white primaries and overall dark brown underparts.

The day ended with an astonishing white-winged gull total of: 9 Iceland Gulls and a 3w winter Kumlien’s Gull. An unforgettable and astonishing day; I doubt I will ever see that many Iceland Gulls again, and the idyllic conditions and superb views of all the birds make this an overall experience to savour for a long time to come.

Joseph