Weekly birding round-up: 27 Apr - 3 May 2021
Not a classic mid-spring week, the week just gone. Indeed, quite a peaceful one after the thrills of the prior week. On the upside, some parts of Britain saw some welcome and much-needed rainfall, so it wasn’t all bad, but yeah… at this point in the spring, we’d reasonably be hoping for a little more migratory heat and light. Still, there’s plenty of time yet for that…
Granted, Franklin’s Gulls aren’t the rarest of beasties at a national level, neither in Britain nor Ireland, with 81 and 19 accepted records to date respectively.
All of that said, a third county record of any species is always welcome and, in a generally fairly subdued week for new arrivals, that’s never more the case. Co.Kerry had to wait until 1993 for its first Franklin’s Gull, a five day bird at Ballyheigue on 7th-11th May that year, and then almost 23 years elapsed before the county’s second record, another five day bird, this time on the Cashen estuary on 24th-28th January 2016.
Happily, Co.Kerry birders didn’t have to wait quite so long for their third record as, this week, a first-winter bird settled on the beach at Ballyheigue on 28th, and remained there until 30th. Not quite matching the five-day precedent of its forerunners, but obliging enough nonetheless.
The coincidences mount up a little with this bird. While Britain’s first records of Franklin’s Gull date back to 1970, that first Co.Kerry bird, back in 1993, was the first for Ireland as a whole – while the last Co.Kerry bird in 2016 is presently the last accepted record for Ireland as a whole. None of which means a thing, but it’s one of those neat little Celtic knots that birding sometimes throws our way.
We might assume that the Collared Pratincole seen in the early morning of 1st at Kirkby (Lancashire & North Merseyside) is one and the same as the possible bird seen passing at Cors Ddyga RSPB on Anglesey on 19th and at Kerr’s Field (Cheshire and Wirral) on 22nd… but what’s definitely certain is that, just like those two prior sightings, the bird wasn’t hanging around to prove obliging for would-be admirers – it had soon moved again, and wasn’t seen latterly.
Where next for this mobile bird, and when will it find somewhere that’s to its liking sufficiently to stay for more than a brief moment of time?
For now, still a weekly fixture at the head of the seabird section, we kick off the week’s seabirds once more in Ireland where, in Co.Kerry, the first-winter Double-crested Cormorant remained in the vicinity of Carrig Island on 30th-1st.
Shetland dominated the week’s haul of White-billed Divers, with a peak count of three birds in the sheltered waters of traditional wintering site South Nesting Bay off the east coast of Mainland on 1st-2nd; one remained off Fair Isle on 27th; and a single bird off Unst on 27th had risen to two birds there on 1st-3rd. One lingered still in Orkney off Papa Westray on 30th. The usual Scottish mainland sites continued to feature, with Portsoy (Aberdeenshire) still sporting two birds on 27th-28th and one on 1st; Cullen (Moray) one on 27th-1st with a second bird noted off there on 29th and 2nd; and one seen from Burghead (Moray) again on 30th, and another Moray sighting coming from Lossiemouth on 2nd, with two at the latter site on 3rd. On 2nd, Lewis (Western Isles) entered the fray, with four birds noted there that evening.
After the previous week’s solid movement of Pomarine Skuas, we were left with just a remnant trickling up the English Channel in recent days, with a mere 50 birds logged mostly between Dorset and Kent, of which 25 seen from Kent’s Dungeness on 3rd were the largest single site tally.
Further hints of change came this week in the form of a few Balearic Shearwaters - one seen from Porthgwarra (Cornwall) on 28th, another from Splash Point (East Sussex) on 1st, and one more bird passing Chesil Cove (Dorset) on 3rd – and a Cory’s Shearwater seen from Selsey Bill (West Sussex) on 2nd.
The best of this week’s long-legged beasties was, for a second consecutive week, a Black Stork or two - this time in the south of England, a bird seen on two occasions in Hampshire – over Bishop’s Dyke on 30th and Lucy Hill on 1st – and, on 2nd, it or another in flight on the Isle of Wight over Ventnor Downs and, latterly, coming in to land at Brading Marsh RSPB; this bird was again seen at the latter site the following day.
