Today was an ace day, travelled to Northumberland for first light and saw Greater Yellowlegs and Grey Phalarope at Hauxley NR, then headed off to Marden Quarry where the 1w Lesser Scaup showed nicely amongst a whole array of 'interesting' wildfowl!
Then a quick stop at Boldon Flats saw some stunning White-fronts really close to the road! No sign of the Nightingale at Whitburn CP, so we headed down the road to Marsden Quarry to do some proper birding!
What an cracking place! Habbo looks spot on and its had some birds over the years! After 15mins of only seeing one Blackbird we picked up a Swift over the quarry top!!! 13th November and a Swift! Luckily it stuck around and allowed us to have great prolonged views, but the conditions were rubbish! Thick fog and no light but the bird seemed really brown and blunt wing tipped, in the end we erred on the side of caution and think pekinensis could be a good shout! A Sparrowhawk gave a scare when it went for it! But it evaded capture but dissapeared off just as the light was improving! Hopefully it will be relocated in the morning! Whilst watching it we had a large Pipit go over call once and dissapear into the fog, further attempts to track it down were fruitless!
Although since pekinensis isn't on the British list, and "only a ringing recovery from the core range of pekinensis or molecular support is likely to confirm this subtle taxon in a vagrant context", going for Pallid Swift, in this case, might in fact be the more cautious direction in which to err.
ReplyDeleteYou will have to specify why you felt it was not either Common or Pallid.If the Sparrowhawk had taken it you might have got some feathers for molecular analysis. You will have to write it up properly with drawings.
ReplyDeleteInteresting a swift reported through Spurn today was put as ?Common/Pallid