COMMON YELLOWTHROAT in Gwent

Click Gwent Birding here for images and full directions and map

http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/

Rick Remington's encounter with a vagrant SNOWY OWL and its subsequent attack by a Peregrine

Click here to see the full story and some outstanding photographs - http://www.nabirding.com/2012/02/12/when-a-snowy-met-the-locals/

Please support petition to safeguard Shibdon Pond

Shibdon Pond has been a particularly productive site with several Spotted Crake records over the years, 2 Laughing Gulls, Ring billed Gull, Ring necked Duck, Golden Oriole and a host of other interesting species.
The link to the petition is on the Gateshead Birders website::-

www.gatesheadbirders.co.uk

and the relevant piece on the front page reads:

The continued management of countryside sites by Gateshead Council’s Countryside Management Team is under serious threat of being axed in next year’s budget spending plan.
If the proposal is accepted it will have a catastrophic effect on Gateshead’s countryside and the wildlife. The country parks and nature reserves will fall into decline and degradation, litter and vandalism will grow quickly. Sites will become insecure.
We would urge you to go to Gateshead Council’s website and sign the e-petition “Save the Countryside Management Team” using the following link:

https://consultation.gateshead.gov.uk/KMS/EpetitionHome.aspx?loggingIn=tempVar&strTab=EPetitions&noIP=1&SessionId=RBN3WKB57P

I would be most grateful if you could sign and support the petition

Shocking news from North Kent - GORDON ALLISON dies at the tragic age of 50

Chris Gibbard telephoned me this evening with the shocking and most devastating news that Elmley and Northward Hill RSPB reserves warden Gordon Allison died in his sleep early this morning. Gordon was just 50 years old, a year younger than me. He was also incredibly keen and birdwatched from dawn until dusk whenever he could. He was a great guy, a good friend and a keen twitcher and was part of the regular 'RSPB bunch' that visited the Isles of Scilly in October regularly between 1984 and 2000. He travelled the world extensively and was particularly fond of India and was tragically with Ray Turley in Goa when that legend of a man also died. He leaves behind many good friends from the KOS and the Kent birding fraternity, as well as professional partners within the RSPB, particularly Adam Rowlands, and will be very sorely missed

Lee Evans

More shots of the Sussex large-billed Crossbill

This selection of new images were taken by Mike McKee of the apparent PARROT CROSSBILL at Blackdown

PARROT CROSSBILL identification

Jaane Aalto has corresponded with me further on Parrot Crossbill identification. I have sent the Finns a selection of the Sussex bird images and many agree with me about the concerns over the head structure and silhouette. We still need sound recordings. In every respect though, it resembles a Scottish Parrot Crossbill
Some more pictures to browse -:

A nice male Parrot here

http://koti.mbnet.fi/caligata/lintukuvat6/Loxpyt.html
A female Scottish Parrot from Abernethy

http://koti.mbnet.fi/caligata/lintukuvat6/Loxsco.html
A female Scandinavian Parrot Crossbill that does share characteristics with the Sussex female, having a forehead and a smaller bill

http://koti.mbnet.fi/caligata/lintukuvat6/Loxpyt2.html

BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT from last year

Last year's incredible record annual tally just keeps on rising with news of Heatherlea's BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT in Burghead Harbour, Moray, on 17 November - see more photographs here on Mike Weedon's blog : http://weedworld.blogspot.com/2012/02/brunnichs-guillemot-easily-overlooked.html

This revises the total for the year to 456 species

Apparent PARROT CROSSBILL remains on site today

The bird showed up at about 0910 hours this morning and then remained in the area for about an hour, showing well. Undoubtedly large-billed, it still seems to have too much profile in the forehead. Whether an aberrant Common Crossbill, a Scottish Parrot Crossbill or vagrant Eastern Crossbill or Scandinavian Parrot Crossbill is still indetermined and I still look forward to sound recordings of its call. More of Simon West's excellent images can be found at his Flikr site at www.flickr.com/photos/sinlw

Finnish birdwatcher enjoys himself twitching in UK

I was very pleased to share some birding time with visiting Finnish birder Matthias at the putative Parrot Crossbill twitch in West Sussex and delighted to add Brambling, (British) Bullfinch, Siskin and a few other species to his building life list. Hope to meet up again with him in Finland in the future. The enthusiasm of Finnish birdwatchers is undiminished and Matt was certainly keen on learning.

