Saturday 30 November 2013

November in Topsham

7th-29th November - Topsham


It seems like I've spent most of November chasing just one bird. I found a Water Pipit at the Rec on the 7th, got rather poor photos and virtually every day for the next three weeks it's been giving me the runaround. Here's a selection of some of my more 'successful' attempts.

Water Pipit - Topsham 7/11/2013
The first day (above) - not bad I thought, it's at least identifiable. It's likely to stick around for the Winter so I expected much better photos to come.

Water Pipit - Topsham 15/11/2013
A week later (above) and the bird is still only giving brief and distant views - though at least sometimes the light was better. It tended to fly at the slightest provocation and when it flew, it flew far. It's favoured stretch of shore was also alongside a path used by dog-walkers so even if I kept my distance, someone else would flush it sooner or later.

Water Pipit - Topsham 24/11/2013
This one (above) shows the diagnostic warm brown rump and upper tail coverts, clearly different from any Rock Pipit. There's an interesting difference in colour tones to the previous photo, due to light and me playing with the white balance to get a truer picture. Also just visible is a white-tipped outer tail feather. After nearly three weeks, and over 200 shots, these are still the best I've managed.

Water Pipit - Topsham 27/11/2013
I've been surprised at the attention this bird has attracted, I counted seven other birders at the Rec recently. Some might have been there hoping for views of the Bearded Tits still hanging around - although I still haven't so much as heard them. I can go weeks without seeing anyone but dog-walkers. It's clearly a quiet period in the Exeter area - Water Pipit is not exactly a rare bird, I find them to be virtually annual at The Rec.

Meanwhile, gull-watching goes on - someone's got to do it. Common Gull numbers are rising and often there's a Mediterranean Gull hiding among the Black-heads. Of course, the real interest is in the larger species, and here's my first michahellis of the Autumn at the Rec. I saw this bird probably on the 24th, but distantly and briefly and I got no photos, on the 29th it sat on the spit for a few minutes before flying off. There followed the usual procedure with such suspects: the bright white head draws attention, then the coverts and tertials checked out ok, I had reservations about the quite well-marked scapulars but they're certainly within the 'range', the head and bill shape isn't classic either but it'll do - actually the bill looked a lot more impressive when in flight. And when it flew it removed any doubt with an absolutely classic michahellis wing and tail; dark inner primaries and almost 'Lapwing-like' white rump, coverts and tail base with a thin, neat black band, narrowing to a point on T6. It's just a shame the light was so bad I had to do without my teleconverter and shoot at 250/sec - hence the blur.

Yellow-legged Gull 1st winter - Topsham 29/11/2013
Yellow-legged Gull 1st winter - Topsham 29/11/2013
I don't know how many Water Rails breed in the reeds across the river but I hear them nearly every day, sometimes I see one furtively creeping on to the mud on the far shore, very rarely I see one in the open on 'my side'.

Water Rail - Topsham 29/11/2013

Water Rail - Topsham 29/11/2013
Finally, we have a new addition to the already impressive collection of local birding sites, and another place to check when 'doing my rounds'. The new stretch of the Exe Estuary Cycle Route opened a few weeks ago; a raised boardwalk and a new bridge over the Clyst alongside the railway which coincidentally gives access to the RSPB's previously hidden Goosemoor reserve. Here's the new path, the fences still smelling of resin and freshly-sawn wood.

New Boardwalk/Cycle Path, Goosemoor
A view across the reserve, looking north to Fisher's Mill and up the Clyst Valley.

Goosemoor, Topsham
The water level is controlled by a 'regulated tidal exchange' device - basically a ballcock - which allows a limited amount of water in on a rising tide and lets it out when it falls. The result is a few shallows pools, low islands - for breeding terns and Avocets? - and a good extent of estuarine mud right in front of the path, nothing here today but maybe good close views of waders in the future? All the views across the pools are to the north or north-east which means none of the light problems of sunny mornings at the Bowling Green - and perhaps the birds might be closer?

Goosemoor, Topsham - exposed mud at low tide
There is a downside, the reserve can only be watched through narrow slits. I guess they're great for people of a certain height - mainly children, perhaps - but I'm a little over 6 foot tall and have to stoop to look through the highest gap, and it feels like peeping through a letterbox. The whole experience is a bit disappointing, it's potentially a great site for good close views of waders - and it's sure to get some quality birds in time. But while walking on the path there is nothing to be seen but fence, there are no wide views across and above the pools and no views at all without using the handful of viewing slits. While it's handy to be able to rest bins or camera on the wood of the openings, I've noticed that the whole structure shakes when a runner goes past. I can fully understand why it was necessary to screen the path to minimise disturbance to the birds but I wonder if more extensive facilities might still have been possible?

Goosemoor, Topsham - the letterboxes

Tuesday 12 November 2013

A Great Grey Shrike

7th - 11th November 2013 - Colaton Raleigh Common

 

I have a bit of history with shrikes, many years ago I illustrated 'Shrikes; a Guide to the Shrikes of the World' by Norbert Lefranc, I painted the shrike plates for HBW and have written or illustrated papers on 'Steppe' Grey Shrike and Isabelline and Brown Shrikes. They're always good value and I find it hard to resist going to see one when it's nearby. On Tuesday 5th of November Chris Townend found a Great Grey Shrike on Colaton Raleigh Common - see Cream Tea Birding for his account and photos. I haven't seen a Great Grey for a couple of years so last Thursday I went to look for it. I eventually tracked it down but got only distant views and the photos were of a quality usually described as 'record shots'.

