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.

River Otter off Musselburgh

I arrived at Musselburgh sea wall today just at the right time today. Another observer had just found an Otter offshore. We scoped it as it headed in the general direction towards Fisherrow Harbour. Distant views for me - but enough to get good looks at its head tail and body out of the water each time it surfaced and dived. We rushed around towards the harbour by car but sadly could not relocate it.

My best River Otter sighting of the year is shown above - an amazing, prolonged close view of an individual feeding at very close range in a river in Andalucia in July. A few minutes later I also saw my first ever Black Stork!

Steel grey Scandinavian Herring Gull

I can't be sure without a colour ring, but I think that this Herring Gull has crossed the North Sea for its winter break in Musselburgh. The steel-like grey upperpart tone combined with reduced black in their outer primaries are pointers to the identification of Scandinavian Herring Gulls. Another bird at Seafield this morning was darker grey and had thayeri-like wingtip pattern - that's a classic combination for a northern argentatus. This one is slightly trickier on both counts, so maybe its origins are slightly less far north?

Hybrid Crow at North Bull, Dublin

Hybrid crow on right with a pure Hooded Crow

Scandinavian HerringGull (subspecies argentatus) at Seafield

It has been an extremely quiet autumn for me bird-wise - lots of looking but not much finding. I have not once managed to time a trip to the East coast that coincides with decent conditions for grounded migrants. Other than a few brief views of YBWs, a very brief Sardinian Warbler and another self found Ring-billed Gull (in Dublin, of course), decent birds have been conspicuous by their absence.



Today I managed to squeeze in an hour or so at Seafield and the best I could manage was my first Scandinavian Herring Gull of this coming winter season. This bird had very little black in its wing-tip compared to our breeding birds and an upperpart shade that is darker. In the shot of it on the shore it can be seen that it is obviously darker than the accompanying Black-headed Gulls. Note that P10 is still growing on this bird and that P9 shows no back extending to the web - ie a thayeri pattern. More often, in my experience, these northern gulls keep their distance and seeing these details can be tricky. This one today treated me to a nice flypast.

Scandinavian Herring Gull standing in water to right of roosting BhGs

Twitching Sardinian Warbler

A male Sardinian Warbler in Spain in the summer - today's bird at St Abb's looked about 100x smarter!

We had a family walk today at St Abb's Head. Not because there is a cracking male Sardinian Warbler there, but let's say it didn't exactly put me off. On arrival at the Mire Loch, two birders told us that they had waited 7 hours for a view so I was pretty much certain that we would just be walking and not watching. The rest of the family seemed happy to let me have a few minutes to have a look around the favoured areas of gorse and bramble so I decided to give the area a quick circuit before continuing. Deep within the first area I checked I could hear a subdued complex warble and thought that I might be onto something. I quickly got my camera out but before I was quite ready the stunning Sardinian Warbler had hopped up onto the top of a sprig of gorse. As I pointed the camera it disappeared into the thicket again with a scolding call. Wow! I wasn't expecting that to be so easy. No picture, but a stunning close view in good light, with the bird's plumage looking much smarter than the moulting birds that I was looking at in Spain in July. Anyway, five minutes effort and its on my British list and we can get on with the family walk. Only difference is that now I seem to be much better company! Maybe I could get used to this twitching... Meanwhile here are some more Sardinian Warbler shots taken in Spain this summer - just as difficult to photograph as today's bird.

Honey-Buzzards in Lothian

I don't have a recent shot of a Honey-Buzzard - so here's a Short-toed Eagle from Andalusia this July

I have been Phil B's shadow this month. Everywhere I have gone birding he has been there or vice versa. Except Sunday morning when I popped out to Seacliff to see if I could get a better view of an interesting Lesser Whitethroat or any sort of view of a heard-only Yellow-browed Warbler from a few days before. Well, I only managed a Nuthatch. Meanwhile, Phil was at Musselburgh soaking up views of a Honey-Buzzard circling over towards Newhailes. I must say I'm pretty gutted as I am yet to see one in Lothian. The last one I saw in Britain was a September bird self-found at my patch in Nercwys in North Wales and that was pretty exciting to say the least. I reckon that this is something like Lothian's 30th Honey-Buzzard and looking through the past records this one was seen on the prime date with about third of all records seen in the period 25–29 September. In terms of locations, almost all of these autumn birds have been seen along the coast from Hound Point to Skateraw. I know where I'll be next year...

