Pied Wheatear at Seaford

It's been a busy couple of weeks but I found myself free on Friday morning so asked Jim if he'd like me to take him down to Seaford as he still needed Pied Wheatear for a life tick and of course he wanted to try.

We set off at 5am to miss some of the commute traffic and this helped make the 100 mile trip in less than two hours. We parked up at the far end of the esplanade and searched for the parking meter which to my shock didn't exist as this was a very rare free parking zone. Amazing you could leave your car sitting still in the road and didn't have to give anybody money to do it, what's the world coming to.

The old hotel at Seaford

From the car park we could see the brick ruins of the old hotel and walked up to search for the Wheatear hoping it had remained and within a few minutes the first sighting was reported by another of the four of us searching for it. We quickly got on it to give Jim his eighth life tick of the year and me my 249th year tick. The bird remained mobile but never left the area of the ruin although it would hide for periods and would rarely sit still out in the open.

Two Black Redstarts were also present with the female "type" showing really well walking around our feet at times. Lot's of Meadow Pipit and a couple of Rock Pipit were busy feeding in the grassy areas too. 

Buzzard

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Rock Pipit

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

The old hotel

Year list now 249

Lapland Bunting at Staines reservoir

It's been a sad and difficult few days with the sad passing of my mother in law Tuesday morning following a long struggle with dimentia but I had a few hours spare this afternoon so decided I'd run around the M25 and try to see the Lapland Bunting at Staines in order to lift my spirits a bit.

I parked and walked up the ramp leading to the east of the causeway and quickly discovered three birders enjoying the very showy confiding Lapland Bunting. I joined them and one of the guys laid his coat on the ground for me to use in order to get some low profile shots. I jogger came up the ramp but on hearing about the bird agreed to take a different route so as not to disturb the bird. There are still some good people.

The bird entertained us all in the murky dark dank conditions but with high ISO and a bit of compensation I was able to grab a few pleasing shots of this new bird for my London list. 

Year list 248

London recording area list 241

Long-billed Dowitcher at Rainham

I haven't had a sniff of any birding for almost a month so when news came in this morning of a Long-billed Dowitcher being found at Rainham by Dave Smith and being well placed at my sons house in Hornchurch I couldn't help but make the ten minute drive for a chance of connecting with it. I had no binoculars or camera but luckily had the scope in the car so headed over to look for the bird and on arrival two guys were stood by the bench overlooking Purfleet scrape but told me the bird had recently flown off towards Target pools. I didn't really have time to walk round the reserve searching for the bird so decided I'd wait ten minutes and see if by chance it would return to Purfleet and within minutes I picked it up flying towards us with a group of Lapwing. I watched it land on a small island and managed to get the two guys with me on it and then a few more turned up and I was able to help them before rushing off back to my sons to play puppets and dragons etc with the grandchildren for what was a lovely day all round.

Scoping Purfleet scrape for the distant Dowitcher

The Dowitcher is a first ever for Rainham marshes and is also not only a year tick for me but both a London and Essex tick to boot.

Year list now 247

Essex list now 282

London list now 240

The history of Long billed Dowitcher in Essex is limited with just nine previous records and the last being the Tilbury bird of 2011.

As for London well there's just two previous records both at Staines with a bird in 1977 on the reservoir being a first for London followed by another bird on Staines Moor in 1987 so this is only a third for London and as such will attract a little local interest.

The small local twitch

The Dowitcher (on the right)

Sub Species

The latest talk of losing a few species to sub species had me thinking of all the sub-species I've encountered over the years.

Those that were at one time full species include

Common/Meally Redpoll  (Acanthis flammea flammea)

Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis Caberet)

Couse's Arctic Redpoll (Acanthis Hornemanni exilipes)

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll (Acanthis Hornemanni hornemanni)

and of course there's also the Greenland Redpoll (Acanthis flammea rostrata)

All these subspecies of Redpoll are now listed just as Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) (the old name for Common Redpoll)

so although I've seen all these I've counted all these five sub species as one Species on my official list 

(449 +4 =453)

I've seen Steppe Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor pallidirostris) which was a species in it's own right but since reduced to sub species of Great Grey Shrike. (Lanius excubitor) (453 +1 = 454)

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Then the sub species that have always been confined to sub species........

