Bonaparte's Gull and Red-breasted Goose - 2 Lifers!

 Its not often that a Lesser Yellowlegs has to play second fiddle on a day's birdwatching in Great Britain, but, on today's trip to RSPB Frampton Marsh, that is exactly what happened!!!

Lesser Yellowlegs (we went back later!!)

Jayne and I decided to drive across, after seeing that an adult, summer-plumaged Bonaparte's Gull (1st Lifer of 2024 and my 144th species of the year) had made a reappearance on the Reedbed Marsh, after being found earlier in the week. We walked quickly past the Yellowlegs (!) and saw the gull more or less straight away, sitting on the water, about 20m away, with several Black-headed Gulls. The bird remained on view all day, and we managed to get a few shots.

Bonaparte's Gull (rear bird), with Black-headed Gull

Within the same view, we also spotted 2 Little Gulls - an adult and a 1st winter/2nd calendar year bird (145). There were dozens (hundreds?) of Avocets around the reserve, along with several Ruff (146), breeding Lapwing, Redshank and 2-300 Black-tailed Godwits. Unfortunately, we dipped the Black-winged Stilt (a female, 2nd year bird), so we'll have to go back again for that one!!

Black-tailed Godwit

Walking up to the sea wall, we heard the first Sedge Warblers (143) of the year, and caught a brief sight of a fly-over Yellow Wagtail (147). Two Garganeys (male and female - 148) were seen (fast asleep), along with 2 Little Ringed Plovers (149) and  a stunning, male White Wagtail (150). Also seen were Little Egret and two Great (White) Egret.

The last new bird of the day was a Red-breasted Goose (151 and lifer number 2), that was feeding with the Brent Geese. Although this is a species of more often seen as an escapee in Britain (as was the bird we saw earlier in the year at Clumber Park), this bird "felt" wilder, and, as it was associating with the Brent Geese, stands more of a chance of being accepted as such. It gave good telescope views, and I managed a half decent record shot. 

Red-breasted Goose (1st winter?)

My 142nd bird of the year, Red Grouse, was seen yesterday, on Stanage Moor, Derbyshire.

Scotland - 19th April 2019

Jayne and I are up in Scotland for a few days, and our first stop, on 19th, was Musselburgh Lagoons, near Edinburgh. We stopped off here to see if we could get a view of a pair of Surf Scoters, that had been recorded from the seawall. We got lucky, and managed good scope views of both the male and female birds - LIFER!!

Whilst there we also got excellent views of Common Scoter (10+), Velvet Scoter (50+), Long-tailed Duck (30+), Red-breasted Merganser (1 pair), Bar-tailed Godwit (c.50 on the lagoons), Oystercatcher (30+ on the lagoons), Ringed Plover (2 on the lagoons), Common Sandpiper (3 on the lagoons), Redshank (c.10 on lagoons) and 2 White Wagtails.

On arrival at our cottage in Killikrankie (20th), we spotted Raven (3), Buzzard (2+), and a Golden Eagle!! The eagle was a very nice surprise, as it's only my 2nd ever record, and my first, self-found bird. No photos unfortunately, but here's one of the Common Buzzards seen at the same time.

Common Buzzard

Year List update:
141 – Velvet Scoter
142 – Common Scoter
143 – SURF SCOTER
144 – Red-breasted Merganser
145 – Long-tailed Duck
146 – Common Sandpiper
147 – Golden Eagle

Three New Birds

I was up at Carsington Water for a couple of hours on Tuesday evening (18th) walking around Stones Island. I was on my annual "wagtail hunt", as this site is usually a good place to catch up with passage Yellow and White Wagtails. As it was, I dropped lucky with White Wagtail, but "dipped" on the Yellow.

The White Wagtails (a minimum of 3, possibly more), were feeding around the back of Stones Island, along with several Pied Wagtails. Here's a picture of a male and  a female.

White Wagtail (male)

White Wagtail (female)

Unfortunately, White Wagtail can't be added to the "year list" as it isn't a species, it's just the European race of the British Pied Wagtail, but I did manage to add another 2 species with a Common Sandpiper and a beautiful breeding plumaged Dunlin being seen.

