2nd winter Iceland Gull, Galway

Like many of the Iceland Gulls of this winter's invasion into north-western Europe, this big 2nd winter bird was clearly hungry and showed little fear of me. Almost Glaucous Gull-like in character, I assume from its size that it was a male bird.

 

Water Pipit at Barns Ness

Just a few poor shots of one of the Barns Ness Water Pipits photographed last Saturday. I think that there were probably two, but could not be sure as I couldn't manage both in view at the same time.

This bird seemed very relaxed for a Water Pipit - it certainly did not disappear over the horizon as soon as it was spotted, which is a trait that often seems to come to the fore with this species.

Stuart

Here are some shots of (possibly the same?) Water Pipit at Barns Ness on 31 March last year... Very poor shots, but some indication of how much the plumage will change in the next few months.

2nd winter Ring-billed Gull, Galway

Having seen the adult Ring-billed Gull, I was scoping Galway Bay briefly with Dermot Breen. I commented that I was hoping to find one in Lothian. His comment was pretty much, "Oh funnily enough, here's one!" And there it was right in front, a cracking 2nd winter Ring-billed Gull. Sometimes I really wonder how much I miss...

I watched the bird through the scope for a good while, trying to etch its image into my brain. I am really hoping to put this search image to good use. After absorbing these distant views I wandered onto the upper shore and threw some bread to see if it would come any closer... From these photos, you can see that it did. Looks like a male to me, with that heavy bill.

This bird was seen at Waterside later on by Tom Cuffe. He noticed that it had unusually blue legs. How cool!

Tamefowl?

A nice selection of winter wildfowl today - almost all of it astonishingly close and unperturbed by close observation.

I am sure I must be the last Lothian birder to connect with this Tundra Bean Goose at Musselburgh - it is feeding next to the road with the feral Greylags. This is not a species that is well known for giving good views.

This Pink-footed Goose has also been hanging around Musselburgh. Today it was at the gull-feeding site at the electric bridge. It does not look too healthy...

The other close-encounter was with Goosander at Figgate Pond. One male (above) and two females were snapping away for crusts of bread. The other wildfowl were very keen to keep away from those serrated bills!

Short-eared Owl disgorging pellet

Today I had one of those mornings of birding that was full of interesting sightings. So I headed for home, sated and happy, having had my fill of Red-throated Diver and Water Pipit, not to mention a fantastic flock of hundreds of Herring Gulls close at hand to sift through for an hour.

As I drove out of Barns Ness and Whitesands I passed the posse of birders waiting for the Short-eared Owl to perform. Despite not having seen the bird this year, I resisted the urge to stop again. Manuel had flagged me over earlier after he had watched it quartering the rough grass, but I was soon distracted by the arrival of a group of Greylags followed by three European White-fronted Geese. After my wild goose chases of the autumn and early winter they pop up when I am not even looking for them! Their arrival put me an hour behind schedule straight away...

So after getting my fill of the albifrons, I applied a steely grip on the steering wheel and decided not to pause for 'just five more minutes' at the owl site. The Short-eared Owl of course played a blinder. Not only did it intercept me as I drove away, but it then landed on a fence post opposite a passing place, where it sat and disgorged a pellet as I watched! Fantastic birding moment.

3rd winter Iceland Gull in Galway

Still working through my collection of Iceland Gull photographs from the recent trip to Galway. The invasion is really concentrated in the Faroes and the Northern Isles. Hopefully I'll manage to find another in Lothian over the next few weeks...

Here is the first of the Iceland Gulls from one week ago. It was waiting for us on Nimmo's Pier and the whole family managed to see it without getting out of the car - which is just as well because they wouldn't have seen it otherwise! I saw it on three occasions over the next 24 hours and it was ther nearest to adult plumage that I saw on the trip - only a little brownish feathering on the breast and tail and the sub-adult bill pattern giving its age away. A very pale gull, it looked large and ghostly in flight.

It's a ringer: adult Ring-billed Gull in Galway

I bumped into Tom Cuffe while I was birding Nimmo's Pier on Saturday morning. We discussed the various white wingers and then I remarked that I was surprised that I hadn't connected with a Ring-billed Gull the previous afternoon. "Oh there is normally one down there", he said, pointing to some exposed rocks towards the mouth of the harbour. I trained my scope on the area and, sure enough, there it was! Cheers, Tom. We sauntered down and I gawped and threw some bread. For Tom, being local, a Ring-billed Gull barely warrants a second glance.

After looking at my photos I realised that I had also seen this bird before - in December 2010 (it is bird 2 in this post). Not only is the ring on the beak of similar width and shape and the head streaking very similar in density and distribution, but the shorter than normal tail feather (left T2) is identical. I had assumed that the uneven tail growth was some one-off feature in December 2010, but it seems to be consistent from year to year despite the fact that it should have moulted its tail at some point in the last 12 months... (cant find anything on this in Gulls of the Americas or Molt in North American Birds, but I haven't checked Gulls or BWP yet). Perhaps this feather is simply the last one to be replaced by this bird?

So here are some comparison shots of Dec 2010 on the left and Jan 2012 on the right:

So, no sign of any improvement in my photography in 12 months!






Here are a few more shots taken last Saturday. A great bird, in my opinion, and one I am keen to find locally. Might take a wee while in Lothian...

