Harried Harris Hawk

Carrion Crows and CarrionxHooded hybrids hassling the Harris Hawk

A couple of brief trips to Seafield so far this weekend have produced a couple of interesting sightings. Yesterday an adult Mediterranean Gull was offshore with the Common Gulls at the outfall. Only a brief and distant sighting sadly. Today's unexpected bird was another view of the falconer's Harris Hawk on top of one of the buildings. The gulls seemed to be slightly worried. The corvids on the other hand were flocking in droves to get a good look at this tropical species.

CarrionxHooded Crow hybrid showing off its giveaway darker scapular and vent feathering. Taken on the 4 Nov - which clearly was a sunny day!

There were a couple of regular hybrid crows joining in this attempt at mass bullying. Earlier I had seen what could have been a pure hoodie over Duddingston but of course it is far more likely to have been a hybrid. Here is a nearly-pure Hooded Crow hybrid on Seafield shore earlier in the month.

Hybrid Crow at North Bull, Dublin

Hybrid crow on right with a pure Hooded Crow

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)

Phone-binning Crows at Bull Island, Dublin

No DSLR camera or scope today, just me, my bins, my phone and some crows. I was at North Bull, Dublin, and was taking the opportunity to look at some birds that we don't see so commonly around Edinburgh - namely black-tailed godwit, pale-bellied Brent geese and hooded crows. I also managed my first summer migrant landbird of the year - a nice male wheatear.

So here are some phone-binned pics of interesting crows. Well, interesting to me that is !

Hooded Crow
First winter Rook (x2)
Hybrid crow closely resembling Carrion Crow
Hooded Crow (x2)

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

Foot It Day 2: More hybrid crows

Spent the morning and early afternoon Footing It by following the Braid Burn downstream rather than upstream. Immediate success in the form of Grey Heron (species 50) and Grey Wagtail (51), with 3 or 4 of the latter. Another two Dippers added excitement along the river.

Grey Wagtail in the Braid Burn at Cameron Toll shopping centre car park. No Pied Wagtails yet though...

Into Inch Park and another hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow had me thinking that this was a different bird to either of yesterday's. Then a pair of Stock Doves put on a nice show of bowing and strutting and posed for photos - this species normally seems to be very shy - maybe with the nice weather they were thinking about other things.

Stock Dove posing in Inch Park

At Duddingston Loch, Teal, Goldeneye, Canada Goose and Cormorant provided easy pickings but the unexpected absence of Little Grebe stalled me temporarily on 55 species. I scanned the margins repeatedly and wished that I had shouldered my scope but instead accepted a salmon-pink fly-by Goosander (56) as compensation. With Raven (57) and Great Spotted Woodpecker (58) also appearing at this site I returned home. No new species to come I did see Sparrowhawk number three and hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow number four in Craigmillar.

My fourth Foot It hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow - how many until I can tick Hoodie!...

While I always keep an eye out for these hybrids to see 4 in 2 days is a little surprising. I think that I have now seen enough Hooded Crow genes while Footing It to make a whole - just unfortunately not all in the same individual bird!

So with 58 species already recorded (89% of original target of 65), I have decided to revise my target upwards by adding all of my possibles to my probables to my new target of 75...

First day of Foot It

Being away for New Year I had been vicariously enjoying the Foot It blog but frustrated not to be able to join in until today. So, feeling that I was playing catch-up, I set off from home this morning at first light and was glad that the weather was calm. The common corvids, gulls and finches started appearing as I headed into the Hermitage of Braid and with over 20 species by 9:00am I started to relax. I was glad to get both winter thrushes early as I hadn't noticed many of either species around this year. The first real goodie was a Water Rail streaking away like some sort of two-legged rat deep into a thick tangled patch upstream of Howe Dean bridge. I have only seen this species in this area on three previous occasions and was delighted to see it on my first attempt this year. A Dipper zipped past - it is regular here and is always a pleasure to see.

Next a couple of stake-outs. Tower Farm area for Tree Sparrow but not the 'dead-cert' Yellowhammers. Back home to check the back garden feeder for Brambling, which obliged - fortunate that one of the ones that arrived in December is still hanging on to the free hand-outs. A male Sparrowhawk then put in an appearance and flushed the finch flock so I was glad to have headed home when I did.

After a restorative coffee I was quickly back out and back up towards Alnwickhill. Yellowhammers put in an appearance and the Stock Doves were in their usual fields around Mortonhall. Mistle Thrush and Treecreeper were handy additions in this area as they have taken a few days in the past to find them around here in January. A bite to eat at Klondyke and Linnets and Reed Buntings were in their usual areas at Broomhills and Liberton Kennels. The fields did not yield partridges or snipe despite a couple of hours of effort - snow, please... Best bird in this area was a smart hybrid Crow and then another different bird a few fields away an hour later.

Hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow at Alnwickhill, 5 Jan 2013

Second hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow, Tower Farm, 5 Jan 2013

Only dip of the day was a skein of grey geese that I didn't get on to quickly enough, so I had to content myself with some Greylags and other assorted wildfowl at Blackford Pond. Before heading back home over Blackford Hill. Highlight here was my fourth raptor of the day - a nice Peregrine Falcon flypast.

So, since the hybrid doesn't really add a 0.5 the tally ended up at 49 which is 75% of my target. Not bad for a 9 mile walk... More tomorrow hopefully.

Hybrid Crow at Burdiehouse

Spent an hour at Burdiehouse today looking through the flocks of corvids, pigeons, finches and buntings that are currently feeding in the stubble. A great concentration of granivorous birds, and one that must be bringing in more raptors than the single Sparrowhawk I managed.

Highlight for me was this hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow as it was by far the most 'Hooded' individual that I have seen in the area. The features that distinguish it from a pure Hoodie are the black feathers in the vent, scapulars, rump and axillaries. Certainly this bird is much closer to the Hooded Crow end of the spectrum than Carrion Crow!

Hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow again

Here is a hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow photographed in Liberton recently. It is probably one of the two individuals seen over the last couple of years in the area. It appeared to be intent on picking small pieces of blossom from the gutter.

Also, who could resist the fantastic looks of a de-pigmented Carrion Crow for good measure?

Esk mouth at Musselburgh

I managed a fleeting trip to the mouth of the River Esk at Musselburgh first thing yesterday morning. It is one of those sites where there is always something of interest to see.

As soon as I opened the car door a movement across the water caught my eye as a Kingfisher hovered briefly then dived for food. A quick record shot and then it was off, flying up a street rather than the river...

This nice year tick was soon followed by a flock of Twite and a smart male Reed Bunting. A quick scan of the seaduck and then I was off home again. Though not before grabbing a picture of the resident Carrion Crow x Hooded crow hybrid...

Hooded Crow - Galway Bay

Unlike many, I'm quite a fan of crows. Yesterday's post of a hybrid reminded me that I took some shots of a pure Hooded Crow at Galway Bay in December. From field views, I had always assumed that a Hoodie has clear grey uppertail coverts - but it seems not, instead they are dark centred. Maybe this increases the apparent length of the bird's tail, or makes it more difficult for other birds to judge the Hoodie's size?

Hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow

This hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow was also part of yesterday's flock but I only picked it up in flight and then it landed beyond the range of decent shots. I might pop back to the area in the next few days to see if I can get better shots, but since I have only seen this bird twice in the last three years I think there is a low chance of success. However, as it has predominantly Carrion Crow plumage it is probably not easy to pick up unless actively searching through the crows for something different.

Presumably this bird would be better described as a Carrion x hybrid as presumably it is a second generation hybrid.

Snipe mimics cat's head?

Thought I would re-post a crop of this shot. Not only does it show a Hooded Crow with feather de-pigmentation, as mentioned elsewhere, but closer inspection reveals a Common Snipe in a rather contorted position. This behaviour appeared to be in response to the close proximity of the crow and looks as though it is another example of a predator-deterrent signal.

In this case, the Snipe, as a potential prey species, appears to be mimicking the appearance of a Wild Cat head! Unlike the example of the wing-flicking in the Blackbird, which was an example of honest signalling, this type of mimicry is an example of deceptive signalling and could be termed Batesian mimicry (where a harmless mimic models a more dangerous species). Of course, it could be a photographic artifact but the Snipe does appear to have two eyes, a nose and a mouth all facing backwards towards the potential predator - it may be convincing enough to make a proportion of predators think twice about launching an attack...

 

If you can't see the cat - does this help?

Feather de-pigmentation in Hooded Crow

Birded at Bull Island, Dublin, yesterday lunchtime in astonishingly picturesque weather conditions. Not sure there has been such a complete carpet of snow here in late December for many years. As always, the birds were excellent with plenty of Pale-bellied Brent Geese and Pintail along with the usual selection of waders and wildfowl - such an excellent city birding site.

One of the highlights for me, after recent posts, was a Hooded Crow showing feather de-pigmentation! Plenty of other species in this shot to give a flavour of the diversity at this site.

Here are a few more shots taken at the Bull Island causeway.

 Meadow Pipit finding little in the snow - it was foraging on thistle heads instead.