Purple Herons continued to feature strongly this week – on Scilly, sightings came again from Tresco on 27th and St Mary’s on 28th-3rd; a bird was seen in Cornwall near Crows-an-Wra on 27th heading towards Drift; the adult remained at Wellington GPs (Herefordshire) on 27th-2nd; Norfolk sightings came from Hockwold Washes on 27th, Bawsey CP on 29th, and Nar Valley Fisheries on 30th; the elusive recent bird at Westbere (Kent) was seen again on 30th; one was present in Somerset at Tealham Moor on 1st; one more was seen on the Isle of Wight at Brading Marsh RSPB on 1st-3rd; and a final bird was flushed from trees on the side of St Osyth Creek on Colne Point (Essex) on 3rd.
In Devon the first-winter Night Heron remained at Slapton Ley on 27th.
Glossy Ibises continued to be seen at a variety of English sites, the exception to this being the individual noted in Co.Cork at Pilmore on 29th. Of the English counties, Cambridgeshire was again a hotspot, with sightings coming from Upware still on 27th-3rd; Berry Fen on 28th; on 1st from Burwell Fen and Fen Drayton Lakes RSPB, with two birds at the latter site; and on 2nd at Ouse Fen RSPB, where two birds were noted, and Etton Maxey GPs. Oxfordshire again had three birds at Otmoor RSPB on 1st, with one bird still present there from 27th-3rd, and three at Radley GPs on 2nd-3rd.
A bird settled in Essex at Bower’s Marsh RSPB on 30th-2nd. Familiar south coast faces were still present at Stanpit Marsh (Dorset) on 29th and Dungeness (Kent) on 30th-3rd; while just one bird was reported this week from Devon, seen at Velator NR on 29th and again on 3rd. Kent’s north coast scored a bird at Oare Marshes KWT on 2nd, while one was found in Suffolk at Ramsholt on 2nd-3rd. On 3rd one was seen in Suffolk over Havergate Island.
The sense of a rubicon being crossed amongst the honkers and quackers this week continued apace, with diminished numbers of interesting examples of both on offer. Starting, while we’ve still got some, with The Goose Formerly Known As Canada, the interior Todd’s Canada Goose was again seen at Rockliffe Marsh (Cumbria) on 29th, while a hutchinsii Richardson’s Cackling Goose was seen at Nigg Bay (Highland) on 29th.
Highland also supplied our only Black Brant of recent days – a bird seen on Skye on 27th-28th.
It’s with a certain wry resignation we note in passing the sudden blizzard of Snow Goose sightings that came from all over the Midlands and northern England over the course of the weekend. Not just the odd one or two – double figure flocks. Nobody’s taking them seriously, right?
Moving onto the quackers, just one Green-winged Teal seen this week, at Tacumshin (Co.Wexford) still on 27th-29th.
Little marked change more than the vastly reduced tally of Ring-necked Ducks of recent days, down from some 20 in the preceding week to a mere seven birds. These were the drake still in Devon at Beesands Ley on 27th-30th; one female still in Dorset at Longham Lakes on 29th-3rd, with another at Swineham GPs again on 30th; the drake again in Cornwall at Foxhole on 28th; a female in Fife at Letham Pools on 30th; and two drakes at Blanket Nook (Co.Donegal) on 3rd.
Lincolnshire, however, raised the Aythya game this week with a drake Lesser Scaup at Chapel Six Marshes on 29th. Lincolnshire’s only enjoyed four prior birds, from its first at Barton-upon-Humber on 13th-15th February 1995 to the most recent, an individual that spent a month at Freiston Shore RSPB in spring 2013 – another record was starting to feel overdue, so this would have been welcome for county birders.
Rarest of the week’s ducks was, comfortably, the drake Black Scoter, seen again at Cocklawburn Beach (Northumberland) on 27th.