Common Sandpiper

Other species seen included: Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Great Northern Diver (breeding plumage, but distant), Black-headed Gull, Coot, Mallard, Canada Goose, Great-crested Grebe, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Dunnock, Oystercatcher (2) and Redshank (2).

Redshank

Year List update:
134 – Common Sandpiper
135 – Dunlin

Carsington- 4th April 2016

After my walk around Linacre on Monday, I decided to pop across to Carsington Water to see what was about.

I had a walk around Stones Island and managed to find 3 White Wagtails, the European version of our Pied Wagtail. It isn't a species in its own right, so it won't appear of the Year List. Cracking bird, nonetheless.

White Wagtail

Also present was this Pink-footed Goose. It's a very unusual species to be found "on the ground" in Derbyshire. Normally, they're seen flying over the county throughout the winter months, so I'm not sure where this one's come from. It's either a feral bird, or possible a wild bird that's been injured and has found the area to its liking. Where ever its from, it was coming to bread with the local Mallards, and appeared very tame!

Pink-footed Goose

One last bird of note was Common Gull. There were six present sitting on buoys around the Sailing Club.

Common Gulls (4 of the 6 present)

Yellow and White Wagtails at Carsington

Every year at this time there is a passage of Yellow and White Wagtails at Carsington Water. I popped across there this afternoon/evening and at about 7pm,managed to catch up with a flock of 7 Yellow and 2 White Wagtails feeding on the grass by the Visitors' Centre.

The Yellow Wagtails are absolutely superb birds, as this photo from this afternoon, hopefully shows.

Yellow Wagtail

 

The White Wagtail is the European race of our own Pied Wagtail, but differs from this bird by having a grey back and much less black on the head. Here's a not-so-good, slightly out of focus photo of two birds from today.

 

White Wagtail

 

Unfortunately, this isn't a species in its own right, so I can't add it to the Year List proper, but I'll note it down and add it on to the full list at the end of the year. The Yellow Wagtail, however, can be added along with 3 other species I saw at Carsington today, namely:

 

111 – Willow Warbler (several singing)

112 – Little Ringed Plover (1 on Horseshoe Island)

113 – Yellow Wagtail

114 - Blackcap (one on Stones Island)

 

 

 

Thrybergh CP - Ringing and 2 Year Ticks

Today started very well with a great ringing session at Thrybergh Country Park in Rotherham. As well as the best catch for a while (17 birds) I also got two year ticks with my first Willow Warber and Common Terns of the year.

Common Tern (note the black tip to the bill)

The ringing began at 7.30am, a nice time to start, and within a few minutes we had our first birds in the net. The birds continued throughout the morning and by the time we packed up I had rung my first Tree Sparrow of the year, my second Yellowhammer, my third Chaffinch and had a retrapped Dunnock.

In between net rounds we spent some time looking at the birds on the lake which included 40 odd Sand Martins, several Swallows, 1 House Martin ( which I didn't see, so I'll wait to add it to my Year List), Cormorants, Mute Swans, Mallards, Canada and Greylag Geese, at least 1 pair of Gadwall (my first record here), Coots, Moorhens and singing Skylarks (over the fields, not on the lake!).

One bird that had us scratching our heads was a possible "White Wagtail" that was seen feeding on the edge of the water. Although not yet a species in its own right, it's the european version of our Pied Wagtail, it's a regular passage bird in Britain and is very nice to see. As regards the identification, it's back was very grey, but what worried us was the lack of  a clear division between this and the black head. I consulted "Collins" (the best field guide ever, buy a copy if you haven't already got one) when I got home and apparently a female White Wagtail shows a "diffuse transition black to grey" i.e. the neck of the female bird is greyer and blends into the grey of its back! If only I'd taken my camera with me!!!! The jury's still out on this bird, but here's a picture of a male White Wagtail seen on Stones Island, at Carsington Water, Derbyshire, last year.

White Wagtail

The Year List moves on 2 species:

121 - Willow Warbler

122 - Common Tern

UPDATE: After a little emailing and a lot of help from a David from the ringing group (thanks David), I think I'm pretty happy to i.d. this morning's bird as a female White Wagtail. If you're interested, follow this link to read a very intersting paper explaining why.