SPURN

Today was awesome! 

Go on the Huttman! Gutted my dissertation is in next week though!

Recently

Despite being really busy with dissertation work at the moment I've still been able to squeeze in plenty of mainly evening trips to Hes East, highlights being

12/04
Arctic Tern on main lake (patch tick)
Black-tailed Godwit (patch tick) through with 7 Grey Plover!
First Swallows and Sand Martins

13/04
first Yellow Wagtail, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler

14/04
Osprey through north east

Note full crop. Also limited breast band indicating male?

15/04
Quick twitch to Flamborough for the stunning 2cy drake Baikal Teal and an early Swift

Red Kite through west
Pintail over south (patch tick)
Jay (3rd personal patch record)

16/04
fall of Wheatear with 26 on Hes East and 58! in the wider Heslington area with 29 in 1 field!!!

17/04 
male Peregrine

18/04
2 Arctic Terns in morning increasing to 4 in the evening along with a Common
17+ Wheatear

Showed down to 3ft!

Experimented with a bit of slow motion video, really need to use this more!!!




Reason why I'm making time to do this post is that it is partly dissertation related!

Basically I'd like some opinions on the following;

The increase in wintering Blackcaps in the UK is a result of increase in non-native plants in gardens and increase in wild bird feeding. 'Reverse' migrants were always coming to Britain but would either re-orientate to winter or only be present in small numbers, however the above reasons caused this population to increase as birds with this genetic pre-disposition returned and bred and so this sub-population increased.

Linking this to Yellow-browed Warblers, if we assume that they have a similar relationship and are finding new wintering areas and so increasing on passage in Britain, what factors has caused them to increase? 

So what I'd like to hear opinions on is what people think the equivalent of what non-native plants and increase in wild bird feeding did for Blackcaps is for Yellow-browed Warblers?

This is forming part of my discussion, so just curious to hear peoples opinions at the moment, have a few of my own but just curious as to what others think! Hope it makes sense!

Either drop a comment below or send me an email on timmyjones1234@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Spring

Finally feel like it spring today!

An evening at Hes East produced;

Arctic and Common Terns spent all evening fishing around the main lake

7 Grey Plover and a Black-tailed Godwit

21 Swallow and 5 Sand Martin through north east

Really good birding and 2 patch ticks!

Aythya Hybrid

Managed to get some photos of the Aythya hybrid thats been doing the rounds in the LDV recently, click on images for a larger photo, comments would be really appreciated!

Seems to be a pretty good Lesser Scaup wing pattern?

Nice amount of restricted black on nail

peak on head seems to far forward

black on nail can look larger at times, confusingly so! Maybe due to water on bill?

head shape just before a dive

In the field it looks to be slightly larger than a Tufted Duck and the mantle has very faint vermiculations, views are alright probably around 500 m away from Garganey hide

Is this what a Scaup x Lesser Scaup looks like?!

Russell Slack

Thought I'd put a quick note on here to make sure anyone who wants to come to Russell Slack's funeral tomorrow knows the details;

Russell's funeral will take place on Friday 15th March at 1pm(tomorrow), at St. Helen's Church, Wheldrake and afterwards a celebration of his life at the Swallow Hotel, Crockey Hill Golf Course

At Russell's request no black/tie or suits. Please come casually dressed.

Donations will be taken for Macmillans and local Wheldrake Trust (details to follow, but to involve support for the LDV and academic courses involving Ornithology).

Kumlien's

Went up to North Uist and saw the Harlequin Duck that's been up there nearly a week now. 

Looked seriously cool when it got out on the rocks!

Stunning bird and more on that later however for now I am going to post more gull photos....


After walking away from the duck Me and Ollie Metcalf found this stunner

Juv Kumlien's Gull!

Cracking trip!

Caspian no.6

Yes another post on gulls.... I make no apologies!

Chris managed to find another! 1w Caspian Gull in York 2 days ago, taking the tally upto 6!

He kindly sent me some photos on to post up

Although hard to see in these photos the bird had a yellow darvic ring on its right leg, showing that it had more than likely came from Poland!

On top of this we seem to have had an influx of white-wingers in the last week with a tally after today of 4-5 Glaucous Gulls all juvs and 3+ Iceland Gulls (4w, 2w and 1+ juvs) also an Adult at Wheldrake the other night increases the York area total by another and completes the age categories for the area, Kumlein's next? That Anglers adult would be nice!

Also got to see this last weekend

Nice bird

Also I have set up a Twitter feed for York area Local, Scare and Rare bird news, follow @Yorkbirding to receive these tweets, link here https://twitter.com/YorkBirding

Cach Review

So with yet another Caspian Gull in York yesterday! I decided to do a review showing all the different birds that between me, Chris Gomersall, Ollie Metcalf and Andy Walker we have managed to pick out of the 10,00 gulls that have been visiting Rufforth Tip

As the viewing conditions don't allow for precise feather detail to be photographed and so compare individual birds this way, the best way I think to tell individual birds from each other are on the amount of white on the tertials and the facial profile.

Bird no.1 has a very petite facial profile and a nice thin white line on the tertial fringe.

Bird no.2 has a very elongated facial profile and a fairly thick lip on the tertial fringe

Bird no.3 has a elongated facial profile and barely any white on the tertial fringe

Bird no.4 has a moderate facial profile and a thin white line on the tertial fringe

On this basis bird 1 and 4 seem the most similar. However I think that size compared to the Herring Gulls around them and having spoken to Chris I believe that they are indeed different birds.

And in this...

And that makes 5 different birds!

With hindsight we have discussed the adult that we claimed on 10/01 and have decided that it probably wasn't one after all and so won't be submitting it.

Having had a look at the birds in Sheffield, if I understand correctly they've had;

2x 1w

2w

3w

3x ad

The 2w is deffinatley different to the York bird and the latest first winter (photos here ) has not been seen in York, however the previous 1w may have been, its not bird 1, but I wouldn't like to say if it is one of the others.

Still plenty of time to find some more this winter!

Just goes to show that these birds were having in York will probably turn out to be the 4th-8th accepted records for the York area!!! MEGA!