His commoner cousins, Surf Scoters were still to be seen off the Scottish east coast, with Lothian sightings coming from Musselburgh on 1st-3rd and Gosford Bay again on 1st, and two drakes from the traditional hotspot of Blackdog (Aberdeenshire) on 1st-2nd also.
Aberdeenshire is also justly renowned for King Eider on the Ythan estuary and, sure enough, a drake was found there on 1st-2nd; another was seen flying west past Burghead (Moray) in the afternoon of 2nd./p>
Drawing to the end of the wildfowl, it’s time to paddle into the murkier shallows of the rarity duckpond. I’m not sure if anyone is seriously giving the Marbled Duck at Beddington (London) the benefit of the doubt, but it was still present there on 28th-3rd and ‘showing well’ on the boating lake… Said to be capable of strong flight, there’s a suggestion that something about its right wing doesn’t ‘look quite right’ – the implication being that it may, at some point in the past, have had someone take the kitchen scissors to its primaries…
Perhaps a smidgen less contentious (though that’s saying something, given how often we’ve had our fingers burnt by them), a drake Hooded Merganser was found on 3rd at Loch of Kinnordy RSPB (Angus) – a record which, if accepted, would be a county first. In its favour, the known and ringed escape drake was still present that morning in East Yorkshire beside Tophill Low NR. And against it… well, it’s a Hooded Merganser.
Last but not least, our regular honorary wildfowl, the adult male Pied-billed Grebe on Loch Feorlin (Argyll & Bute) was again seen there on 2nd.
What’s better than one or two Black-winged Stilts found scattered around Britain and Ireland? That’d be small parties of them turning up at this time of year. After three single birds checked in during the prior week, in the week just gone southern England landed a single bird in Devon at Exminster Marshes RSPB on 27th followed, on 30th, by the arrival of two birds at, respectively, Lodmoor RSPB (Dorset) and Elmley NNR (Kent). Hopefully more will follow, and to good further effect…
Numbers of passage Temminck’s Stints continued to pick up, modestly, in recent days, with a wide scatter of birds noted nationwide. Two remained at Trimley Marshes SWT (Suffolk) on 29th-3rd; while single birds were seen in Norfolk at Cley on 29th, Stiffkey on 30th and 2nd, and Titchwell RSPB on 3rd; in Somerset at Tealham Moor on 1st; and at Langford Lowfields RSPB (Nottinghamshire) on 2nd.
Dotterels are made of stern stuff, and it takes more than a bit of a northerly airflow to deter them from heading north to find some chilly upland breeding grounds. 24 birds were seen nationally this week, most of which were ones or twos, but a decent trip of seven was found on 30th on Castleshaw Moor (Greater Manchester).
A possible Hudsonian Whimbrel, seen with eight Whimbrel at Bangor harbour (Gwynedd) on 27th was frustratingly brief, and flew off before the identity could be confirmed once and for all.
A Spotted Sandpiper was found on 1st at Tyninghame Bay (Lothian).
The week was drawing to a close on 3rd when a Kentish Plover was found on the Alde estuary (Suffolk).
Meanwhile, barely an hour of daylight was left in the week on 3rd when a Lesser Yellowlegs was found in Worcestershire at Clifton Pits, where it remained until dusk.
Finally, the recent Grey Phalarope was still present in Norfolk at Cantley Marshes RSPB on 30th.
Tempting though it is to start with the terns this week, we’ll stick with recent precedent and begin with the first-winter American Herring Gull, still present in Cornwall at Newlyn this week on 27th-28th, and again on 2nd.
In Glamorgan, both the recent first-winter and the latterly found Bonaparte’s Gulls remained in Cardiff Bay on 27th-2nd. A further first-winter bird was popular at Upton Warren NR (Worcestershire) on 27th-3rd; while a further first-winter commuted between Dunnet Bay and St John’s Loch (Highland) on 1st-3rd.
