St Agnes October 2013

For the third year in a row it was time to head for Scilly for the first two weeks of October. Good birds and great company once again, though the hoped for second wave of migrants never appeared. There's always the Turk's Head, the most southerly and perhaps the best pub in Britain.

The first afternoon we caught up with the Immature Subalpine Warbler, a really interesting bird which threw a few people. A nearby Whitethroat was mistaken for it quite a few times. On the way to see the Subalp we found a Red-breasted Flycatcher at The Fruitcage and later caught up with the sunbathing Barred Warbler near the Church.

The juv Rose-coloured Starling was seen next day and daily thereafter, a very pale individual, missing feathers at the rear of the crown, it headed off to St Mary's for a day or two before returning to its usual spots around St Warna's Cove.

As always the huge numbers of tame Song Thrushes make quite a spectacle, always great to see as are Yellow-browed Warblers and there's usually a few around the island.

This Pied Flycatcher was always around The Parsonage, usually showing well and sometimes in company with a Yellow-browed Warbler.

Kathy missed seeing a Ringed Plover on the first day so when I heard one calling as we crossed the Gugh Bar, I called to her and turned to see it fly over the bay. Unfortunately she was a fraction slow so this turned out to be her first view of the bird.

Two special moths were visible on the school for a couple of days, both huge but the Convulvulous Hawk Moth was definitely eclipsed by the ultra sinister Death's Head Hawk Moth. I was blown away by it.

There were plenty of Wheatears present and Whinchats were regularly seen. We also bumped into a couple of Lesser Whitethroats. All great birds.

It was really nice to catch up with Short-toed Lark in Britain after a long gap, it hung around all trip and was great to see most days.

A Lapland Bunting showed well in the pig field at Castella but the biggie was found in the Marram grass on Gugh though the Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler was never seen very well and not at all by most. It certainly brought the St Mary's hordes - even though the Bar was covered it didn't stop them!

It's in there somewhere - maybe!

And so with a lack of real quality birds things ended with just a new Yellow-browed on the way to the boat (but they're always great). St Agnes will turn up mega birds in future years and hopefully we'll be here meeting up with a whole bunch of good friends and St Agnes regulars.

September Highlights

September 2013 proved to be an exciting month for rarities in Pembs, helped along by an easterly airflow in the second half of the month. Luckily a number of birds were trapped or showed well enough for decent photos to be taken so there's a selection in this roundup. Unfortunately the photos of the Citrine Wagtails at St Davids which kicked things off on the 3rd are appalling,(see post below). However things improved with an adult  Semi-palmated Sandpiper at The Gann the same day, followed by by a juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs found by Glamorgan birder Mike Powell while looking for the Semi-palmated - a familiar scenario.

Semi-palmated Sandpiper
photo R Crossen

Lesser Yellowlegs
photo D Astins

The next two birds also came together in terms of date; Skokholm trapped a typically big looking Barred Warbler on the 8th whilst on Ramsey Lisa Morgan turned up a delightful Western Bonelli's Warbler which remained on the Island the next day. The Red-backed Shrike was on Skokholm on the 11th and Wrynecks totalled about a dozen in the month including the one below at Martin's Haven.

Barred Warbler Skokholm
photo R D Brown

Western Bonell's Warbler Ramsey
photo L Lomax

Wryneck Martin's Haven
photo M Young-Powell

Red-backed Shrike Skokholm
photo M Young-Powell

Ramsey did it again on the 23rd when Greg Morgan found a Booted Warbler, though Skokholm matched them with their own on the 25th trapped by Steve and Tina Westerberg and Rich Brown and then the same island hosted a superb Red-breasted Flycatcher the very next day. Then the same Skokholm team put the ball firmly in the back of the net with a Blyth's Reed Warbler trapped on the 27th to make a pretty impressive three days. Jonathan Bennett picked out a Yellow-browed Warbler on the 28th at Whitesands, hopefully the first of many this autumn!

Booted Warbler Ramsey
photo per G and L Morgan

Booted Warbler Skokholm
photo R D Brown

Red-breasted Flycatcher Skokholm
photo R D Brown

Blyth's Reed Warbler Skokholm
photo R D Brown

Finally Dave Astins discovered this male Isabelline Wheatear on the clifftop at the Deer Park, a lovely pallid visitor from the east to round things up on the final day of a cracking month in Pembs.

Isabelline Wheatear The Deer Park
photo D Astins

And there's still October to come. Can't wait!

Citrine Wagtails

After a number of brief encounters with a Wryneck on the Butterfly Bank above the Youth Hostel, I headed for the Lleithyr horse field where there had been a Yellow Wagtail with 6-10 Pieds on a couple of days previously. I was glad to see a couple of Pieds but then did a double take. All of a sudden they looked more like Yellow Wagtails with no gorgets; looking smaller and neater than Pieds but completely lacking any brown in the upperparts which were clear grey with a blackish, relatively short, tail. Clean white underparts completely lacked any yellow including on the undertail coverts. I took a few distant photos (85 metres away) with a compact zoom camera and set off to get nearer. However as I turned to take the path along the hedge, the birds flew up and over my head calling at least 5 or 6 times. The call was very distinctive, an explosive 'tshrreeep', completely unlike 'Alba' wagtails and also very different to normal Yellow Wagtails. It was similar to the call made by the Black-headed Wagtail at Marloes Mere in the spring but perhaps more emphatic and richer. I've not heard Citrine Wagtail for years but it sounded as I remember. In flight the birds were relatively short-tailed and quite full in the body.

