PERDIX BIRDER

Back home after a week away. Spring has marched forward in that little time and the flowering Blackthorn is starting to go over in places. Moderate Southerlies with cloud and a patch first for me as I climbed the cliff – a singing Cetti’s warbler where the A2 crosses the cliff path, which could be heard even from the western end of Foxhill down. Little else between there and Light house down where a Water pipit flew up channel.

Single figures of Yellow Wagtails over and just shy of 20 Swallows but the (unexpected) highlight of the morning was a 2nd calander year Goshawk which I picked up over the Lighthouse and Top wood.

In active flight almost entirely at first, it showed some interest in chasing corvids but carried on generally North and was lost to view.

My second here after an adult male last March. Im disappointed not to have seen where it appeared from – following the coast or indeed in off the sea but there you go. 2 Marsh Harriers Flew out to Sea in a NE direction during the morning.

Before going away (on the 10th) I had a Little–ringed Plover fly down channel (barely annual here) and a Short eared Owl flew in over the cliffs at the lighthouse, the same or another flew out to sea and disappeared shortly after.

Several stark omissions to the list of birds I’ve seen up here so far this spring, hopefully that will change in the coming week as I will be birding most days till mid june now.

Light Southeasterlies early April, I was hoping for a little more than was delivered but a pleasant morning still.

2 Willow Warblers were singing in Langdon, a trickle of Swallows throughout the morning probably 25 Birds, all seemingly in off the sea, 9 Sand Martins also, my first of the year.

Finally some Wheatears, with 2 along the tarmac path, another 2 just inland on the dung heap and a single bird at the old airstrip, 4 White wagtails all in off the sea and 2 hours looking out to sea for raptors produced a Common buzzard that arrived over the harbour around midday.

Working in London this week sadly, just as things seem to have begun.

Back from Hong Kong on the 1st and keen to get up to speed with spring here Ive put in a little more effort than the first days of April warrant perhaps and have little to show for it beyond my first Willow warblers of the year (one on the 1st and one on the 3rd). A passage of 530 Chaffinches on the 2nd contained at least 10 Bramblings, heard mostly but a few seen among the groups. More Siskins moving now too. A singing Black Redstart on the 2nd was my first in song this year but still no Wheatear for me.

An afternoon slog up the cliffs on the 2nd was fruitless for me but visiting birder Kevin R picked out a Hooded Crow, among corvids in the recently ploughed field next to Sherley’s farm. He and David T watched it until it appeared to fly off late pm. Today It flew over my head as I crossed the top fields late morning and settled in the ploughed field again.

Nice bird. Squally weather with 40mph Sw’erlies. Not my usual ‘dash up the cliffs’ weather but nice to give it a go.

I’ve not done one of these blog posts for a while, despite several visits to Hong Kong every since my last post on the place, I thought they’d got abit repetitive. However, heres a photo dump from my recent visit, I tend to photograph things that take my fancy. An excellent place to bird, I visited Long valley 3 times and Mai Po once during my stay there. The tide was good at Mai po for the morning but a strong heat haze on the mud from the floating hides made photography abit frutstrating so I didnt bother with the camera much there.

The walk to the floating tides was highlighted by the below: numerous Black-winged stilts, a few Tiaga Flycatchers, a Little bunting among several Black faced buntings and OBP’s that flush into trees as you traverse the path from the main gate, noisy Pied Kingfishers here and there and an impressive 1st winter Eastern Imperial Eagle that I saw 3 times over the morning.

Long Valley has been modified into a nature reserve since my last visit, whilst still working farmland and paddy-fields it is managed for wildlife and essentially a large wetland area with decent areas of scrub too, an elegant Marsh sandpipier below, common at all wetlands I’ve visited in HK.

Some visits were better for migrants than others, one day in particular saw good numbers of Barn swallows passing through with smaller numbers of Eastern Red-rumped swallows and House swifts (below), Oriental Pratincoles too.

Dusky warblers, alongside Yellow Browed warblers are the most ubiquitous phylloscs .

Red-throated pipits, another species that I actively seek out for abit of portraiture, many are going through body moult right now but some are approaching their finery.

And finally – Ocularis White wagtails, a.k.a East siberian Wagtail, migrate through HK. A subspecies of particular interest to me and my favourite alba Wagtail. The following three are all different individuals, presumably first year males showing reduced white in the greater coverts in comparison to adults, still quite a unique median covert pattern.

A first year male Amur stonechat above and a fantastic drake Garganey below, both easy to see here.

The third day in a row of moderate North Easterly winds, at this time of year means Chaffinch movement here. Numbers built each day with 790 on the 19th, 1,085 on the 20th and 1,880 today. Ive missed ‘big Chaffinch days’ (with c10,000 birds moving for example) in previous years and personally havent’ got past 4,000 but todays movement was still impressive, with groups of 30-70 birds moving fairly low in a North Easterly direction some dropping below the cliffs over the harbour and coming over head as I stood on the Eastern side of Langdon hole, the extra height of this site does seem to give it a special advantage with counting this species in early spring and it is an event I look forward to each year.

5 Brambling, 10 Greenfinches a House sparrow also counted, sub 10 numbers of these species most days this week and a Crossbill on the 19th was noted.

