The first ISABELLINE WHEATEAR for County Durham and Cleveland and the identification of late autumn first-winters

A 'wheatear' was first seen on the beach at Seaton Snook (County Durham/Cleveland) by a novice birdwatcher on Saturday 22 November 2014 but after it was subsequently seen next day by local guy Gary Flakes (who sensibly tweeted as such on his twitter feed), top county birders Chris Bell and Tom Francis visited the site expecting to find a Desert Wheatear. What they both didn't expect to find was they they were faced with a very pallid, long-legged, long-billed and staunchly upright individual - very quickly confirmed as County Durham's first-ever ISABELLINE WHEATEAR!!

The bird was showing exceptionally well on the sandy beach, either side of the end of Zinc Works Road in Seaton Carew, and remained on view until dusk on the Sunday allowing some 25 or so local birders to connect. Despite a clear and frosty night, it survived until next day and was still present on Wednesday 26th when I finally decided to make the pilgrimage.

Being a first-winter, the bird was surprisingly 'warm' for an Isabelline Wheatear, being tinged with warm buff in the flanks, and quite sullied on the underparts with some colour on the supercilium. Such individuals are quite tricky but this bird can be safely distinguished from Northern Wheatear on a number of characters, most noticeably the black alula feathers contrasting with the much paler upper wing coverts and rest of the wing, the broad black tail band, the long, pointed bill and in flight, the pale underwing. Supplementary characters include the thin supercilia extending behind the eye, the broad, dark, well-defined loral area, the pale ear-covert patch and the lankier appearance.

Additionally, often considered diagnostic (eg, by Lars Svensson & Keith Vinicombe) is the relative position of the primary tips - the wing tip of both species being formed by P3 and P4, which are similar in length. On the closed wing on Northern, the spaces between the primary tips at rest gradually become wider towards the wing-tip, with the space between P5 and P6 and P4 and P5 being similar in length (and quite long). On Isabelline, however, and illustrated in some of my images that follow, the space between P5 and P6 is distinctly LONGER than the space between P4 and P5.

Norfolk's first-ever SAXAUL GREY SHRIKE

Three visiting birders from Wales stumbled upon a grey shrike species at Burnham Norton (North Norfolk) on Sunday 5 October 2014 and suspecting it to be a SAXAUL GREY, telephoned it out as a probable. It was quickly confirmed by those within striking distance, sparking off a major twitch - particularly so as the bird represented the first record for the county. By the end of the day, when the bird roosted in its favoured Hawthorn clumps east of the main track out to the seawall at Burnham Norton, some 100 or so observers had connected......

Despite being awful weather (heavy rain and strong winds), Chris Holt and I decided to try our luck this morning and thankfully for us (and numerous other observers), the bird had survived the night and was still present. It was still harbouring the fenceline and isolated bushes 2-350 yards east of the main track (about 300 yards down from the car parking area) and was making regular sorties to the ground from the fenceposts. Knowing how inquisitive the species is, I tried out a 'trick' I have used with other individuals and after a long period of time and the rain had stopped, the bird responded, eventually flighting to within yards of me.......

Here is a selection of my best shots - the bird representing my 400th species in the county.....

MASKED SHRIKE at Spurn Point

First-winter Masked Shrike at Kilnsea (Alison Allen)

The UK's third-ever MASKED SHRIKE was discovered at Kilnsea just after 0900 hours on Saturday 20 September - showing well in the roadside hedgerow that runs from Cliff Cottage garden and the caravan site. It remained throughout the rest of the day, delighting well over 600 birders before nightfall. It was also still present on Sunday, despite a clear night.

The thorny issue of BLUE-WINGED TEAL hybrids in Britain

See my latest blog post here - http://uk400clubrarebirdalert.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/yet-another-blue-winged-teal-hybrid.html

HORNED LARK complex now becomes six species

New science/studies have resulted in the highly expected splitting of Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris into no fewer than six species by Drovetski et al. (2014). 

Of relevance in a Western Palearctic context are:

ELWES'S SHORE LARK: E. elwesi of Tibet etc. (to be renamed if the uninvestigated ssp longirostris proves to belong to this clade).

CENTRAL ASIATIC SHORE LARK E. penicillata including ‘birds inhabiting alpine zone of Palearctic mountains from southeastern Europe to Tian Shan’ (ssp albigula is found in Xinjiang, China).

SHORE LARK E. flava ‘breeding in the tundra from Scandinavia to Amguema River in Chukotka’ (and occurring S in winter at least to Beijing).

MONGOLIAN SHORE LARK E. brandti  ‘breeding in aridlands from the northwestern border of Kazakhstan to northeastern Inner Mongolia in China’ (and occurring S in winter at least to Beijing).

In addition are ATLAS SHORE LARK E. atlas ‘inhabiting Atlas mountains of Morocco’ and NORTH AMERICAN HORNED LARK E. alpestris of the New World. 

The paper’s title is ‘Limited Phylogeographic Signal in Sex-Linked and Autosomnal Loci Despite Geographically, Ecologically, and Phenotypically Concordant Structure of mtDNA Variation in the Holarctic Avian Genus Eremophila’  PloS ONE 9(1).

Of relevance to the UK400 Club, this authority recognises the following British and Irish record -:

North American Horned Lark, St Agnes & Tresco, Scilly, 2nd-31st October 2001 (Birding World 15: 111-120)

Yet again one has to look no further than http://www.netfugl.dk/ to find the right images, in this case representatives of all six Horned Lark spp:

  

ELWES’S HORNED LARK E. elwesi of Tibet etc.

 http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=16681

CENTRAL ASIATIC HORNED LARK E. penicillata including ‘birds inhabiting alpine zone of Palearctic mountains from southeastern Europe to Tian Shan’ (ssp albigula is found in Xinjiang, China).

http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=49484 

SHORE LARK E. flava ‘breeding in the tundra from Scandinavia to Amguema River in Chukotka’ (and occuring S in winter at least to Beijing).

 http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=47144

MONGOLIAN SHORE LARK E. brandti  ‘breeding in aridlands from the northwestern border of Kazakhstan to northeastern Inner Mongolia in China’ (and occuring S in winter at least to Beijing).

 http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=56713

ATLAS HORNED LARK E. atlas ‘inhabiting Atlas mountains of Morocco’  &

http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=51473

NORTH AMERICAN HORNED LARK E. alpestris of the New World.

http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=51553

CASPIAN STONECHAT on Scilly

A first-winter male CASPIAN STONECHAT has been present on St Agnes (Scilly) since Monday, showing well in St Warna's Cove. It represents only the 4th record for Britain and the first since the male at Virkie (Shetland) on 7th May 2006. The British Birding Association now recognises four species of stonechat on the British List - Caspian, Siberian, Stejneger's and Common.

Today, Chris Heard and I succeeded in our goal of seeing all four species of Stonechat in Britain, the bird affording fabulous views in the sunshine. I took well over 300 photographs of it, a small selection being reproduced here. It was not as well marked in the tail as we had expected, so was most likely a western individual, most likely from Turkey, Georgia or Armenia...