Author: Jamie Partridge

After flying from Hong kong over the entire Palearctic yesterday I woke up early this morning and wanted to catch up with spring birding here in the UK. 3 weeks ago I left for China before even seeing a Blackcap so finding a male Common Redstart this morning on Walthamstow Marsh was more than I would have settled for.

It stayed distant and I didn’t put too much effort into getting close as watching it flycatching from the fence was good enough. The Redstart flitted into view moments after I heard my first Willow Warbler of the year and a few minutes before seeing  my first Wheatear followed by all three Hirundines, so I’m nicely up to date now I think!

After that excitement I met with DB and LB for a walk over the reservoirs, whilst boasting to Lol about my new(ish) and excellent bins I had brief views of a Short-eared Owl high over the central path, we all saw the bird a few minutes later in the same view as a Red kite that was similarly picked up high over the site and one or two Common Buzzards were the same story. I also realised I’d never taken a single photo of our returning Greater Scaup, who takes up residence on number 4 reservoir each winter and will surely be off soon, so heres a pic.

A Male Pied Flycatcher had been found the day before by Sean Huggins at Mudchute Park in tower hamlets, its not often I twitch things but ive never seen a spring male in London and I also wont get time to do my usual trip back up North this year as ill be in Canada so thought why not? Im so glad i did as It was delightful, nice to bump into Martin Hallam, and later John Archer and Nick Tanner. After they left I had it to myself which is really what I was waiting for.  It appears to be a first summer male, showing brown first generation wing feathers and some brown greater coverts. The ultimate spring bird for me.

The first leg of a three week work trip to Shanghai and Hong kong. 10 days staying in the very centre of ‘the worlds biggest city’. I’d done some research and quickly it became clear that I was going to see some excellent birds in the parks, As usual my focus would be on birds of relevance to vagrancy in the UK, perhaps my next trip  will branch out a little. But from what I could gather I was likely to see wintering thrushes,  Warblers and buntings. My hotel was 20 minutes from the largest urban green space: Century Park. 

The Park itself was a similar size to Regents park perhaps, with ‘wilder’ areas which held the better concentration of birds.  The thrushes were a real highlight, starting with my favourite of the trip, White’s Thrush A new bird for me and my first views were like a dream, an odd sized bird flushed through the forest floor, bold striped underwing in and out of dappled light and posed, half hidden. Incredible

I saw about 3 or 4 during my trip and each one was a joy.  An area of mature  trees and wet ground held other species of thrush, a flock of 20+ Dusky thrushes were mostly seen in flight and hard to pin down at first, according to ebird a Nauman’s thrush was present too but I didnt see it. 

the following were new birds for me: 2 Eyebrow thrushes, many Pale and also Grey–Backed,(in that order below) the first year males of this species were excellently plumaged, better than the adults i thought.

Red–Flanked Bluetails were stationed at regular intervals.

most were 1st winter types but I did happen upon 2 different adult males one morning.

Occasionally A Daurian Redstart would have a go at one, they looked brilliant stood in on the ground, resting mid tussle next to one another.

I had one Yellow Browed Warbler but by far the most common phyllosc were Pallas‘, these called and sang at intervals too, some very bright birds and some mid body moult.

Id heard Olive–Backed pipits on my first visit to the park and hadn’t managed to get views of them till the last day where I figured out they were walking about in the long grass flushing to the trees when people approached to take photos of the flowers(a seeminlgy popular past time in China)  

Next up Emberiza Buntings of which I saw two Species, Black-Faced (Below)…

and the bird of the trip for me – Yellow–throated Bunting, what a bird. WHAT a bird.

Long Tailed shrikes were very common and present even in the smallest green spaces in the city, a contrast to Hong Kong were I only saw them outside the city in previous years.

Below a Leucopsis Alba Wagtail,

Next up the Gulls, Nothing to get too excited about really, Mongolian Gulls were the most common, the adults with that huge tertial cresent and fleshy pink legs, 

First years quite Caspian like in some ways- tail and inner primary window pattern, and sometimes expression in flight but not in others.

.. and Taimyr gulls (below).  I think mid winter should be better for gulls. I will be visiting Shanghai again with more regularity in future so expect a fairly regular post from there!

At this point in March I usually make a trip down to the East Sussex coast in the hope of an early migrant or two with LP. The usual urgency to grab a glimpse of the year’s earliest migratory birds wasn’t quite as potent as it often is this time of year as id seen 4 Swallows down near Dunge off the back of the warm southerly weather a couple of weeks ago, back on the 23rd Feb!

