White-winged gulls in Orkney and Edinburgh, May 2013

Some great gulling last month with three different white-wingers...

Adult summer Glaucous Gull (on right), Egilsay, 16 May 2013 (with 3cy Herring Gull)

Third calendar year Iceland Gull (on right), Westray, 22 May 2013 (with adult Great Black-backed Gull, Hooded Crow and adult Herring Gull)

Adult type feathers in the back of this 3CY Iceland Gull more obvious in this shot

Isabel dilution mutant Herring Gull (centre), Seafield, Edinburgh, 29 May 2013 (with Herring Gulls)

Foot It in Edinburgh: 76 miles without a Collared Dove

Hit the 100% mark on Saturday during a 14-miler. Started at around 8:00 am - nice and calm with fresh snow underfoot. One of the hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crows from last weekend was on the same rooftop so I fired off some better record shots. As I did so a passerine flew over silently - almost certainly a Meadow Pipit - galling that it wasn't calling as it would have been a Foot It tick...

The now customary hybrid along with a more regular Carrion Crow

All I could think was "flush a Bittern"! One of 3 Fox sightings on Saturday.

Into Craiglockhart Castle Park for nice views of Great Spotted Woodpecker and Kestrel, and then on to Duddingston where I tried in vain to will a Bittern to emerge from the reedbed. Only ever seen 2 here but... A Fox trotting along the edge of the ice and as it could do no better than me I decided to head around to view the open water. A single Pink-footed Goose in amongst the Greylags was unexpected - nice close views, so presumably feral, but could just be lost and disorientated and tagging along with the Greylags?

Pink-footed Goose on Duddingston Loch - feral or wild?

My first Foot It tick of the day - a GBBG in the middle of the ice

Scanning the gulls on the frozen loch I noted a single Great Black-backed Gull (species 72 after my mid-week Little Grebe). After drawing a blank on this species until now, I ended up with 3 sightings before the end of the weekend. As I was watching the gull some calls overhead revealed 2 Skylark heading towards the coast. Soon after 2 Meadow Pipits (73) passed over calling making up for the earlier dip. Satisfied that two glaring holes in my list had been plugged, I decided to go and twitch something unexpected and headed up Arthur's Seat to look for the Snow Buntings that had been reported earlier in the week. After an hour or so combing the various tops I conceded defeat and headed to check the wildfowl on St Margaret's Loch. Nothing new to add here but an impressive concentration of hungry birds and a few handfuls of birdseed were soon hoovered up.

Hungry Mute Swans on St Margaret's Loch

Heading for the Figgy I bumped into yet another hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow, my sixth while Footing It and my ninth different bird in Edinburgh this winter. There are obviously a few around...

My sixth different hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow whilst Footing It - this one at Mount Castle

At Figgate Park I was glad to see that my two target species were still on the pond and so Gadwall (74) and Shoveler (75) brought me up to 100% of my target. That said, I have walked a bit further than I initially planned to and roamed a little further afield so maybe my target of 75 was too low. In fact, there are three species that I have yet to see on my initial list (Collared Dove, Tawny Owl, Lesser Redpoll). Yes you read that right - 76 miles without a Collared Dove!

One of four Gadwall on Figgate Pond

 I know of three other species that have been reported in the area so far during the month (Crossbill, Fulmar, Snow Bunting). In addition, the following are possible, though unlikely perhaps: Grey Partridge, Bittern, Mediterranean Gull, Long-eared Owl, Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Mealy Redpoll. With one weekend remaining I don't see myself adding much more than Tawny Owl and Lesser Redpoll, but who knows?...

I hit 100% of 75 species with this handsome drake Shoveler

Great Black-backed Gull mobbing White-tailed Eagle

I have posted an aerial shot on this theme previously, taken in Harris in 2011, so I thought I would add a North Uist shot from 2012. Spectacular stuff, even when watched from a distance.

Argentatus Herring Gulls at Alnwickhill

It has all been happening at Alnwickhill over the festive period. The lack of workmen on site has tempted back a flock of 90 Lapwing along with a variety of wildfowl including Canada Geese, Mute Swans and 7 Goosander. After a couple of days of gales, when the best I could manage was a colour-ringed Herring Gull (green-white-green on right leg - maybe from a Glasgow project?), today's calm conditions brought the gulls down in droves to bathe. A very brief visit this morning gave views of a 2CY Common Gull with dark markings on the tail and tertials - an uncommon plumage type that I don't think I have seen before.

This afternoon I had a little more time and was treated to squadrons of Herring Gulls dropping in to bathe in the nearest pool - not something they do very often and I think it is possibly related to wind direction. In amongst these I managed to pick out a couple of individuals showing the thayeri pattern on P9 as well as a couple of darker individuals with much white in the primaries - presumably northern argentatus Herring Gulls. In addition there were plenty of Common Gulls and Black-headed Gulls, as well as single Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Biggest puzzler was the following bird which resembled a hybrid Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed Gull but on reflection must be a subadult northern argentatus Herring Gull. One difficulty with its identification is that these northern Herring Gulls normally have a restricted amount of black in the primaries but this bird has black markings extending to P5. Of course this may be normal for birds of this age. It may, of course, be a darker than normal southern argentatus.