EASTERN and PARROT CROSSBILLS

David Cooper very kindly sent me this link to a juvenile Eastern Common Crossbill trapped and ringed on Fair Isle in June 2005

See here

http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/Sightings/2005/jun_2005.htm

This illustrates the variability in the size of Common Crossbill bills and the Sussex female is very similar in proportions and forehead shape

See
http://www.wildbirdgallery.com/images/birds/loxia_pytyopsittacus/pytyopsittacus.htm

A portfolio of Scandinavian Parrot Crossbills for comparison

Winter Weekend Trip to Scotland

I am putting together a winter trip (long weekend) in early February to witness the spectacular invasion of white-winged gulls and to see the wintering geese and wildfowl, as well as to search for eagles, Ptarmigan and other specialities. Please email me if you fancy it - LGREUK400@aol.com

Apparent female PARROT CROSSBILL present for at least 4th day in West Sussex

David Cooper managed to obtain an interesting selection of shots of the female-type putative PARROT CROSSBILL at Black Down today and these can be viewed at http://eastsussexbirding.blogspot.com/

This bird was still present this afternoon but was very difficult to pick out from the rest of the flock in the Larches. It is noticeably greyer, especially about the head and nape, and has a bright pale lemon rump. The bill proportions are quite impressive but I have seen some Eastern Common Crossbills with bills like this. The lower mandible thickness is noticeable though and the bird itself does look bigger in proportion on occasions

The bird is present with at least 55 Common Crossbills at Black Down, 2 miles NE of Fernhurst. It is a 20 minute walk from the main car park and the flock favours the isolated conifers at the top of the hill

Walking from Land's End to John O'Groats for Butterfly Conservation

Seth Gibson and I are walking from Land's End to John O' Groats for our honeymoon after our wedding in May this year. It is going to take over 2 months and more than 1000 miles and we'll be trying to raise as much money as possible for Butterfly Conservation. We've set up a justgiving page to this end and would be absolutely delighted if anyone could sponser us

See the following link for details - http://www.facebook.com/l/iAQHCRI8OAQGWuEVxPsoMy-FYh6rDbeYlJibbsIfWr5gpaw/www.justgiving.com/epicbutterflywalk (Sami Webster)

KUMLIEN'S & THAYER'S GULLS

Anticipating the usual flood of Kumlien's-like gulls in the west and Thayer's-like gulls in the east, I've put together a proposed thayeri-kumlieni-glaucoides scoring system at http://www.tertial.us/gulls/tkg.htm

It's a first draft cut to develop some consensus about how we talk about and evaluate these things. Feedback is welcome. (I've already got ideas to improve it, but I want to hear more ideas.)

Basically, it's a 4-point scale:

0 = glaucoides
1 = in between
2 = kumlieni
3 = in between
4 = thayeri

evaluating 7 different features of first cycle birds. So a maximum score of 28 is a classic Thayer's, while a minimum score of 0 is a perfect nominate glaucoides. The key caveat is at the end: "even if we come up with a formula that satisfies most birders, there's still no guarantee we would be accurately placing birds in the correct category until further research, ideally tracking birds from the breeding grounds to the wintering grounds, is done."

Steve Hampton, Ph.D.

NORTH AMERICAN WOOD DUCK in COUNTY DONEGAL

Just heard this, thought it may be of interest to the list.An injured male American Wood Duck has been seen near the RNLI Lifeboat Station, Pollawaddy, Arranmore Island, Co. Donegal since last Friday. Injured wing. Not really approachable, but can't fly, spents a lot of time out of sight in a rushy area along the shore. Finder may make an attempt to catch it in the next day or two to take it into care & seek medical/rehab assistance for the injury, but the bird seems very lively (apart from inability to fly). No visible evidence of injury/wound looks otherwise healthy. Seen today & yesterday. Two ferries operate from Burtonport several times a day apparently.Mícheál Casey

I am still sitting on the file of Wood Duck occurrences in Britain and Ireland as records of this species are incredibly difficult to assess. At least 20 records though are considered to be of wild vagrants and I hope to be in a position to list them in the not too distant future. As far as I am concerned, this individual is as good as they are likely to get, especially considering the weather conditions since last September

Lee Evans

Arctic gull is latest addition to Year List

An adult winter-plumaged ROSS'S GULL in Ardglass Harbour, County Down, represents the 251st species to be recorded in Britain and Ireland combined this year. This comes on top of one of the largest influxes of Kumlien's and Iceland Gulls ever known in the region, including no less than 83 individuals in Stornoway Harbour on Lewis (Outer Hebrides) alone

