First for Cornwall has a sting in the Taiga

Congratulations to Phil Clarke on finding Cornwall's first Taiga Flyatcher and only the UK's fourth. The odds on finding a county first are extremely slim and years of patch work in the St. Just area finally paid dividends for Phil. Unfortunately this bird spoilt the party though and promptly disappeared overnight, leaving locals distinctly upset.


But what can you do? The ID of such a rarity was still unsure as light fell. With a late afternoon find in quickly declining light, the first person to call is your closest neighbour with a camera...these shots were timed at 16.45hrs...ten minutes later it's dark. Sadly it disappeared overnight. The images were analysed that evening (Fri 6th) and the identity confirmed.

Key features of this bird are the all-black bill, black upper tail coverts (clearly visible on two of the images), neat row of pale spots on the greater coverts, pale edges to the tertials, pale nape and "shawl", generally dull white-grey underparts (compared to Red-breasted's buff colour) and a subtley different head pattern to RB Fly.

The BOU admitted Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) to Category A of the British List following the occurrence of an adult male at Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire on 23-29 April 2003 (sight record, trapped, photographed).

Taiga Flycatcher breeds across the high north Palearctic region east of c. 50 deg.E (east European Russia) from the Ural Mountains eastwards to eastern Siberia. Its breeding range overlaps that of Red-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva) between 50 deg. E and 60 deg. E. Taiga Flycatcher winters in south-east Asia (southern Nepal, eastern India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, south-east China).

Many thanks to Lisa Williams for allowing the shots to be featured. Please note that they are Copyright to Lisa and should not be copied or right clicked without her permission.

A quick visit to Chew Valley Lake

I spent a few enjoyable hours at Chew Valley Lake last Saturday while the wife did some retail therapy in Bath. It's the first time in 17 years since I was here last and the quality of birds hasn't diminished. The images below were taken at fairly close range. It was a pity that the Water Pipits and Smew were out of range but the birds below made up for it.

Balearic Shearwaters off St Ives Island

This set of images of Balearic Shearwater were taken on Thursday 5th Nov at St Ives in the north westerly gale. In four hours, fifteen were counted - the pictures below show three different individuals which approached reasonably close enough to get the shot. All of them look in perfect condition and quite different to the moulting birds we saw in large numbers this summer. The pose below is a curious one and seems unique to shearwaters. I took a photo of a Sooty Shearwater in August which showed its head and neck in a raised profile, just like the Balearic below.

The protruding legs and dark tail band can be seen well in this shot - not an easy feature to pick out in the telescope in a swirling wind.

The reason for the different colour sea is the changing light conditions from overcast to bright sunshine.

All of the images have been cropped by 25 - 33% . EXIF detail is basically the highest aperture of F/7.1 to give the highest possible shutter speed. Most of the images here are 1/2000s. ISO is set to 800 ISO and exposure -0.3 EV.

Juv. Great Skua at St Ives today

I took these shots of a juvvy Great Skua at St Ives Island this morning. Whilst the majority of the Bonxies are uniform dark this bird was noticeably paler and more ginger. The contrast between the pale body and dark wings is striking. The head also appears to be darker than the body. There is also some contrast between the dark primaries and paler reddish-brown secondaries. The rump and upper tail coverts are also barred (similar to a Pomarine Skua).

Many thanks to Martin Elliott and Royston for help in confirming the age and identity of this individual.

St Ives seawatch - Thursday 5th Nov

A strong north westerly forecast showed some promise and duly delivered some pleasing seabirds, all relatively close inshore today. One or two crackers but no fireworks, one might say today.

One of the highlights (above) was a single Pomarine Skua skimming low over the water. The Balearic Shearwater below was one of fifteen seen during the morning.

Common Scoter - several darker males and duller brown females passing the island.

A single first winter Common Tern was the only tern seen today.

The grey rump and fading dark secondary wing bar can be seen on the image below.

Thousands of Kittiwakes were streaming past the island. It was pleasing to see that 50% at least were juveniles, indicating a successful breeding season.

Totals from 7.30am to 11.30am were as follows:

1 Arctic Skua

10 Great Skua

1 Common Tern

1 Grey Phalarope

1 Little Auk

5 Great Northern Diver

1 Black-throated Diver

1000's Kittiwakes, 50% of them juveniles.

15 Balearic Shearwater

3 Manx Shearwater

2 Little Gull (1st years)

2 Mediterranean Gull

Greenish Warbler status in Cornwall

Greenish Warbler is a rare vagrant in Cornwall with just four records. It breeds in north and eastern Europe and has expanded its breeding range westwards during the last century. Migrates south east to winter in S. Asia.

1984: Nanquidno, 30th Sep to 1st Oct. Found by Dave Flumm. Paul Semmens, Lawrie Williams, Stuart Hutchings and Graham Hearl were also named as co-finders. It was present for two days and preferred the high canopy of the sycamore tree by the farmhouse with blue windows. It was also seen in the copse by the ford. This individual was by no means an easy ID and several observers of the day considered this to be a Two-barred Greenish.

2000: Kenidjack, 24th Sep. Found by John Swann and T. Whiley. This bird again spent much of the time in the high canopy in the copse part way down the valley.