The week began with a possible Kumlien’s Gull on Eigg (Highland) on 28th; this followed, on 1st by a juvenile bird in Leicestershire at Shawell and, on Shetland, a locally well-received adult bird seen on 30th and again on 2nd in Lerwick.
Numbers of Glaucous Gulls continued to fall away, barely scraping into double figures nationwide this week, with some 15 birds in all logged. Iceland Gulls fared a little better, with around 60 birds in all noted across the region.
Finishing the gulls, the smart adult Sabine’s Gull was again seen on the River Esk near Longtown (Cumbria) on 28th.
And so to those terns… Exciting times this week with the arrival of the first of the spring’s unusual terns for Britain and Ireland, more of which will be waiting in the wings in the weeks to come. The arrival of our first adult White-winged Black Tern of the spring being keenly anticipated… but, for now, we have to make do with a lingering Gull-billed Tern in Co.Donegal at Carrickfinn on 27th-1st, and a fly-by Whiskered Tern in Dorset in the evening of 28th, seen heading west past, appropriately enough, West Bay. The latter bird seemed to have slipped through Dorset birders’ fingers until, in the evening of 2nd, it was found at Abbotsbury Swannery, and remained there into 3rd.
Scilly’s good run of birds lately showed no signs of abating this week, and the best of the week’s raptors as a whole was found there in recent days – a juvenile Pallid Harrier first found on Bryher by Scott Reid, and latterly seen on St Agnes and Samson on 30th – the fifth record for Scilly, and its first spring record, coming a decade after a juvenile that toured the islands in the autumn of 2011.
Another Pallid Harrier was found on 3rd, this time on the east coast, being found in Norfolk initially at Waxham and, latterly, seen at Winterton. Another? Well, no. Remarkably, photo analysis of plumage detail by Scott of his bird and that found at Waxham by Will Walmsley and Rob Smith revealed that this was one and the same individual, approximately 400 miles away from Scilly. A brilliant piece of detective work and one that will allow many a birder in southern England to play the masochistic game of wondering if the bird flew through their local patch en route or, worse still, within sight of their home…
Returning again to Scilly, the female Red-footed Falcon found on St Martin’s on 26th was reported from there again on 29th, while a probable male was reported from St Mary’s on 27th. St Mary’s finally scored a confirmed bird on 1st.
Speaking of confirmation, if only the possible Lesser Kestrel seen on Orkney Mainland at Stromness on 28th had been confirmed – we’d have been looking at a dead cert for the headlines and Orkney’s second only record, following the gorgeous first-summer male that settled on North Ronaldsay on 20th-21st September 2011.
Ones that got away often dog reports of Black Kites, and we’ve a couple such this week – a probable over Carlton Marshes SWT (Suffolk) on 30th and a further unconfirmed report of one at Hornsea Mere (East Yorkshire) on 1st. The Suffolk bird may well also account for the confirmed sightings there the previous day and, latterly, at North Warren RSPB and Aldeburgh on 30th; on 2nd, more sightings came from Carlton Marshes SWT and Reydon, with Carlton Marshes providing another sighting to close the week’s Suffolk account on 3rd. A further bird was found on 30th in Cumbria at Loughrigg Fell. On 1st a bird was found in Kent over St Mary-in-the-Marsh; and on 2nd one was reported from over Leziate (Norfolk).
Three Rough-legged Buzzards were logged this week – at Reydon (Suffolk) on 27th; Glen Isla (Angus) on 29th; and coming in off the sea in Kent at St Margaret’s at Cliffe on 30th.
Finally, welcome news again this week that the female Snowy Owl is still alive and well on St Kilda, having been seen on there again recently. If only a wayward male bird could chance upon the islands…
Scilly, once more this week, crops up time and again in the passerines section. There’s plenty to go at there, but cream of the crop was surely the weathered red brick delights of a really bright Red-throated Pipit, present on St Mary’s on 30th-2nd. Another unconfirmed report came of one at Buttermilk Hill (Cornwall) on 30th, and then, on 3rd, further birds were found in Cornwall at Kenidjack, and in Norfolk at Sidestrand.
