Nelson's Gulls in Pembrokeshire

Nelson's Gull was first described by H W Henshawe in 1884 and named after the Alaskan ornithologist Mr E W Nelson, who collected the first specimen. Nelson's Gull was first considered a separate species but is now universally agreed to be a hybrid of Glaucous x Herring Gull. It is the commonest hybrid gull on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA so it should be no surprise that it turns up in Pembrokeshire. It is surprising that so few have been recorded, the only candidate before this year being a bird seen at The Gann by Graham Rees in 1984.

With a fine run of 'White-winged Gulls' in Pembs this winter, including no less than five Kumlien's Gulls, it was no surprise that Nelson's Gull has also been recorded. The first, a 2nd or 3rd calendar year bird was found by James Garside in horse paddocks at Simpson's Cross on the 23rd January. This was a big bird, very like Glaucous Gull in size, with a bill approaching adult in pattern, dark eye and with clear buff grey-brown primaries. The bird had a feel of Glaucous about it in bulk and overall plumage tones. It seems most likely a 1st winter but it's possible that the flight photo shows some pale 2nd winter feathering in the wing coverts.

All photos James Garside

I found the second bird at Newgale (of course) on January 27th and quick flight views suggested an immature Glaucous Gull until the dusky primaries became apparent. The bird was very pale, certainly as pale as a young Glaucous Gull. Then as I got better views and some half-decent photos so the extent of dark markings in wings and tail became apparent. The dusky primaries, secondary bar and tail band all suggest Herring Gull whereas the bill, with pink base and 'dipped-in-ink' black tip, overall pale tones and size suggested Glaucous Gull.

The question has to be asked about the possibility of leucism but this seems unlikely. The primaries and secondaries and tail would be creamy I suggest, the bird is too contrastingly pale and dark. The same for the Simpson's Cross bird to a lesser extent. The rather 'patchy' appearance suggests a 3rd calendar year bird, the back seems to be mixed with paler, adult feathering. This also seems to be a Glaucous feature since the darker grey of Herring would be easier to distinguish than it is here. The bird seems to be well beyond the range of a pale Herring Gull. Photos here:

All photos Mike Young-Powell

The third bird of this exceptional period was found by Clive Hurford at Freshwater West on 28th of January. Clearly a second calendar year bird and a bulky beast! showing the typical Glaucous bill. Dave Astins noted the dark overall appearance, especially the underparts, head tail and rump and suggested a strong American Herring Gull influence. It seems pretty certain to me that he's right and given the statement I made earlier about Nelson's being the commonest hybrid gull on the east coast of America and the appearance of all three birds at a time when five Kumlien's Gulls have been seen in the County, it may well be that all three birds are Glaucous x American Herring crosses, just with different combinations of genes and (at least for the Newgale bird) a different age. It's been an exciting time for Gulls hereabouts just lately. The Freshwater West bird here:

All photos Clive Hurford

Scandinavian Rock Pipit at Fishguard

Went for a walk on the Outer Breakwater at Fishguard Harbour today, organised by the Trust and led by John Steer. We couldn't find any Snow Buntings but a reasonably close Great Northern Diver was good value along with 8 Purple Sandpipers. There were 3 or 4 Rock Pipits, one of which was noticeably pale in flight with apparently clean white outer tail feathers. I managed to get a few poor pictures of the bird and came to the conclusion it was a Scandinavian Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus littoralis). The others were pretty much bog standard British petrosus.

• The flight views were interesting and once seen on the deck, the clean ground-colour of the underparts was still clearly seen and the white outer tail (T6 basically white though maybe not on the basal inner web and maybe a touch of white on the tip of T5 but hard to be sure). 
• The underpart streaking was diffuse as for Rock Pipit but confined to the breast and rear flanks and appearing (at least relatively) neat against the pale ground. 
• The eye-ring and supercilium were strong, whitish, though affected by angle of view and posture. 
• There were markedly strong pale fringes to the great and median coverts, appearing as strong whitish wing-bars.
• The upperparts appeared brownish, particularly on the flight feathers with a slightly greyer tone to rump, back and mantle, the latter diffusely streaked darker. The contrast depending again on light and posture.
• The bill was quite strong with a noticeably yellow base (particularly lower mandible) and blackish tip.
• The legs were somewhat variable but most often appeared a rather soft pale pink.
• The call was as for Rock Pipit.

In certain circumstances of light etc the bird could appear more like spinoletta than petrosus. Pictures here:

Newgale Gulls

As a result of the extraordinary series of storms which powered their way across the Atlantic in late December and early January, the shingle bank at Newgale was breached and the marsh flooded. The road was closed by piles of shingle and the Duke of Edinburgh Pub became a temporary island. The flooded marsh, for a period, held an amazing amount of water and huge numbers of Gulls bathed and roosted there.