2008: Pendeen, 16th to 17th Sep. Found by John Foster. This individual was found in the copse around Calartha Farm on the road down to Pendeen Watch. It was highly active and elusive at times. It was occasionally seen in the gardens adjacent to the copse.

2009: Church Cove, Lizard. 28th Oct to 1st Nov. Found by visiting birder Duncan Poyser from Cambs. Initially found at the bottom of the valley near Mariner's Cottage. The bird was highly mobile and could be found in the sycamores and elms in the churchyard as well as the copse at the bottom of the valley. This individual will be long-remembered for its see-saw identification between Green and Greenish. Eventually confirmed by sonogram on the call by Magnus Robb, Ilya Maclean and Hugh Harrop.

(Of interest, up to 2007, 17 Greenish Warblers have been recorded on Scilly).

Greenish Warbler at Church Cove, Lizard

Below are some images of the Greenish Warbler seen in Church Cove, Cornwall yesterday. The identity of this bird has changed daily since it was found mid week. Birdguides has reported it as both Green (?) and Greenish. Pirate Birder has done some good spade work though and managed to get a recording of its' call. A sonogram of the call has been confirmed by bird vocabulary expert Magnus Robb as a Greenish Warbler. It was an interesting bird though, in that several features asked some questions, eg, the pale lores, pale yellow wash to the supercilium, pale yellow wash to the ear coverts and undertail coverts and initially, the supercilium not reaching the upper bill. However, regarding the latter, on close inspection in the photos, the pale super does reach the bill. Observers also mentioned how its' general colour impression seemed to change though light and bright foliage plays a part in this respect. One could hardly say this was a typical Greenish Warbler. A more detailed account can be found on Lee Evans' blog, http://uk400clubrarebirdalert.blogspot.com/2009/10/greenish-warbler-it-is-on-call-but-not.html and also on Pirate Birding blog : www.piratebirding.blogspot.com

EXIF Detail; Dull light; aperture wide open at F/5.6, ISO highest available. Shutter 1/350s to 1/500s. White balance cloudy. Exposure 0.0. All images have been cropped by 33% to 45% and sharpened with the Unsharp tool. Colours are natural and unaltered.

A tick in Staines but no crown jewel

A long overnight haul to South Shields was sooo disappointing. Three days was long enough for Britain's first Eastern Crowned Warbler to feed up and move on during Saturday night. I had my suspicions. Driving through the night was nice and cloudy in the Midlands but was clearer in the North. The constellations of Plaiedes and the Plough were worringly obvious. Half an hour after sunrise and no sign of the Blackcap and Yellow-browed Warbler convinced me that we should travel south asap and try for the long-stayer Brown Shrike in west London.

With Chris Brown and Brian Mellow, we decided to check every hour with Mush that we hadn't been too hasty. The point of no return was Sheffield !!! but we were right; the clear night had tempted a clear-out. I was hugely disappointed because the bird really appealed to me - hopefully there will be another soon.

We arrived at Staines Moor with an hour of strong evening sunlight remaining to view the Brown Shrike. This was more than a consolation prize. Having missed the Lizard bird due to being at the Munichbierfest, I was really pleased to catch up with this mega rarity.

Never close, these were the best in focus shots that I could achieve. They have been cropped by approx 50 %. The action shot above is slightly soft but it does show the important short outer tail feather.

The image above shows the long rufous tail and very short primaries, which further highlights the long tailed impression.

EXIF Detail: Aperture F/7.1 Exposure -0.7EV. Shutter speed 1/400s (average) White Balance: Cloudy. Focal length 840mm.

Choughs in Nanquidno Valley

Choughs are a regular feature now in the Land's End and Cape Cornwall area though pinning them down for photography is not so easy. I have never considered targeting Chough for photography as they are normally quite distant. On Sunday morning though, whilst papping the Yellow-browed, at least five Choughs circled round me calling all the time. They landed in the opposite field and fed on a dung heap at 75 yards distance, digging ferociously and calling all the time.

The Jackdaw shown on the lower left and a Magpie out of view tried to muscle in on the frenzy but couldn't get a look in. The flock of five stayed close together but a further three were seen together later in the morning.

All of the images were taken with the 600mm F/4 lens and 1.4x TC, on a Jobu gimbal head.

Second attempt at the Nanquidno Yellow-browed Warbler

I couldn't resist second helpings of this delightful little phylosc. It kept returning to the same crab-apple tree in Nanquidno valley. Today it performed at the front of the tree instead of at the back, as was the case yesterday. I also used the 600mm lens which has made a big difference to the final image.

Yesterday I also used the wrong White Balance mode...Auto is just not good enough so reverted back to the Cloudy setting. The result is a bright contrasty image with no post adjustments required.

The image below is cropped at 25%. The others are the standard 16% crop as dictated by the software. The only adjustments are some minor cropping at the edges to give a more pleasing image-composure.

This image below is one of the favourite shots. It spotted an insect and I had a feeling it would fly after it. The camera couldn't keep up with the speed of flight though as the next shot was completely blurred.

EXIF Detail: Aperture priority. F/7.1. Shutter 1/320s. Exposure -0.3EV. ISO 800. Matrix metering. Focal length 600mm.