Currently we are a week into constant blustery weather from the west and todays winds reached 50+ mph at the south coast. Not great for watching anything so luckily the previous day had yielded a few things to look at.

LP and I checked Belle tout woods on Beachy head first thing Sat and had 2 maybe 3 Firecrests, whilst the Cuckmere held a couple of littoralis Rock Pipits, some amorous Med gulls and this Glossy Ibis thats been knocking around.

Next up we checked west rise marsh for a Sand Martin or perhaps a Garganey, neither were present although a small group of smart Pintail, one or two Water pipits and the below White Wagtail were signifiers of the comings and goings of this time of year.

As we made our way back to the car we came across 10 or so Gulls and I could make out the familiar facial expression of a Caspian Gull standing face on within the ensemble.  After getting a little closer I could see the also familiar cadmium yellow darvic ring alerting me that this 2nd winter bird would likely be born and ringed in east Germany. A nice, big snouty thing.

Ringed at the usual spot by the very efficient Ronald Klein who replied to my email less that 24 hours later with the birds info.

The following morning, despite a weather warning and 50 mph winds, we hit Dungeness, Short version of the story is that there were lots of gulls but nothing of interest other than a 2cy Yellow-Legged Gull amoung them and a wind that got up my nose.

Thats probably my last post for a while, I travel to China next week with work: Ten days in Shanghai followed by ten days in Hong Kong, so expect some of that stuff for the foreseeable.

Here are some of the Common Gulls I came across in Istanbul. according to the Peter Adriaens & Chris Gibbins paper from Dutch birding a couple of years ago Istanbul was a research location for heinei Common gulls, most of what I was seeing were likely from decent ‘Russian’ stock, they did have that look and showed:

• A Clean white, mostly un-streaked head with Casp-like neck Shawl
• Pink/bright Bill base
• Clean white rump and upper tail, a neatish Black tail band
• Mostly White underwing, contrasting with dark secondaries
• A long winged appearance, with a dark inner primary window
• 2nd generation Scapulars are darker than canus, many with brown chevrons and markings contrasting with the darker choclately remaining wing coverts, (unless bleached as some were)

The next few birds shows some head streaking but give a similar feel to me in terms of the tones in the wing and mantle, could well be from an intergrade zone or just variation … dunno

The Below photo was taken in Cyprus December 2016, a similar thing going on, long winged, bug eyed thing.

Ive seen a few Candidates in the UK, with one in particular showing almost every feature but the usual let down over here is the lack of an un-streaked almost pure white head which I suppose gives that impression of a small round head with a large eye and the expression seen on the clean headed birds above. According to the BBRC heinei common gulls are something along the lines of ‘probably only scarce’ due to a number of birds ringed in a catch of common gulls being assigned to heinei on biometrics (mainly wing length i think) 

2 nights stay in Istanbul for Amy’s birthday. The destination was her choice but I was defiantly pleased as I had an inkling it would be good for gulls.

I’d heard mixed reviews from ‘a good number of caspian gulls’ to ‘none at all!’ and I guess dates have alot to do with that. However in between the multitude of Yellow-Legs I probably saw 40+ Caspian Gulls. There were also a mix of Canus and Heninei Common Gulls, (Blog post for them coming soon) thousands of Black–headed and one or two Slender Billed gulls.

Despite it being a trip to see the cultural and historic delights of Istanbul and not a Caspian paparazzi outing I managed to photograph a good few birds, Many more were seen just flying around, following boats and sat around in the small harbour at Kadikoy. I didn’t locate the best spot for seeing birds on the deck but here’s selection of the birds I photographed:

This next bird was a delight, following the boat for 5 minutes giving point black views sometimes even too close for the 100-400mm Zoom.

The only other age other than 1st winters were a couple of 2nd winters, this one below with tiny p10 mirrors.

The Sound of a few Caspian Gulls squabbling over bread was music to my ears and I think i’l make an effort to get out that direction again before April arrives.

The Sunday before last I was driving away from a fairly quiet morning gulling in the Crayford area when I got a text from Dante, “We just found a Bonies, Erith Pier” my heart sunk as i couldn’t go and see the bird and having been there myself at low tide that morning I’d have loved to have been there for the find. Hey ho, and very happy for Rich and Dante picking it up on call! Today was the first chance I’ve had to go ad see it and despite it not been reported for over a week it came to bread at the end of the pier and performed a treat, often being the closest bird and calling on a few occasions.  A truly wonderful bird.

Strong sunlight gave the bird an alien impression when flying into the light, very distinctive translucency in the wing.