Obviously it is the upper bird in the first photo, which shows a pale mantled argenteus Herring Gull in front. The second picture shows the spread wingtip pattern.

The underwing can be seen in the shot below and this is followed by another shot of the bird on the water bathing with a Herring Gull.

Finally, some shots of the bird perched with argenteus Herring Gulls. Notice that the contrast between them and the argentatus appears less. In the last shot the difference between the two gulls does seem to be appropriate for northern argentatus and local argenteus.

Thanks to feedback from Stephen W and Andy (tittletattler) on BirdForum on this bird.

Here are some other pictures taken at Alnwickhill today:

Lesser Black-backed Gull (note the Black-headed Gull advancing into breeding plumage in the foreground - not the full hood it looks like from this angle but half-way there)

adult northern argentatus Herring Gull (much white on wingtips and darker upper parts than bird to its right)









thayeri-pattern Herring Gulls - two different individuals both with thayeri pattern on P9 (not quite visible in upperwing shot)

Lapwing

 Goosander (left of centre) and preening Great Black-backed Gull (far right, honest!)

 Grey Heron, Mute Swans and Canada Geese

Not a bad haul for Alnwickhill!

Injured gulls at Alnwickhill

As I was passing I peered over the wall at Alnwickhill today to see my first colour-ringed gull at the site since the probable Norwegian Common Gull in January. Ring reading is not easy at this site due to the distance to the birds, but with a scope today's orange-ringed Herring Gull would have been straightforward. Unfortunately the scope was at home as this wasn't really a birding trip. I did have the SLR with me so managed a couple of record shots. As I was doing this I could see that the bird was limping and it looked as though the colour ring might be linked to the limp. Looking at the photos now I see that the colour ring has slipped down around the foot and was compressing the toes and preventing them from being splayed open in a normal standing position. Of course, without a closer examination it is not possible to tell whether the ring is causing the problem or whether some underlying anatomical problem has allowed the ring to move into this position.

Either way, and in order to salvage some benefit from this unpleasant observation, I was keen to read the ring combination I dashed home for the scope. Alas, although all other birds appeared to be loafing in the same positions, my quarry had moved. Any hope of relocating it was removed by a kerbside recycling vehicle taking a nearby speed bump at some velocity. The combined crescendo of several tonnes of broken glass and metal being shaken and stirred was enough to cause the entire flock of 200 gulls to flee. Last to move was the Great Black-backed Gull which has been loafing at the site for the last week. As it flew I was given a clue as to why it is hanging around here rather than down at the coast - most of the primaries on its left wingtip have been reduced to broken stumps. (How I hadn't noticed this before is a mystery - maybe it was previously only showing its good side?) Hopefully it will be able to regrow them rapidly, though I am wondering how effective its foraging will be as its flight seemed a little laboured. Certainly it was the first gull to return after the disturbance, which is not what I would expect from a healthy GBBG.

White-tailed Eagle flight shots

Regular readers of this blog (Hi, Mum, Stephen and Joseph!) will realise that I am particularly keen on raptors, so the recent trip to the Outer Hebrides had me twitching with excitement at the prospect of lots of sightings of all things hooky-beaked.

As we headed off along the Edinburgh bypass I was already over-enthusiastically pointing out Common Buzzards to the family. "You know, I have seen quite a few Buzzards already", was G's response. Fair enough, since they do pass over the garden every day, and I do have a slight tendency to point them out every single time... even when they are pretty high up...

"Yeah, well I just thought it would be a good idea to give you all a quick Buzzard refresher course since we are going to see lots of Eagles in the Outer Hebrides", I added, lamely trying to think up some logical explanation for my involuntary birder outbursts.

A few minutes later, it was G who broke the silence. "Well that one looks pretty big!" I had also seen it and was driving in a more slack-jawed manner, staring disbelievingly upwards through the windscreen. "It's an Eagle! An immature White-tailed Eagle!" We were barely off the ring-road and heading up the M9, but here above the motorway was one of the birds that we were traveling hundreds of miles to see. I craned my neck and then fleetingly made use of the glass roof - one of the reasons I bought the car was the idea that nice big birds up above would be visible. "Have you seen it?", I asked the kids. "Yes", they chorused, somehow managing to look up and keep Mario on track on their Nintendos.

Wow! Of course, it will be an individual from the wave of recent releases for the East coast reintroduction scheme... (not sure it would have been possible to see any wing-tags under the circumstances). Actually I don't think that matters much because it was really cool!

Here are a few shots, not of the Lothian bird, which funnily enough I did not photograph, but of birds seen in the Outer Hebrides as intended. First some shots of an adult, accompanied by some very irritated Shelduck.

Here are some shots of an immature - it has more bulging secondary feathers and a longer darker tail than the adult. Hopefully these shots get across some of the colossal feeling of this species.

Finally, to give a slightly better idea of scale, here is this immature White-tailed Eagle being mobbed by a Great Black-backed Gull.

 

Great Black-backed Gulls

A small selection of photos of Great Black-backed Gulls taken in September 2010 off Newcastle on a pelagic trip with Martin Kitching's Northern Experience. Impressive birds, always keeping close attendance on the lookout for discarded fish.