A couple of long stayers revisited

I flushed a couple of Jack snipe today and revisited a couple of old favourites, great northern diver at West Kirby Marine Lake and Long-eared owl at Burton Mere Wetlands.

Year: 132 (Jack snipe x2).

Great northern diver.

Long-eared owl slightly more out in the open today. Yesterday it was so well hidden that it wasn't seen at all.

Regurgitating a pellet.

I'm told that this is Chicken of the woods.

Smew, Newchurch Common, Cheshire

The redhead smew was on the south mere at Newchurch Common today along with a kingfisher.

Year: 131 (Smew, kingfisher, jay)

Hesketh Out Marsh and Martin Mere

An American wigeon and about 800 Eurasian wigeon were on the only ice free pool at Hesketh Out Marsh today. It was bitterly cold in the wind, but we managed to get down below the bank which at least offered us some relief and we were able to bear it for an hour or so before heading off to Martin Mere.

This was my first visit to Martin Mere this year, so inevitably I picked up a few new birds for the year, including barn owl and tawny owl.

Year: 128 (American wigeon, barn owl, tawny owl etc.)

Part of the wigeon flock at Hesketh Out Marsh, with the American bird at the back of the water in the middle.

Hesketh Out Marsh

Barn owl from the Ron Barker hide at Martin Mere.

To tick or not to tick? Ross's goose at Martin Mere. This bird has moved between here and Marshside every winter since 2013 and disappears in the summer. It's also unringed, but it's consigned to the category "of unknown origin", in otherwords it may be an escape from captivity. Ross's geese with much better credentials this have failed to make it onto the British list.

Here's what the Martin Mere website has to say on the subject:

"The return of the Ross’s Goose which showed well in front of the Discovery Hide is a mixed blessing. Nice to see this tiny Snow Goose even if it’s credentials looked tarnished. The bird arrived at Marshside RSPB in August of 2013 and has been disappearing from the North West during the summer and returning each autumn ever since.
We have had some better qualified Ross’s traveling with Pink-footed Geese in the past, although no Ross’s Geese have been accepted as genuine vagrants in the UK, not even the mid 1970’s Lanc’s mossland bird found with Pink-footed Geese at a time when only a handful of captive Ross’s were in Europe and none of those in the UK.".

Of course, just because it's on the mere right in front of the hide means nothing. Every other bird in these photos are wild, including the whooper swans it is swimming with here.

Quality birding in the Cowny Valley

Quality birding in the Conwy Valley today with three very special birds all seen well. We started at Llanbedr-y-cennin where the hawfinches performed much better than usual, with at least 10 birds seen, often flying around or high up in the trees, but we did see one bird on the ground. Then we moved down the valley to Conwy RSPB where a water pipit had been reported. There's been one around the reserve for a few weeks but mainly seen on the saltmarsh where it has been rather elusive. Today however we found it on one of the scrapes in front of the Carneddau hide and it showed very well.

Highlight of the day though was at least one firecrest in the reedbed from the board walk. We waited for hours and kept seeing "crests" flitting into the reeds and disappearing before we could identify them, until finally just as we were about to give up, a firecrest flew up onto the reeds right in front of us. I didn't see the eyestripe, but was reliably informed that it did have one, but the bird disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. By this stage we were frozen to the bone and the cafe beckoned so I decided to make do with that view because a cup of tea was more enticing than another long wait. We headed back, but hadn't gone more than a few paces when another (or the same) firecrest hoped onto a reed in full view and gave us both stonking views. No missing the eyestripe this time!

Year: 121 (hawfinch, firecrest, siskin, nuthatch)

Hawfinches

Water pipit - distinct eyestripe, double wingbar, white underparts, white outertail feathers.

Conwy RSPB

Ainsdale Beach

Only fly-by views today of the long staying and now 2nd winter Caspian gull, which was a pity because I wanted a good look at it. Apart from the usual waders, an adult winter Mediterranean gull was the other highlight. Also two ravens on the beach today.

Year: 117 (Caspian gull + 2 others!)

A snow coloured bird for a freezing cold day. If you look carefully at this photo, you can see the gull is sporting a flashy red ring on its left leg, which means it was probably ringed in Poland.

Inglenook Farm, Rainford by-pass, St Helens

1000 Pink-footed geese in fields near Inglenook Farm today. I stopped and had a good look through them but couldn't find any other species.