The Marsh and The Duke of Edinburgh

It later became apparent that the gulls were being drawn by the quantities of shellfish and worms scoured from the seabed and deposited on the beach.

The first rare gull was found by Dave Astins on 31st December - a juvenile Glaucous Gull which was roosting on the marsh

Photo D J Astins

and this was soon followed by this near adult (buff markings to coverts/scapulars) picked up, once again, on the Marsh by Clive Hurford the next day

Photo M Young-Powell

.

I picked up this next bird on the 8th while looking over the Marsh, sheltered from the howling gale beside MM Carter's Hardware shop. Though this photo of the juvenile Kumlien's Gull was taken the next day by Bob Haycock, feeding at the North end of the beach. A regular gathering place at the mouth of the Brandy Brook.

Photo B Haycock

A dark bird, consistently in the third quarter of the Hampton Scale and consequently close to Thayer's Gull. 

I counted 18 Mediterranean Gulls on the Marsh one time but I'm sure there were many more. An adult and second winter here.

Photo M Young-Powell

The 10th January was the hightlight of this period to my mind, with lots of gulls on the Marsh and at the North end again but even more in huge groups all along the beach. The near adult and juvenile Glaucous Gull was joined by a second juvenile. 

Photo M Young-Powell

Dave Astins and I had a great morning, Dave picking out this juvenile Iceland Gull which provided a nice pallid contrast to the juvenile Kumlien's. The hybrid Mediterranean Gull x Black-headed Gull first seen yesterday is in front.

Photo B Southern

Later in the afternoon Mushaq Ahmad joined us and he picked up a new Kumlien's Gull, this time a smart adult which showed next day also at the North end of the beach.

Photo M Young-Powell

Photo D J Astins

The numbers of gulls had dropped dramatically on the 11th with good weather and even more so the next day but still Arfon Williams managed to find a second winter Ring-billed Gull. Hard to be certain but maybe drawing the curtain down on quite a drama.

Siberian Chiffchaffs revisited

The Siberian Chiffchaffs (3?) at Monk Haven noted in my previous post have proved to be good value through the New Year period. I revisited Martin Garner's excellent papers on Siberian Chiffchaffs last night and read through the associated comments and discussion. I noticed that one bird, thought to be tristis was played a tristis song recording to attempt to get a response. Dave Astins and I had tried playing the call at Monk Haven but no response but why not try the song? Therefore, today, Kathy and I visited the sight and played tristis song from just outside the main gates of the WWTW. Within 30 seconds two Siberian Chiffchaffs - see photos in previous post - came visiting. They landed in the tall bush next to us, shivering wings a bit and cocking heads to listen. They were clearly drawn by the song, listening and reacting but not calling unfortunately. This was, however, an extraordinarily clear and strong response.

To put the scene into context: the Chiffchaffs at the site (all races) have been feeding on and around the double filter bed. They stray into a thick scrubby area behind the far fence occasionally but I have never seen any of them more than about 5 metres from the filter bed since my first visit with Dave Astins on 28th December. In order to reach the unremarkable area near the gate, the two Sibes today flew 50 metres across a clear, lawned area with no cover whatsoever. None of the collybita types showed the least bit of interest. This, to me, is pretty good evidence regarding the provenance of these birds. Love 'em.

A couple more photos:

Siberian Chiffchaffs at Monk Haven

Monk Haven is a favourite site, a secluded valley with a Waste water treatment works at its head, an excellent churchyard and garden to the manor, a boggy pool and shingle beach looking out into Milford Haven. It's great for wintering Chiffchaffs and Firecrests and would probably turn up autumn goodies but no-one really looks.

Dave Astins and I visited on the afternoon of the 28th and wandered up to the Water works as a start. We got no further though because the place was leaping with Chiffchaffs including some notably pale birds. I still don't know how many there are - at least 9 collybita and 3 tristis but maybe more it's hard to keep up with them as they are always very active and there's lots of good habitat

It's difficult to distinguish the different individuals as they move about such a lot and they change appearance due to the light conditions and their angle and posture. Martin Garner's post re Siberian Chiffchaffs on 'Birding Frontiers' is a must for any discussion of the different effects on plumage tones, he calls it 'morphing' which is a great description. One of the birds at Monk Haven has very contrasty tertials - broad pale edges and strong dark centres. There are always collybita birds for comparison.

The following features pretty much describe the Monk Haven birds:

• The head, mantle and back are brown-grey (re caveats on 'morphing' plumage tones), sometimes very pale-looking but sometimes 'milky-tea' colour or browner; completely lacking any yellow or green tones. 
• The underparts are noticeably pale in all lights again lacking any yellow tones, including in the undertail coverts.
• The supercilium is strong, distinct and whitish, tinged with buff-rust, particularly from the eye to the rear. Whitest at the lores.
• The ear-coverts are warmer tinged, a 'tobacco-stain' colour, weaker or stronger depending on posture.
• There is a thin clear white fairly complete eye-ring.
• There is sometimes some yellow-green tones apparent in the flight feathers and at the bend of the wing. 
• The great coverts are tipped paler, giving a faint but, at times, clear wing-bar.
• The bill is black with sometimes a pale reflective effect on the mandible edges. There is a paler base (grey) to the lower mandible in at least one individual.
• The legs are blackish with sometimes a paler reflective effect especially at the 'ankle' area which seems to be caused by the edges of the large scales. 