Great Grey Shrike - 7/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common

Great Grey Shrike - 7/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common

I posted the sighting, with a photo, on Devon Bird News, Mike Langman then emailed me to question the size of the white wing-patch and wondered if this was a different bird to Chris's. I had already considered the possibility but eventually put it down to different postures and/or angles. Clearly the question would best be answered by closer views and better photos. So four days later and several hours of roaming about the common - during which I managed to get my first half decent photos of Dartford Warbler and a found a Richard's Pipit (call only unfortunately) - I caught up with the bird again.

Great Grey Shrike - 11/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common

Great Grey Shrike - 11/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common

Great Grey Shrike - 11/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common
Maybe they're not that much better but a slight improvement, I think. It doesn't seem to have that much of a primary patch now, more obvious in flight - see below, but I think that the secondaries are covering the widest area of white on the inner primaries. It's got an obvious pale base to the lower mandible, the lores are not solidly black and there are distinctly pale (though not white, I think) tips to all the greater coverts. Ageing Great Grey Shrikes can be tricky but those coverts are a good sign that it's a bird of the year, while adults can show neat white tips when fresh but these look a little too 'messy' and diffuse. At times I could see very faint scalloping on the breast and flanks, just visible on the next shot.

Great Grey Shrike - 11/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common

It moved around often, trying different perches to scout from, sometimes flycatching. At one point a Pied Wagtail took offence at its presence and followed it, at what it presumably thought was a safe distance, in attempt to drive it off. The shrike didn't care for this and flew off calling once, a harsh almost jay-like screech. I managed to get a few flight shots.

Great Grey Shrike - 11/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common

Great Grey Shrike - 11/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common

Great Grey Shrike - 11/11/2013 Colaton Raleigh Common
OK, I'll admit these photos are nothing to be proud of but at least they nicely show the spread wings and tail. Those pale-tipped greater coverts are quite obvious but there's something else interesting: that's a rather large primary patch but there's none on the secondaries. Isn't that a character of pallidirostris 'Steppe' Grey Shrike*? I admit that when I first saw the bird in flight it did cross my mind for a moment. However, nothing else looks anything like a pallidirostris, particularly a 1st winter. The structure is all wrong, the bill is not heavy and bulbous, the wings are quite short and P9 (numbered descendently) is no longer than P5 (longer than P6 in pallidirostris). The tail pattern is typical of excubitor, there's nowhere near enough white at the base of T6. And although that's an impressive primary patch, on a typical pallidirostris it would be a lot larger still, more like 2/3rds the length of the inner primaries, not less than 1/2. Of course, 1st winter pallidirostris looks quite unlike any excubitor; for a start the head and bill is much paler and there's much more white on the greater coverts. So stand down, it's excubitor after all.

The East Devon Commons are a regular site for Great Grey Shrike and I expect this bird will settle in for the winter; expect many more, and better, photos of this bird - though probably not from me.

*Not associated with steppe on either breeding or wintering ranges; pallidirostris is a bird of semi-desert scrub, a much better name is 'Saxaul Grey Shrike', if only it would catch on.

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Mediterranean Gulls

2nd November 2013 - Porthcawl


In the absence of anything noteworthy happening in my small corner of Devon - and since it's been a couple of weeks since my last post - here are some photos from a weekend trip to Wales.

I see Med Gulls most days in Topsham, but rarely close enough to take any useful photos. Beaches give much better opportunities to get nearer. These were taken at Rest Bay, Porthcawl, South Wales in a howling gale.

Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013
Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013
Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013
Ageing Med Gulls is usually straightforward. The individual above is in its second winter, in other words it's carrying its second set of primaries - second cycle would be another way of putting it. The flight feathers are pale grey and white-tipped but with markings on P7-10; on this bird the black is extremely restricted and mostly on P8 - there's a barely visible dark spot on P7 and little more on P9 and P10. I did wonder whether it wasn't an older bird - often 3rd winters show small dark marks on the outer primaries (Olsen 2004) - but the dull yellowish bill is indicative of a 2nd winter.

Next is an adult with pearly grey and white-tipped primaries - with the typical thin black line along the outer edge of P10 - and a blood red bill.

Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013
Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013
There was just one first winter bird (below), still showing juvenile wing coverts and blackish primaries; the mantle and scapulars are nearly all new with just a few remaining juvenile feathers.

Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013
Conditions were somewhat challenging with poor light and, at times, near horizontal rain, even the birds were leaning into the wind to stay grounded.

Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013
Mediterranean Gull - Porthcawl 2/11/2013

I still think of Med Gulls as fairly uncommon. This might be my local bias - in Topsham I see about a hundred Black-headed Gulls to every Med Gull and more than a handful is notable. It's more likely that I'm seriously out of touch - I used to think of the species as a rare breeder in Britain but it seems there are more than 1000 pairs now breeding along the coast from Dorset to Kent (Holling et al 2012). I'm now starting to wonder why I don't see more.

References

Olsen, K.M. & Larsson, H. 2004. Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America. A&C Black.
Holling, M. et al. 2012. Rare Breeding Birds in the United Kingdom 2010. British Birds, 105: 352-416.