I'm not sure what to make of this goose. Pretty sure it's not a hybrid, because apart from the perfectly symetrical white band it was otherwise just another pink-foot. Probably partially leucistic I suppose, though why it should form such a perfect band is a mystery.

Winter on the North Fylde Coast

Winter finally arrived bringing with it a bitterly cold day to the north Fylde coast, but it was beautiful if you could bear the wind, with some spectacular coastal scenary and lots of great birds to be seen. I started at Eagland Hill where there was a flock of 250 whooper swans, then onto the coast at Braides near Cockerham, where there was a nice selection of swans, geese and waders, including about 40 whoopers and four Bewick's swans.

Moving west, at Pilling Lane Ends a merlin scattered waders as the high tide approached and further west still, at Fluke Hall, upto 50 twite were feeding on the saltmarsh. However it was the scenary which took the breath away, almost as much as the sharpness of the wind, with fantastic views over Morecombe Bay looking towards the snow covered Coniston Old Man in the Lake District.

Year: 114 (Bewick's swan and something else!)

Curlews with the Old Man behind.

Bewick's swans.

Whooper swans at Eagland Hill.

The same flock.

Golden plover top left.

I love this photo with the whoopers on the sea and the Old Man behind. It looks like it could be Iceland!

Not as spectacular as some of the other photos, but still nice, pink-footed geese with Bowland behind.

Twite at Fluke Hall.

Pallas's Warbler Part 3

It was a glorious start to the day at Heswall and finally I was rewarded for my perseverance with good prolonged views of the Pallas's warbler. Of the seven hours or so that I'd spent at the sewage works in Target Road prior to today, probably only about 20 seconds involved actually watching the bird. I'd seen all of the relavent bits of the bird spread over several views, and I could piece them all together and say that I'd seen a Pallas's warbler, but it was all very unsatisfactory and wasn't much more than a year tick, just another number.

Today though I only had a short wait of about an hour before the bird showed, low down on the side of one of the sewage tanks. For a few minutes it kept dropping down into the grass and then flying up and hovering around the cracks and crannies of one of the side panels. Then it flew into one of the nearby bushes and continued to perform well, flitting around and on view most of the time.Then it disappeared for half an hour, before showing again in the same bush. I watched it for another couple of minutes until it disappeared again and I decided it was time to go. One bloke I met today had spent five hours here on Sunday and not seen the bird so I didn't want to push my luck!

At least six chiffchaffs and several goldcrests were very active today on the side of the tank, with the sun bringing out lots of midges and flies. Also today on my travels I saw my first fieldfare of the year.

Year: 112 (Fieldfare)

I know what you're thinking, but give me a break! I'm absolutely made up with this photo. It captures the moment perfectly. I never thought I'd get a photo of a hovering Pallas's warbler, especially one which shows the rump so well.

Pennington Flash

A walk around the flash this afternoon produced a couple more year ticks in the form of a singing Cetti's warbler in Ramsdales reedbed and a willow tit from the Bunting Hide. Also 17 goosanders from Teal hide, 10 goldeneye in the East bay and 110 Tufted duck in Ramsdales with two pochard. I didn't stay until dusk for the gull roost, but I did spend an hour looking through the pre-roost in the East bay. There were a few interesting gulls ready to trip up the unwary (i.e. me!). Thanks to Pete Kinsella for helping me with these birds.

Year: 111 (Willow tit, Cetti's warbler)

Adult Scandinavian 'argentatus' herring gull

My initial reaction on seeing this bird was that it was an adult yellow-legged gull. It's mantle is clearly darker than the nearby British 'argenteus' herring gulls, it has a very red gony and a very white head and neck compared to other nearby herring gulls. However the back of the neck is a little streaked, perhaps too much for yellow-legged gull, and there is a white line on P10 which yellow-legged gull rarely has. Finally P5 is missing a black border. Yellow-legged gull would show this.

1st winter Scandinavian 'argentatus' herring gull

This bird really grabbed my attention! It had a very pear shaped head, an apparently long bill and it swam in a very front heavy way as if it was about to tip forward at any minute. I knew that Caspian gull should have a white head at this time of year, but I didn't know enough about the species variation.  However, it turns out that this is another argentatus herring gull. This race of herring gull can look very juvenile like well into it's 1st winter, as this bird does.

British 'argenteus' herring gulls

Finally two photos of birds which are argenteus herring gulls. The first has a very white head reminiscent of yellow-legged gull, the second is a huge bird about the size of an argentatus herring gull. However neither have dark enough mantles to be yellow-legged gull or argentatus herring gull.