On the deck I was struck by the clear white, grey and black plumage tones. The wing-bars were strong and clear white, standing out very obviously. The head pattern was difficult to see in detail at such a distance, however the Supercilium stood out very prominently and the lores gave an impression of lightness but it was difficult to be precise and the pale 'wraparound' to the ear coverts could not be seen - it was just too far away though can it be seen on a photo?

The plumage and call clearly rule out 'Alba' and 'normal' Yellow Wagtails. However the problem of eastern Yellow Wagtails which can apparently, in extreme cases, lack yellow tones and have a similar call to Citrine is more of a challenge. I would expect these birds to have a less distinct head pattern though, including a narrower supercilium, not showing such overall contrast as these birds.

In context, I would think that the number of Citrine Wagtails in the country recently would be an argument in favour of Citrine, the likelihood of two striking Eastern Yellows together, on the west coast, on such an early date must be pretty distant I would imagine. Eastern Yellows are usually late-autumn migrants. The pictures below are terrible I know but they give a little feel for the birds.

Pallid Swifts at Huescar

The highlight of Huescar market day is watching the Pallid Swifts flying around the Square next to the Bull Ring. I tried to get some photos but it turned out to be a nightmare task. The best of the bunch are not very good but allowed me to spend time familiarising myself with this enigmatic species.

Cetacean Quiz

The 20th July saw Kathy and I aboard the 'Cap Finistere' ferry heading for Santander and with most of the day in Biscay looking for birds and cetaceans. Not a sausage birdwise. However 8 species of cetaceans more than made up for the lack. Photography was challenging so only record shots of Common, Striped and Risso's Dolphins as well as 2 each of Long-finned Pilot Whale, Northern Bottlenose Whale, Fin Whale and Cuvier's Beaked Whale. (We also saw but were unable to get any shots of Bottlenose Dolphins.) The photos are below, I'll add captions at a later date. The underwater Dolphin is on its side, a typical piece of behaviour for this species, along with mad back flips and lots of splashing. This helps id. The breaching Whale is also demonstrating typical behaviour for this species. Good luck.

Male Cuvier's Beaked Whale

Cuvier's Beaked Whale breaching

Fin Whale

Striped Dolphin

Risso's Dolphin

Fin Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale 

Common Dolphin

Northern Bottlenose Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale



Northern Bottlenose Whale

Spring Slavonian Grebe at Newport

Not St Davids Head for a change (deadly quiet this morning) but a quick twitch up the road to Trefdraeth for the Slavonian Grebe reported in the channel near the Yacht Club. I was actually amazed to find it so easily and it being so confiding. I sent a message to Steve Berry to get along to see it as he was working nearby and he heard it calling too. A check for previous Spring records ends this post and some of the photos I took are below:

 

 

Slavonian Grebes are normally scarce winter visitors to Pembrokeshire; mainly in coastal waters, there are few inland reports. There have only been two non-winter records previously: in 1986 two lingered at The Gann until May 10th and attained Summer Plumage, in 1974 a bird was on The Pembroke River on July 30th. This individual at Newport is a very unusual as well as very beautiful bird.

Yellow Wagtail races in Pembrokeshire

Llanferran Pool at St Davids is a shallow scrape I check out daily, always hoping an interesting wader will turn up - it hasn't yet but four or five Garganeys were a good find for someone while I was away in Spain in early April. On May 7th though, a really handsome male Blue-headed Wagtail was feeding around the Pool and I managed a few record shots, before it flew off to the south.

This individual was the fourth record for this Spring, and amazingly these are the first spring records since 2000 - there have only been 4 autumn records in addition, since 2000. There were no records of the other races this century until the superb male Black-headed Wagtail found by a visitor to the County at Marloes Mere on 12th May 2013.

Since initially completing this post, amazingly (in cold westerlies) a second Black-headed Wagtail has been found in Pembs, by a visiting birder at Marloes Mere. It was a stunning, bright male, the 19th for Britain and Pembs' second. Kathy and I heard it call as it flew a short distance, giving a rolling 'zrrreep' call, quite unlike flavissima. The Spring of 2013 is becoming a magic one for Yellow Wags. A few of record shots here:

Black-headed Wagtail
 Marloes Mere 12th May 2013

The Bigger Picture in Pembs

Our British version of the Yellow Wagtail complex, 'M.f. flavissima' is a pretty uncommon passage bird in Pembs, 10 together, in autumn, is about as good as it gets and some years are pretty barren. It seems that until the mid 1990's, Blue-headed Wagtail 'M.f. flava' was much more regular than it has become. The other regular visitor to Britain, Grey -headed Wagtail 'M.f. thunbergi' has been recorded 9 times, with the last at Flimstone on 30th May 1986.

Of the races, considered genuine rarities, a Spanish Yellow Wagtail 'M.f.iberiae' was reported on Skokholm 19th April 1989 but this race is, as yet, not on the British list so I guess it doesn't count. The genuine records are:

Ashy-headed Wagtail 'M.f. cinereocapilla' Skokholm 17th-20th May 1992 
Black-headed Wagtail 'M.f. feldegg' Skomer 7th May 1986
Black-headed Wagtail 'M.f. feldeg' Marloes Mere 12th-13th May 2013.

Records of Blue-headed Wagtail in Pembs since 2000

Skomer and The Deer Park 29th April 2000
Skokholm 4th September and 2 Skokholm 24th September 2000
Skokholm 9th-12th September 2003
St Anne's Hd 19th April 2013 (SS)
Marloes Mere 21st April (DA) and Marloes Mere 30th April 2013 (DG,BS)
Llanferran Pool St Davids 7th May 2013 (MYP)