Other than that I’ve seen a couple of Caspian Gulls since the last blog post. below a pic of the Polish regular p:985 from Crayford.

…and below some shots from Erith a week a so ago. Firstly German Ringed Caspian from Laßig colony (quite a nice German bird)

Followed by this nice 2nd winter which seems to be new to the area.

and this slim dark 1st winter Casp, which has been seen at Crayford before.

Finally a big ol’ 1w Yellow-Legged Gull. 

3 Hours at Crayford Viridor today with Dante and I closely missed a/the Glaucous Gull which may or may not have been the bird from last weekend. I picked up an Adult Caspian Gull which turned out to be Ringed. Green XUDU from Germany, ringed as a chick in 2013, have a look at the history below.

The only other Caspian Gull was this one which was loafing on jolly farmers and also seen on the roof at Viridor. 

Dante recognised it from my photos of a bird at Dungeness and low and behold… it is the same bird! (dunge pic below)

Another brief but enjoyable trip to the delightful Viridor Recycling centre and its scenically stunning surrounding area.

The day previous to this I visited Laurence Pitcher on the south coast, we had a look at what (at the time) was a suppressed Humes Leaf Warbler,which only really the Sussex locals seemed to know about, despite it being in a busy public park. A new bird for me and very interesting. I couldn’t believe the call and how pied wagtail like it was, no pics as it was a bugger to pin down. Earlier that morning we checked Newhaven Harbour for Glaucous Gulls of which there was a juv on the beach.

Dante and I had 2 hours looking at Crayford this afternoon. We’ve recently been doing the sites on foot, rotating around the 3/4 places to stand and check through the loafing or feeding birds between Viridor, Serco, Jolly farmers and the roofs in between and I feel were getting more covered.  5 Caspain gulls and a juv Glaucous Gull were recorded amoung a huge amount of (very mobile) gulls .

The Glauc, that dante picked up on the Serco roof was really the highlight and was seen in flight a few times but i never really got close.  At Viridor, there was many times more the usual amount of ‘stuff’ on the ‘piles’ and the Gulls were going mad for it. We had three 1st winter Caspians feeding on it all, one of which (not photographed here) I had the week previous but these two below are new birds it seems.

Above and below birds are different individuals, 2 pics of each. They’re both great looking birds in my opinion.

Below is 3rd winter ringed Casp ‘G0UT’ again, who featured in last weeks Caspfest. 

The following pic shows its developing primary pattern despite the shitty photo, it looks great with those nice long grey tongues for a bird this age.

Finally, Polish Ringed regular P895, I’m pretty sure I picked up this bird once or twice in flight during the session and haven’t added to the total incase I’m right

I think Crayford will continue to turn up decent birds from now till april so expect a weekly set of these kind of photos like it or not!

Dante and I spent 4 hours at Crayford today. There were more birds than I’ve ever seen at the site and a pretty solid/conservative count of 12 Caspian Gulls was recorded between us. Most of course were 1cy birds. (Each of the following photographs depict a different birds unless stated.)

This nice pale, delicately plumaged bird even did a long call and ‘albatross’ (below)…

Dante picked out this adult in flight. A small, presumably female bird. (above and below)

Barry Wright and Andrew Lawson turned up and we had a few more 1st Winters

The above bird is P:895, a Polish ringed 1cy thats seen regularly at the site. We also had this fella below, ‘G0UT’ –  a thames ringed and regular Caspian in the area, seen every so often between London, the Netherlands and even Poland last summer.

A handful of yellow legged gulls (below), an adult Med and a leucistic Herring were also recorded.

We saw several birds in flight but of course its harder to tell if these were new birds to the count or already counted birds moving about. A really enjoyable day!

Probably my last trip to Dunge this year and albeit brief it was a decent one. My initial plan was to get out onto Lade sands at low tide and try and get some gulls together. However to my dismay there were only a handful of ‘large’ and everything else was chasing a fishing boat around a few hundred yards out to sea.

I pulled up on the road near the fishing boats and after throwing out a loaf or two I had about 50 large gulls around me including this 1cy Caspian Gull.

Its really a nice bird to my eyes. The deep tail band with all that barring along with the long bill and large size…nice.

Whilst this bird was on the beach next to me I could see another 1cy following the back of the fishing boat, unfortunately this bird wasn’t seen again however I picked up a large barrell chested adult/4cy Casp flying my way. Alas i didn’t get the shots I wanted but these show all the stuff well enough I guess. 

I thought perhaps the black spot neat the alula, black in the bill and amount in the primaries might be an indicator of it being younger than adult plumage but could be wrong. Nice grey tongue on p10 below.