The following shots show details of wing-tip pattern and extent of head streaking.

Lesser Black-backed Gull 1/1/12 at Alnwickhill

This Lesser Black-backed Gull has been dropping in to Alnwickhill this winter so I was pleased to get it on my year list on the 1st. Increasingly seen in winter in Lothian, possibly as a result of climate change, this is the first one I have seen in winter locally.

The weather has certainly been extremely windy recently, another feature of climate change perhaps. I was cursing the strengthening wind yesterday as the vibration of my scope prevented a clear digiscope shot of this (Nowegian?) colour-ringed Common Gull. At least two colour-ringed Common Gulls were at the site yesterday (the rings were on different legs - does this mean ringed as an adult or pullus, I wonder?). Once again, no codes were read successfully - even after altering the levels etc below - the Common Gulls tend to roost at the far side of the site.

New species for Lothian predictions

The new competition on the block in Lothian is David K's guess-the-new-Lothian-species challenge. The following species have been taken in the following order:

DK:  
Pallid Harrier
Terek Sandpiper
Collared Flycatcher

IA:
Cattle Egret
Blyth's Pipit
Penduline Tit

DM:  
Stilt Sandpiper
Ross's Gull
Whiskered Tern


DF:
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Isabelline Wheatear

MQ:
Fea's Petrel
Pallid Swift
Eastern Crowned Warbler

MT:
Greater Yellowlegs
Turkestan Shrike
Two-barred Crossbill

GM:
White-winged Scoter
Buff-bellied Pipit
Dartford Warbler

KG:
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler
Melodious Warbler
Eastern Bonelli's Warbler

LH:
Pacific Diver
Ancient Murrelet
Great Auk!

MH:
Oriental Turtle Dove
Siberian Stonechat
Dusky Thrush

CS:
Steller's Eider
Harlequin Duck
Bufflehead

PK:
Sooty Tern
American Robin
Southern Grey Shrike

JB:
Barrow's Goldeneye
Short-billed Dowitcher
Marmora's Warbler

After looking at this list I began to wonder which species have been recorded the most frequently in Scotland without being recorded in Lothian. Of course, the Northern Isles account for almost all of the records of some of the species concerned, and others are highly non-migratory, but an interesting list nevertheless. If it wasn't for the Isle of May and St Abb's mopping up so many of 'our' drift migrants, maybe we'd have seen a lot of these already...
Well, here goes, the most frequently recorded Scottish species unrecorded in Lothian: a list taken from the Lothian list on Bubo and a quick trawl through Birds in Scotland 3 (not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as more recent records will not be included...)- only those species with 10 or more records in BS3 included. Species in bold not selected above.

Crested Tit
Ptarmigan
Yellow-breasted Bunting
Siberian Stonechat
Lanceolated Warbler
Two-barred Crossbill
Pechora Pipit
Aquatic Warbler
Melodious Warbler
Booted Warbler
Scops Owl
Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler
Pine Bunting
River Warbler
Collared Flycatcher
White-throated Sparrow 
Red-breasted Goose
Black-eared Wheatear
Little Bustard
Steller's Eider
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Cirl Bunting
Sardinian Warbler
Western Bonelli's Warbler

So I'm beginning to think that some of my guesses weren't too clever... though I did see these two today

Only kidding - but Buff-bellied Pipit and Dartford Warbler - what was I thinking, to say nothing of White-winged Scoter... ah well, let's hope for some great birding 2012 in Lothian.

Bubo listing Lothian 2011 and 2012

Well, the year has drawn to a close with the Iceland Gull at Alnwickhill being one of the highlights of 2011 for me. A small twitch even developed at the site last week, although I think that most visitors left disappointed as the gulls often do not stay put there for long. Nevertheless, two Iceland Gulls and three Mediterranean Gulls at Alnwickhill this year have given me tremendous satisfaction. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise, I suppose, since Alnwickhill has a much larger area of water than St Margaret's Loch. My main target species at the site for 2011, Yellow-legged Gull, has sadly been conspicuous by its absence. Since the site will soon be drained, there is not much time left...

My own Lothian list ended up a mid-table 165, which was far below the figure I had hoped for at the beginning of the year, but 2011 has been extremely successful in a variety of non-birding ways, so I am not really complaining. The best months for listing in Lothian in 2011 for me were, rather predictably, January, May and October. The rest of the year saw a sprinkling of good birds with seven new additions to my county list: Mealy Redpoll (Jan), Bean Goose (Feb), Osprey (April), Temminck's Stint (June), Quail (June), White-rumped Sandpiper (Oct) and Richard's Pipit (Oct). Bird of the year for me in Lothian was the Grey-headed Wagtail in May.

Thanks to all the other Lothian Bubo listers of 2011 for making this year the biggest field yet. As with last year, Mike H is the one to beat.

So for 2012, I'll be keeping a Bubo list once again and I hope that others will do the same. My personal target for 2012 is 174 and a self-found list of over 160, which would better my 2010 totals. My birding will be restricted to termly holidays most probably, but I will manage some trips to the Western and Northern Isles as well as some travel further afield later in the year. I am hoping to move my World list on a little higher than the 2 species gained in 2011 (White-billed Diver, Indian Silverbill)...