193 species in one week - Winter Birding in the UK

A total of 193 species was recorded on my Round Britain tour of last week with a mouth-watering list of species recorded, a whopping 14 species higher than on my trip in January 2011. Amongst the many highlights were Long-eared Owl, Lapland Bunting, Golden Pheasant, Grey Partridge, Scandinavian Arctic Redpoll, Spotted Redshank, Long-tailed Duck, Ross's Snow Goose, both Tundra & Taiga Bean Geese, Lesser White-front, Shore Lark, Firecrest, Woodcock, Western Sandpiper, Rough-legged Buzzard, Black Brant, Great Grey Shrike, Twite, 34 Common Cranes, 91 Snow Buntings, Mediterranean Gull, Iceland Gull, Black-throated Diver, Black Redstart, Waxwing, Curlew Sandpiper, Smew, Glossy Ibis, Bittern, Ruddy Duck, Short-eared Owl, Cattle Egret, Ring-billed Gull, Spanish Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Common Crossbill, Hawfinch, Caspian Gull, Dipper, Water Pipit, Bufflehead, Swallow, Siberian Chiffchaff, Slavonian & 45 Black-necked Grebes, Little Gull, Balearic Shearwater, Ring-necked Duck, Cirl Bunting, Red-breasted Goose, American Wigeon, Surf Scoter, both Yellow-browed & Hume's Leaf Warbler, Richard's Pipit, Spoonbill and Little Auk.

I shall be repeating this tour again next January so if you would like to reserve a place, please email me at LGREUK400@aol.com

I will also be conducting a Round Britain tour in May of this year commencing on Thursday 17 May, the first four days in Scotland and then moving south - possibly two spaces remaining

Other forthcoming tours with vacancies include my February trips to Egypt (5 days) and Spain (for Spanish Lynx, Wallcreepers, Spanish Imperial Eagles and bustards - 24-27 Feb), Israel (March), Goshawk display (March), Georgia, Morocco, Estonia and Cape Verde Islands in April and Turkey in early July

Springwatch MALTA 2012

Birdlife Malta have released the dates for Spring Watch 2012 conservation camp in Malta and have a promotional video on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uaK_dkQ8us&list=UUJ9OBmt5rb2pGzRZeSoYLUA&index=1&feature=plcp .

Please check it out and help out if you can preserve the many thousands of migrating birds using Malta as a gateway to Europe

SPANISH SPARROW on TV

see link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16515456

SPANISH SPARROWING

A total of 82 birdwatchers gathered from dawn at Calshot this morning, gradually swelling to just 110 by mid-morning - a far smaller turnout than I had envisaged for a vagrant that has not been twitchable in Britain since 1998. As expected, the bird appeared in the hedgerow opposite the cul-de-sac just after 0800 hours and then spent an hour moving between the two hedgerows either side of the road and the larger Hawthorn. It afforded outstanding views and many photographs were taken. Everyone was impeccably behaved and adhered to on-site instructions. Local birder Bruce Gwynn acted as management and did a sterling job, eventually escorting small parties down the private road once the sparrows started feeding. Certainly whilst I was there, everyone parked where they were supposed to.

The bird typically became elusive after 0900 hours - primarily visiting the chicken coup and feeding out of view. Occasionally, he returned to the roadside hedgerow but these visits were few and far between. From 1000 hours, he generally retired from view and some observers had over three hours wait before they got a glimpse. As I stated in a previous posting, to be sure of seeing this bird well, plan to arrive early and give yourself a 0800-0900 hours time slot.

DIRECTIONS: Follow the B 3053 SE to as far as it goes into Calshot village, 5 miles SE of Hythe. Continue into the one-way system and take advantage of up to 200 free car parking spaces in this vicinity. Walk back 500 yards to the junction with the private MOD cul-de-sac, clearly marked with ''Police No Parking'' cones and observe from the verges. The bird is favouring the thick hedgerows either side of the main road, particularly that section adjacent to the boat with flowers.

Not that far away, at Hawkhill Inclosure in the New Forest, the first-winter male DARK-EYED JUNCO was showing at regular intervals, moving between 3 or 4 fallen pines and perching readily out in the open. The clearing is just 100 yards NW of the parking area.

This site is also very good for COMMON CROSSBILLS and a male WOODLARK was singing there today.

Elsewhere in the New Forest, the regular wintering GREAT GREY SHRIKE was showing well today at Beaulieu Road Station at Bishop's Dyke, in birches and scrub 400 yards beyond the bridge south of Shatterford car park. This forest area also yielded both DARTFORD WARBLERS and WOODLARKS and a number of early Small Tortoiseshell butterflies

At HARBRIDGE WATER MEADOWS, the EGYPTIAN GEESE pair were on the main flood and both the adult WHOOPER SWAN and the 3 BEWICK'S SWANS were with the 203 Mute Swans in the first field beyond the church.

Ibsley Water held 11 GOOSANDER, 7 PINTAIL and the continuing BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, whilst the juvenile female BLUE-WINGED TEAL and redhead SMEW remained on the south lake at LONGHAM LAKES