Nor was that the only scarce pipit on offer on Scilly – the Richard’s Pipit remained on Bryher on 29th, with a probable noted on Samson on 2nd. Further examples this week of this statuesque large pipit were found on 29th at Samphire Hoe CP (Kent), on 2nd at Spurn (East Yorkshire), and on 3rd at Filey (North Yorkshire).
Back in the southwest, an Olive-backed Pipit was a notable spring arrival in Cornwall at Kenidjack on 28th-29th.
Another male Citrine Wagtail was found this week, near Weston sewage works (Somerset) on 28th.
While Blue-headed Wagtails continued to be found in appreciable numbers, with some 50 birds logged nationally, there were a handful of scarcer, notable finds made – a handful of male Grey-headed Wagtails, one apiece for St Mary’s Island (Northumberland) on 29th, Bank Farm NR (Norfolk) on 1st, and one more at Kelling Water Meadow (Norfolk) on 3rd; and a smart male bird that briefly masqueraded as a feldegg Black-headed Wagtail at Cahore Marsh (Co.Wexford) on 27th-28th, the merest hint of a white supercilium betraying some hybrid ancestry.
Sticking with the colourful theme, more southern overshoots continued to be found in recent days – amongst them, around 25 Hoopoes, including two on Lundy (Devon) on 27th; a Bee-eater at Wrabsness NR (Essex) on 30th; and Red-rumped Swallows at Farlington Marshes HWT (Hampshire) on 29th and New Hythe GPs (Kent) on 3rd.
Golden Orioles were brightening up Scilly and the Isle of Wight – the former scoring sightings on Bryher and St Mary’s on 27th, St Mary’s and St Martin’s on 29th, and St Mary’s on 2nd; and the latter birds seen at Ventnor on 27th and Luccombe on 30th.
The Woodchat Shrike remained on Tresco (Scilly) on 27th, with another Scillonian sighting coming from St Mary’s on 30th; while the Kenidjack (Cornwall) bird last seen on 25th popped up again there on 1st-2nd; a further male bird was found on 1st-3rd at Rochford (Essex); and one more in Cornwall on 2nd at Botallack.
In Hampshire, the Great Grey Shrike remained in Woolmer Forest on 1st; another was found in Moray near Craigellachie on 2nd.
The only thing better than an inland Wryneck at this time of year has to be one that’s singing – an echo from the past, sadly, in these parts for this former regular British breeding species. One such was seen and heard this week in Buckinghamshire at Steps Hill on 29th. Further birds were found this week at Lytchett Bay (Dorset) on 27th; on St Mary’s (Scilly) on 27th-28th; on North Ronaldsay (Orkney) still on 28th-30th; at Hickling Broad NWT (Norfolk) on 30th-2nd; on 30th-1st at Welton (Lincolnshire); on 2nd-3rd at Borough Hill (Northamptonshire); and on 3rd at Boldon (Co.Durham).
A couple of the previous week’s male Eastern Subalpine Warblers stuck around into the current week - the Treeve Moor (Cornwall) bird remaining there on 27th, and the Foula (Shetland) individual hanging on until 3rd.
In Suffolk, the singing male Iberian Chiffchaff remained at Foxhall Heath on 27th-28th; another was belatedly reported in song from Hampshire at Noar Hill on 1st.
The singing male Dusky Warbler remained at Nunnery Lakes NR (Norfolk) on 27th-29th, while the Ainsdale NNR (Merseyside) bird was last reported on 29th.
Just three Serins were seen this week, at Cromer (Norfolk) on 27th, over Crouch Hill (Dorset) on 2nd, and in the Obs garden on Portland (Dorset) on 3rd; Fair Isle (Shetland), however, held onto its hornemanni Arctic Redpoll on 29th.
Fair Isle scored a bunting double this week, with the lingering Little Bunting still present there on 27th-3rd, and joined on the island by a female Rustic Bunting on 2nd-3rd.