Yellow-browed Warblers in Lothian Sept 2013

One of two Yellow-browed Warblers at Scoughall today

With unprecedented numbers along the east coast of Scotland, we are in the middle of the largest invasion of Yellow-browed Warblers into Lothian. Today Mike H managed to see 9 in total! There have been approximately 19 birds recorded since Wednesday morning in the region with site maxima of 3 at each of Barns Ness old campsite, Whitesands triangle and Scoughall, two seen at each of Torness, Thorntonloch, Skateraw and Dunglass and the single bird that I heard at Seacliff on Friday (now safely confirmed after hearing another 5 birds over the weekend...).  The distribution closely matches the 75 previous records in Lothian. Even more exciting is the real possibility of more arrivals with the wind swinging easterly again today. In addition we may have a run of records away from the coast as the high numbers in the northern isles start to filter south.

 

One thing that has always puzzled me about the Yellow-browed Warbler is its latin name Phylloscopus inornatus. The genus is understandable as it is one of the leaf-peeping warblers that gleans its insect food from foliage, but inornatus implies a terrible blunder in suggesting that this multiply striped sprite is 'un-ornate'. I literally dusted off the Old Handbook (Witherby et al.) and the answer was supplied. The initial latin binomial was Motacilla superciliosus. Now if we can ignore the genus (Motacilla was used much more widely for passerines in the 18th century) the specific name seems so much better. Unfortunately it soon turned out that another 18th century taxonomist had already used this latin name for another species so the name could not be used for the YBW. Instead an alternative was found in the literature as the Yellow-brow had also been described by Blyth as Regulus inornatus - essentially calling it the 'Crownless Kinglet' or something similar. Further readjustment was to the current genus, but the specific name has had to stick. Well, I'm looking forward to finding a Crownless Kinglet in Edinburgh - maybe the royal parks would be worth a shot?...

Siberian Lesser Whitethroat?, Seacliff

This week has been frustrating bird-wise. I have dashed off to the coast after work on several days to enjoy the amazing fall of Yellow-browed Warblers that have arrived from Asia. Of the 8, 10 and 7 reports over the last 3 days in Lothian I have managed to see precisely none. Site high totals this week have been Barns Ness and Whitesands 6, and Torness, Thorntonloch, Skateraw and Scoughall all with 2 apiece. So, somewhere between 14 and 25 birds perhaps. The sites have tended to be very quiet in the late afternoon and early evening periods that I have managed to visit and it has left me wondering whether the birds have moved on already given the improvement in the weather since Wednesday morning - or whether they are jet-lagged and keeping a central Asian time clock?...

Underside of tail just visible before it disappears into the sea buckthorn

Today I'm pretty sure that I did hear a Yellow-browed Warbler briefly at Seacliff but could not locate - there is quite an area of sycamores to search. Instead the highlight was this Lesser Whitethroat which looked to me to be of the Siberian subspecies blythi although it is not possible to be really sure without much better views combined with DNA testing most likely. Anyway it was a bright brown above (including crown) rather than the more normal dull tones of our subspecies with great contrast between the throat and the flanks. In addition it certainly appeared to have white outer tail feathers with dark shafts. None of these features have come out well in the photos unfortunately. In terms of call a blackcap-like 'tack' but no distinctive churr heard. So one that I think I should pop back and try for again.

Yellow-browed Warblers in Lothian

Spot the Yellow-browed Warbler - in White Sands Triangle wood in 2010

As far as I know there have been 75 records of Yellow-browed Warbler in Lothian. The first record was in September 1976 and it has increased in frequency to the point that it has now been seen every year in Lothian since 1998. Well, it hasn't been seen yet in Lothian in 2013 - but that will undoubtedly change over the next few days with a wave of these Siberian waifs currently heading our way across the North Sea. Both 2005 and 2010 are the stand-out years so far with 13 and 10 records apiece, with the next-best year being 2011 with 6 records. There must be others that have not made it into the record books as the YBW is often fast moving and elusive in the foliage - for example I never submitted a brief view of one in Seacliff woods in 2005.

So, if you are planning on bumping in to one of these in the next few days you could do worse than pop along to Barns Ness/White Sands Bay area (32 previous records) - the old caravan site and the triangular wood at White Sands are good sites. Further SE along the coast at Skateraw there have been 16 records, with 7 at Torness, 7 at Thorntonloch and 1 at Bilsdean. Alternatively, there are also 7 records from Scoughall but none that I know of from the woods around Tynningham - maybe they just melt away in all that habitat. There is also a surprising general absence of records away from the coast, other than three records (in two different years) from Oxwell Mains. The latter, I assume, shows that hard work on a local patch away from the coast can pay dividends... Maybe someone will find one in Edinburgh if we really do have a bumper crop this year.

Edit: 25 Sept 2013

As widely predicted the first YBW's of the autumn arrived in Lothian this morning with light easterlies and drizzle. A total of eight birds have been reported from all the usual locations as far as I know making today the best single day to see Yellow-browed Warbler in Lothian. I managed to avoid them despite several hours after work in Torness, Thorntonloch and Skateraw... I think that the clear skies and sun later on encouraged the birds to head off as soon as possible.