Same bird as photo above, note ear-coverts

grey looking at this angle

fairly obvious wing-bar

The Orphean Warbler Story

photo Dave Astins

Just when you think the Autumn is winding down along comes something very very special and its turmoil (but good turmoil). The narrative begins on Sunday 10th November when local stalwarts Peter and Rosemary Royle posted on the Pembs Blog that they had seen a Lesser Whitethroat in their now famous garden at St Brides. Being mindful of the possibility of an eastern bird (halmondieri/blythi?) so late in the year, I emailed them asking them, if possible, to photograph the bird. The bird hung on and Peter eventually managed some really good quality shots which were posted on the Pembs Blog late morning on the following Thursday. 

I was preparing food, early evening when I checked the Blog an homed in on the photos. There followed a sense of confusion more than anything. I knew from ringing days that the complete white ring around the iris wasn't right for Lesser Whitethroat and that bill! What a stonker! Realising, with a start, that it wasn't a Lesser Whitethroat, I dived for 'Svensson', and anything else on the shelves in a bit of a panicky, headless chicken sort of way (allowing the food to almost burn and so annoying Kathy in the process). I was trying to keep logical and be thorough but Orphean Warbler just kept orbitting round an round in my head, it just seemed to be ticking the boxes.

photo Peter Royle

Kathy made me take a break and eat, and I also checked emails. There was one from Robin Hemming referring to the photos and suggesting I checked them out since the eye wasn't right unless it was a photographic effect. Funny enough this gave me loads of confidence. I wasn't going mad if someone else had noticed something wrong. I emailed local birders Dave Astins and Paul Grennard drawing attention to the photos and laying out my suspicions that it was an Orphean and was steeling myself to email the Royles and Blog the bird  (thinking all the time of the consequences of getting it wrong) when the phone went. It was Rich Brown, Warden of Skokholm and all round good bloke. I just knew what he was going to say and blurted out something like 'It's the eye and the bill isn't it? etc etc in a bit of a gabble. As the conversation became a little more coherent he added in the primary projection and mentioned the race (soon to be species?) thinking Eastern could be possible, though the consensus has swung towards Western as I write this account. The upshot was that it had to be Orphean and I put it out on the Pembrokeshire Blog as such, knowing that in minutes it would be picked up nationally. It was a huge call but it was done with a cool mind now. Rich phoned at 7:09 the news went out at 7:16 and the rest is a bit of a blur.

photo Dave Astins

 The Royles have been brilliant, allowing birders access to their garden and virtually everyone who wanted to see the bird has done so. It's been stressful but also very very enjoyable.

Another Woodlark

Almost a year after the last one (which was at Heathfield GP on 27th October last year) another one! This time a flyover at St David's Head today, the 24th October. It's been a great morning's birding with a lot of vis mig, the usual Chaffinches and Starlings but also more Skylarks than normal (160 in a couple of hours mainly). I was counting them as accurately as possible and having to pick out Skylarks from amongst groups of Chaffinches, so my eye was well in. Then a familiar and attractive call off to the seaward side of me as I started down into Porthmelgan Valley. Immediately it was apparent it was a Woodlark and the the hyper-distinctive call, given repeatedly, was supplemented by the distinctive fluttery flight and short-tailed silhouette just round things off. I watched it for a short while as it flew south-east and into the low sun. A brief but brilliant experience on a really enjoyable morning.

A note on bird calls and geography.

When in the Pub on St Agnes recently, I noticed 'tirillee-eep' written on a page of my notebook - just that, nothing else and I recalled that I had written it down a moment after I heard the bird at Heathfield GP last year. However with the St Davids bird, and I'm writing this just hours later, the call is clearly fixed in my head as a softer 'toolloolee'. I know that transcribing bird calls is notoriously difficult and calls can vary slightly but I think there may also be a geographical reason for the difference.

It was the same call with the same syllables but I felt the bird today sounded slightly softer in tone. I think the reason is that the wide open spaces on the headland soften and dissipate some of the clarity of the call, whereas at Heathfield (a more enclosed inland site) the acoustics differ and the call seems a little clearer and sharper. The same thing seems to happen with Grey Wagtails, to give another example, the familiar piercing call, here around the garden can seem momentarily unfamiliar, more diffuse, when heard on a bird over-flying the open geography of The Head. Its something I think I need to check out more in future to see if it holds true.