Further Little Buntings were logged this week at Thursley Common NNR (Surrey) on 27th, where one of the wintering birds was still to be seen; and at Seven Sisters CP (East Sussex) on 28th.
Finally, our recent honorary bird, the young male Walrus on the lifeboat slip at Tenby (Pembrokeshire), was still being reported intermittently from there throughout the week.
Like buses, Dutch birders wait years for juncos and then two come along almost at once in the past week. The first of them was relatively straightforward, given the time of year – a classic time for a displaced Slate-coloured Junco to be making its way north, and hence one expects the bird found on 27th in Friesland at Koudum to be duly accepted as Holland’s fourth record of the species…
Just four days later on 1st, another bird was found, at Maasvlakte, on the seaward outskirts of Rotterdam. Rotterdam being, coincidentally, Europe’s largest seaport – an accolade that will do no American passerine’s chances of being accepted as having arrived without ship-assistance any good whatsoever. Let alone a junco like this one – a Cassiar Junco, one of the more enigmatic members of North America’s avifauna, one that appears to summer in the north-west and, for the most part, winters in the Pacific north-west too, albeit with scattered records across much of the Lower 48 states. Fun times ahead then for the Dutch rarities committee…
BONKERS & unbelievable.. Yesterday @ArjanDwarshuis and I found this MEGA Dark-eyed Junco on the Maasvlakte (NL). 5th for the Netherlands, but it looks like a Cassiar bird from the Canadian rocky mountains and that would be the first for the Western Palearctic ?? pic.twitter.com/6zPcDft9ZH
— Thijs Fijen (@ThijsFijen) May 2, 2021
…who presumably won’t be quite so exercised by the origins and means of arrival of the lingering drake Baikal Teal, still present at Zevenhoven on 27th-3rd, or the first-winter Ross’s Gull still at Scheveningen on 27th and IJmuiden on 28th-2nd.
Last week’s Irish headliner, Greater Sand Plover, popped up again this week in a wider European context, with a bird found on Gotland at Sysne on 29th-30th. Also seen in Sweden this week were two Stejneger’s Scoters at Landsort on 28th.
An Elegant Tern remained in Spain at Santa Pola on 2nd.
France also scored a couple of Elegant Terns in Rivedoux-Plage off Phare de Chauveau on 29th; and, at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on 2nd, two Lesser Flamingos and, on 2nd-3rd, a Trumpeter Finch.
Closer to home, but not quite, an Alpine Accentor was seen on Jersey on the castle ruins at Grosnez Point on 27th.
Greece, often a stranger to these parts, appeared in the news this week with first a Hooded Wheatear at Antikythera on 27th and then, on 28th, a Western Reef Egret at Kastoria Lake.
Finally, in Israel, the country’s first Chinese Pond Heron remained in Jerusalem Botanical Gardens on 27th while, on 27th-28th, a Lappet-faced Vulture was seen at Hai Bar.
We touched on the possibility of a northbound Slate-coloured Junco in the wistful closing remarks of last week’s round up, and sure enough, we almost got one, if Holland counts as close...
I still quite fancy our chances of one, but there was another nearby precedent in the past week that reminds us that other, European, rare passerine options are available at this time of year. This being, of course, the Alpine Accentor seen fleetingly on Jersey in recent days.
40 accepted British records to the end of 2019 suggests they’re not that rare. Only 20 of those have come since 1950, which provides context – come to think of it, they are mega after all…
Our last was a one day bird in Lincolnshire at Gibraltar Point NNR on 7th May 2016 – remarkably, the third bird to be seen that spring, all of which were one day individuals. Alpine Accentors are rarely anything but. Fortune favours the brave, and the quick off the mark where they’re concerned. You snooze, you lose… April and May are the peak months for them and, with five historic records in the coming week, it’s prime time. Will this week be the week?
Jon Dunn
4 May 2021
Many thanks to all this week's contributors for your photos and videos
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