Despite updates to this blog being reduced so far this year, I have actually been out looking regularly. No wheatear so far but a Swallow along the cliff tops on the 20th was my first trans-Saharan migrant of the year. White Wagtails have occured in 1s and 2s most days since the first few days of March, in of the sea mainly or in a ploughed field on Reach road and Rock pipits moving slightly inland suggest migrants to me.

Red Kites have been pushed against the coast to in recent days with 5 on the 20th, Jason M had a Black Kite over the valley on this day, a species that still eludes me locally!

A Black redstart on the 19th was still present today, (numbers should pick up soon) Chiffchaffs and Firecrests are dotted around and 2 singing blackcaps were noted as I climbed the cliff path this morning.

Today I fly to Hong Kong for almost 2 weeks work, Its a fantastic work trip for birding opportunities so I am looking forward to that, back up the cliffs in early April.

With white winged gulls being so scarce this winter/these days generally I was surprised to pick up this Iceland-type along the cliff tops at light house down y’day. Quickly aware from the dark markings throughout the primaries that it was infact a bird photographed early last month (my apologies I dont know who by) in North Kent and ID’d as a Kumlien’s gull by Rich Bonser. I’d originally had some reservations about this ID from the safety of my armchair due to the nature of said markings and particularly in 2nd winter birds. To me it seemed that the inner primary markings were equally as dark as the outers and the primary coverts were actually darker still, literature suggests that these features are OK for nominate glaucoides, whereas kumlieni should show, among other things, clearly darker outer webs to the outer primaries which are themselves darker than inners.

I wondered if the nature of the markings across the entire flight feathers and primary coverts (which cross into the inner webs) was actually general brown ‘smudging’ reminiscent of darker Iceland gulls rather than the ghost of a future Kumlien’s Gull type primary pattern.

Back to the cliff top situation – the bird was circling with a group of gulls, presumably turfed off a roost with the rising tide, so some quite nice views were afforded and I got the following photos which do add detail to the ones gathered last month, these perhaps show that the outer most primaries are in fact a little darker than the inners along with the light tail band and darker iris hasten me to join the Kumlien’s camp despite votes for both glaucoides and kumlieni from esteemed gulling colleagues. The topic is somewhat subjective plus this age especially I do find tricky, and with the species group in general situated in a grey area can one really be certain? and do we even need to be!? Beautiful bird.

Thanks to Rich B, Mars M, Josh J, Bruce M and Dave C for input.

Click here for an excellent post on Gullresearch.org, a particularly pertinent link tracking the year by year progress of a returning Dutch Kumlien’s Gull throughout all ages .

Another link to a dark Iceland , and a reason to be wary

Last link to ponder on.

I have been away for alot of winter but the times I have spent at home have been have been pretty lean for Gulls.

Todays strong winds and overcast skies seemed good for gulls and a high tide session at st Margaret’s yielded 9 different Caspian Gulls: 3 First winters, 2 second winters, 2 third winters and 2 adults. I was joined by some of South east kent’s finest: Nigel, Gerald and Phil.

4 Yellow legged gulls also present, second winter below.

I had meant to post some photos from the, apparently no longer, spot in the harbour where Gulls were loafing. It seemed very productive and I was sure it would be great throughout the winter but for some reason i havent seen a gull there since the end of December. So to mark its short life here are some Caspian Gulls loafing in the sand pit.

Setting off to Islay tomorrow for Amy’s birthday, I hope she likes geese.

This blog has been rather neglected over the past 8 weeks, its unusual for me not to post something during deepest darkest winter but my usual quarry at this time of year (Gulls) have been rather on the quiet side, So a photo dump from recent work trip just North of Puerto Escondido, Southern Mexico will hopefully provide some interest. Amazing birds and wildlife in general.

Above & below: Male Vermillion flycatchers, such stunning birds.

Double-striped thick knee

Male Streak-backed Oriole

Great Kiskadee

Above & below: Ash throated flycatcher.

Orange-breasted bunting

White throated Magpie Jays

Common Parauque.

Lark Sparrow.

Tropical Kingbird.

What an incredible place.

An afternoon visit up the cliffs in almost undetectably light SW wind and a clear blue sky was highlighted by a lovely Snow bunting. Seen the day before by fellow Dovarian David T the bird fed along the track to Fan bay, one of the usual spots this charming species turns up in annually.

Later on Colin and I watched it a little further East along the tarmac path in warm late afternoon light. A woodcock and several Firecrests were in the Valley.

Im away now travelling till Christmas. Looking forward to some gulls over that period!

Strong Southerlies first thing and a wild looking sea from st Margaret’s. A close in Leach’s Petrel downchannel was the highlight early on, making little headway and nicely on view for around 5 minutes followed by a long period of nothing notable bar a Sooty Shearwater which i missed when i went to get myself, Phil and Jack coffees.

The rain stopped, winds dropped and shifted to the west and the cloud begin to thin out, I began throwing bread and we got at least 8 Different Caspian Gulls into the melee (4 x 1st winter, 3 x 2nd winter and a 4th winter) also at least 3 Yellow legged amoung them.