Not so rosy

Had a quick check for ringed gulls at Alnwickhill this morning. Instead saw this unfortunate Black-headed Gull on one of the walls. It is not uncommon, of course, for gulls to have damaged legs or missing feet - injury due to predation or accident possibly.

Note the evidence in the photograph above of the Canada Geese that have taken up residence at the water works for the last week or so. Pic below from last weekend.

Most unusual sight today was a rose-flushed Common Gull. Too distant to make out any colour difference with the SLR, but clearly nicely pink through the scope. First one seen since last winter's bird, and it looked oddly apricot in the photographs - see here and here. Maybe I'll get a shot of it tomorrow. This pink flush is common in some gulls, but apparently relatively rare in Common Gull.

Edit 31/1/12: Just found this picture of a rosy Common Gull on a Norwegian blog: http://oslobirder.blogspot.com/2012/01/finallymed-gull.html

Interesting grey goose at Musselburgh?

Well everyone is up to it this winter - reporting interesting grey geese in Lothian and elsewhere on the east coast. There seem to be Tundra and Taiga Bean Geese, European and Greenland Whitefronts all over the place. It seems that any decent flock of Pink-footed Geese is likely to hold a few of these other species at the moment. Me - well I have been having trouble finding any Pink-feet on the deck - plenty of skeins knocking about but no feeding flock in scope range. Instead I'll have to content myself with this 'interesting grey goose' at Musselburgh on Sunday - an ever-so-slightly leucistic Canada Goose. Does that count?

Gorgeous Geese

I realise that this is really letting the side down, but I'm a birder based in Scotland and have never really got into wild goose watching. I have tried. I have sat on the bench at Aberlady at both dawn and dusk to watch the departure and arrival of the Pink-footed Geese. I have watched White-fonts and Barnacles, Brents and Beans. Two years ago to the day I spent a week on Islay with the family hoping that the magic of the barnies would enthuse not only me, but also G and the kids. Well it didn't really work out that way, so I just had to make do with ticking this cracking Cackling Goose in amongst the Barnacle Geese instead (on the assumption it is a genuine trans-Atlantic vagrant)...

On the other hand, I do quite like grilling the feral flocks of geese that are knocking around Edinburgh, checking for oddities. This week I bumped into this odd rufous-tinged Canada Goose.


I had already seen pictures of this bird on Stephen W's blog so was not too surprised to find it at Musselburgh. The unusual coloration of this bird could be the result of staining or some genetic variant. Personally, I was hoping this bird would match some of the interior forms of Canada Goose, such as Todd's, but having had a good trawl of the net I realise that this is not the case. Instead I am now swayed towards Stephen's original diagnosis, which is that the bird is showing staining. This red-brown iron oxide staining is well-known and fairly common in some forms of waterfowl such as swans and snow geese, but is apparently uncommon in Canada Geese - certainly I cannot find any individual with as extensive staining as this bird. Here is an example showing limited staining of the cheek patch, for example.

The earliest reference to an analysis of this staining dates back to 1918 (Ferruginous stains on waterfowl by Frederic Kennard Auk Vol. 35, No. 2). This study, by Kennard, concluded that red-brown staining in wildfowl was the result of iron oxide deposition on the feather surface as a result of digging for food among mud and decayed vegetation. It also noted that Canada Geese were much less likely to be stained than Snow Geese due to their differing feeding habits. (Interestingly, this Canada Goose was the only one observed feeding in amongst the Pink-feet by Stephen...) More recently the staining in Snow Geese has been shown to correlate with summer breeding and feeding origin. If this Canada is showing staining, then I wonder what its summer home is - maybe somewhere up the River Esk, which is pretty rich in iron oxide in places.


There were three other oddities in the flock at Musselburgh - Greylag x Canada Goose hybrids. I managed pictures of two of these. The left hand bird in each photo - but what a rogues gallery these pics are - hybrid geese, feral geese, herring gull, feral pigeon - surely no-one is still reading! See also Stephen W's hybrid geese.

Finally, a real wild goose. A Pink-footed Goose photographed this morning at Musselburgh. Standing on its own at the breakwater, it looked lost and out of place. Some Carrion Crows seemed to think the same, and were giving it occasional tweaks to see if it could become an easy meal. Note that one of the crows had highly leucistic or depigmented wings - how refreshing after all those geese!

Male Grey-headed Wagtail at Whitesands

A sprinkling of goodies from the Northern Isles to Northumberland yesterday had me itching to get to the coast so I set my alarm and was up and out early. Whitesands Bay was my first stop and after checking the triangle and bushes down towards Vaults without success I decided to head towards Barns Ness. I hadn't got very far when on a whim I decided to pull over and check the Bay. As I got out of the car a neon bird caught my eye close by on the close cropped turf path running through the marram grass - a cracking male Grey-headed Wagtail (thunbergi) only 10 metres away. We both froze and I slowly tried to extricate my camera from my shoulder bag. That was enough for it and it flew towards the parking area giving the typical flava-like call.

Before I could relocate the bird it was in flight again and moving towards the beach. It fed along the upper shore for 20 minutes or so before being disturbed by a dog walker and heading for the golf course. Hopefully it will hang around longer for someone to get some better pictures than I managed! Its active feeding behaviour made phonescoping difficult and after the initial sighting its range was a little to great for the SLR. Through the scope the grey cap, darker ear coverts, lack of pale supercilium and bright yellow extending from chin to vent made this a very smart looking bird - features sadly not abundantly clear here...

Also in the bay this flock of 43 Canada Geese - could they be on their way north to moult already?

 

Northern Marsh Orchid

Canada Goose x Greylag hybrid

Saw this hybrid Canada Goose x Greylag Goose at Dunsapie Loch today so I thought I would post the photos here. Looks similar, but maybe not identical, to a bird seen recently by SW (see Sedge Warbler blog). It seemed to be part of a definite pair with the Canada Goose in the picture, so maybe there will be some even odder-looking birds around next year. I suppose that could depend on how fertile this interspecific individual is...

"Imagine that, that bird's parents were two different species", I said to my youngest. In return I received a pitying look that said "I know the feeling..."

Angel wings

I put the wrong yeast in the bread-machine the other day. Well, I'll take the loaf to Duddingston Loch after the school run as a treat for the ducks. "Don't kill one with that thing", I was advised. Fair enough since the loaf was like a brick.

The Canada Geese at the Loch seemed particularly appreciative and given that it has been a tough winter I didn't mind feeding these friendly brutes rather than saving morsels for other birds. A little too close for the lens perhaps, but I still get a kick from getting views of any birds like this.

Even feral geese...









One of the Canada Geese kept a little further away. It was suffering from angel wings - a distinctive developmental problem where one, or in this case, both wings are twisted and protrude from the bird sideways. I felt a little sorry for this one, but it did not seem to be particularly interested in my offerings. Nevertheless, look on the bright side, I thought, the condition provides a good view of the black tail, white uppertail coverts and black rump which are normally concealed from view...

It turns out that, while this developmental condition is not well understood, it is not necessarily thought to be genetic. Instead, it is hypothesised that it is a condition brought about by an inappropriate diet - a diet excessively rich in protein. Angel wings occurs in populations of wildfowl that are fed by humans and it is suggested that excess protein in the food provided by humans causes excessively fast wing feather growth in young birds. This increased feather bulk and mass causes the young developing wing-tip to twist at the carpo-metacarpal joint and the wing then develops in an inappropriate position.

Looks like this bird was right not to take my bread after all.