Black Brant (Branta bernicla nigracans)

Pale-bellied Brent Goose (Branta bernicla hrota)

Dark-bellied Brent Goose (Branta bernicla bernicla)

All listed to species Brent Goose (Branta bernicla)

(454 + 2 = 456)

Todd's Canada Goose (Branta canadensis interior) listed with Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)

(456 + 1 = 457)

Black-headed Wagtail (Matacilla flava feldegg) 

Grey headed Wagtail (Matacilla flava thunbergi)

Chanel Wagtail (Matacilla flava flavissima x flava)

these three sub species that I've seen listed with or as Yellow Wagtail (Matacilla flava)

(457 +3 = 460)

American Black Tern (Chlidonias niger surinamensis)

Listed with and as Black Tern (Chlidonias niger)

(260 + 1 = 461)

Kumliens Gull (Larus glaucoides kumlieni)  

Listed with and as Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides)

(461 + 1 = 462)

Northern Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus caudatus)

Listed as and with Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)

(462 + 1 = 463 )

American horned Lark (Eremorphila alpestris alpestris)

Listed as and with Shore Lark (Eremorphila alpestris) 

(463 + 1 = 464)

Siberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita tristis)

Listed as and with (Phylloscopus collybita) 

(464 +1 = 465) 

Black bellied Dipper (Cinclus cinclus cinclus)

Listed as and with Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

(465 + 1 = 466)

Scandinavian Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus littoralis)

Listed as and with Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus)

(466 + 1 = 467)

Russian White-fronted Goose (Anser Albifrons albifrons) and Greenland White-fronted Goose ( Anser albifrons flavirostoris)

Both listed as Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)

(467 +1 = 468)

so there it is....if I include sub species in addition to my list of 449 full species I have a total of 468

an additional 19 bird types seen but a pointless exercise as I keep my British list in line with BOU records so it remains at 449 for now.

Another IOC update due

I try to follow BOU (British Ornithologists Union) rulings when it comes to my lists and update as they do which they do in line with IOC (International Ornithological Community) changes. This has cost me Steppe Grey Shrike and three Redpoll species as the IOC maintained their list with lumping these leaving them now as sub species. 

Well the IOU (International Ornithologists Union) have now stepped in to bring the IOC together with Clements/EBird and Birdlife International to produce one globally recognised bird taxonomy list. They set up a working group of ornithologists in 2018 to bring about the agreed list and the news leaking from the group is that in the UK we could lose Green-winged Teal which looks to become a sub-species of our Eurasian Teal, Hooded Crow which will become a sub-species of Carrion Crow and Hudsonian Whimbrel looks set to become a sub-species of Eurasian Whimbrel meaning I'll lose these three from my British list if this does indeed happen as part of the review.

Also affected could be Stejneger's Stonechat and Siberian Stonechat which look likely to be lumped and this again would result in me losing yet another bird from my total British list and Yelkouan and Balearic Shearwater looks likely to become one species and referred to as Mediterranean Shearwater, this won't affect me having dipped Yelkouan Shearwater a while back.

Once agreed the final list will be called AviList and will become the global list of taxonomic species globally. Currently the three lists from the three parties listed above (IOC 11276 / Clement 11017 and Birdlife Int. 11524) shows variation of upto 507 species and this work will bring them all in line which obviously makes sense but it would be nice if once in a while this kind of work produced some additions to the life list.

The work is due to be finalised later this year and published early in 2025 so I'm bracing myself for another four losses to my list in 2025. Will I ever get to the next landmark of 450 and does it really matter anyway?

Northern Lights

 I've been on this planet for sixty years and I've never come close to seeing the Northern Lights.

I missed the show earlier this year because a) I didn't believe I'd be able to see them and b) I was lazy so when there was talk this week of a second chance I took a bit more notice. I'd just watched England lose to Greece and decided to check the sky for signs of the promised showing from the North and I was amazed I could actually see the red and green in the sky. I called Suzanne and she managed a look from the bedroom window and I walked around the corner to get a clearer view without the street lights. At the top of the hill the lights were much more visible and when I lifted the phone/camera the views were even better allowing me to grab an image to remember the night by.

Pleased I made the effort to look outside on this occasion and pleased the sky was clear enough for us to see the show.

Now where's that next bird coming from?

Hoopoe at North Walsham in Norfolk

For a while I struggled to connect with Hoopoe but now they're almost annual on my year lists.

I've seen birds in Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Hampshire, Staffordshire, Herts and Cambridgeshire but I haven't seen one since 2022 so made an effort to drive to North Walsham to make sure I didn't go another year without seeing one. 

Arriving at the reported site I was amazed to see the bird just pottering about on the small front lawn of the bungalow ignoring the birders/toggers a few feet away. I joined them, laid myself down on the path to the amusement of the locals and took a few (140) images of the bird as it walked around the lawn coming to within about seven feet of me at times. It was regularly pulling beetle lavae from below the surface. The crest would occasionally lift in the wind or when the bird was startled by a car pulling up or pulling away.

I've seen confiding Hoopoes before but this bird took it to another level and I'm so pleased I made the effort to visit it.

It was bird 246 for 2024