Long-legged Buzzard/Gibraltar Buzzard? El Rocio, Donana, Spain 18 July 2013

The Atlas Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus cirtensis is little known in terms of its identification and distribution. Not only is it similar is size and structure to the Common Buzzard but there are suggestions that the two forms hybridise. With photos of the quality of the first three here an identification is not safe but I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that this adult bird that I photographed a couple of weeks ago at El Rocio in the Coto Donana is an Atlas Long-legged Buzzard. This ID is tentative but based on the apparent leg length in the perched shots, the tail pattern in the flight shot below and some of the plumage features of the underwing...

Since writing this post earlier today I have become aware that there is considered to be a possible Long-legged x Steppe (?) Buzzard hybrid swarm of buzzards known as the Gibraltar Buzzard that has recently been identified in southern Spain. Presumably this bird is one of these...

Whether this nearby juvenile has any Atlas Long-legged Buzzard genes in it I'm even less sure about...

Ring-billed Portugull, Lisbon 30 July 2013

Having just returned from a two week family holiday in Spain and Portugal I thought that I would post this beauty first - a moulting first summer to second winter Ring-billed Gull on the seafront at the Praça do Comércio in Lisbon. This unexpected transatlantic bonus was pretty much the last bird that I saw on the whole trip and was the successful conclusion to a short gull photographing stroll along the front.

This individual seemed quite large, so presumably is a male as it did not seem that much smaller than a nearby lusitanius Yellow-legged Gull, more of which in a future post...

New lens, old favourites

Young Jackdaw with 'brown' plumage mutation? One of two out of a hundred or so that were brown rather than black and grey

Took my new lens for a walk today. Was planning to buy it before I went to Malaysia, and while there were plenty of moments when it would have been handy, the thought of its first trip being into the haze of Sumatra was too much for me. So what did I test the L glass on - old favourites: corvids and gulls... Pretty pleased with the results...

Ah, one of my other old favourites - a lovely hooded Black-headed Gull

A juvenile Black-headed Gull - nice to see a couple of this year's young already on the wing

Black-napes beat white-belly

My favourite sequence of shots from Pulau Tioman - a sub-adult White-bellied Sea Eagle being ushered away from a nesting colony of Black-naped Terns. The terns definitely had the upper hand and landed many direct hits during this encounter. We were lucky enough to watch from the sun deck of our dive boat as we ate our nasi goreng lunch - sometimes life is just too good!

Oriental Bay Owl, Pulau Tioman, Malaysia, July 2013

I have just returned from a great two week trip to Singapore and Malaysia. Not a birding trip as such but some really good opportunities to observe wildlife thrown in. Here's the bird of the trip, an unexpected Oriental Bay Owl at Melina Beach, Pulau Tioman. Found while I was looking for interesting mammals in the forest at about 4:30 am, quite a weird experience to be off trail at night alone but the mammals, reptiles and this bird certainly made it worth it. The owl was silent and was consuming what looked to be a large forest rat of some species. I only had a compact camera, but it has done a good job of capturing the plumage. Probably the bird of the year for me - even more exciting than the snowy owl as this one was not even on my radar - as far as I know this species has never been recorded on Pulau Tioman before... That's all for now - jet-lag calls...

Pine Marten, Kindrogan, June 2013

I had never really considered that good daytime views of Pine Marten were a possibility, but I was lucky enough to experience them this week. I was on a work trip to Kindrogan Field Studies Centre in Perthshire, and had already enjoyed some evening views of a Marten coming to peanuts at around 9pm. This was exciting enough and the views in the dusky simmer dim were the best that I assumed I would get.

Not so the following afternoon when I was tipped off that cat-like noises had been coming from the scrub and Pine Marten was considered a possibility. When I followed this up I could hear noises that sounded like aggressive calls coming from one of the spruce plantations. I went in and found two Pine Martens leaping around in the upper branches of the tall trees. Looking like dark oversized squirrels they could move nimbly along surprisingly thin branches and would occasionally make a leap from one branch to that of a neighbouring tree.

They did not seem to be overly concerned about my presence far below at ground level and I enjoyed over 30 minutes of entertainment. After securing a couple of record shots I returned to the centre and after a coffee with colleagues we headed back to the site. Despite the odds the Pine Martens were still there and showed well moving from tree to tree, up and down trunks and even close by on the ground very briefly. Despite this I managed no decent photographs other than those shown here - the habitat, light levels and animals movements all combined to make photography difficult - not that I am bothered!...

Aerial interaction between Red-footed Falcon and Hobby

Red-footed Falcon (bottom left) and Hobby (top right)

Not great shots, but a record of a brief spat between the 2cy Red-footed Falcon and a Hobby at Ouse Fen on Sunday.

Compared with the Red-foot, the Hobby on the right shows longer wings and more rounded tail

Another Hobby overhead later in the morning. Massively long outmost primaries give the wings this classic silhouette.

Red-footed Falcon, Ouse Fen, 9 June 2013

A family wedding in Cambridge gave a great opportunity to stay chez Richard B and family this weekend. Rich had told me that his local patch, Ouse Fen, was good, but I still was not really expecting a female Red-footed Falcon - a species I hadn't seen since the Blacktoft Sands bird of 1987 (on the same day that I first met Richard B...).

I was very pleased that today's bird was much more cooperative than the one 26 years ago and made frequent sallies over our heads. Thanks Rich et al... yes, these are the best shots...

Ne'er cast a clout 'til May is out

Unless you are a Gadwall that is... This male, one of two drakes at Duddingston Loch on 27 May was already beginning its moult out of its smart breeding plumage into its more dowdy eclipse plumage. Certainly the weather since then seems to have been distinctly summer-like, so maybe it had the right idea.

Note the fine comb like structre at the side of the beak - presumably a filter for dabbling.

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)