A Hudsonian Whimbrel and Kestrel Pulli

For the second time this year the British Isles has been graced by the presence of a Hudsonian wader. In May I twitched the Hudsonian Godwit in Somerset, which was a cracking bird and not a species I thought that I would ever see in the UK. This week news broke of a possible Hudsonian Whimbrel at Pagham Harbour in West Sussex. It was not long before it was confirmed and so being only 25 minutes down the road I had to go. 

Hudsonian Whimbrel is a species I have seen many times in the USA and Canada, but this was only the 9th record in the UK, so not a species I had expected to see, and so close to home. It is a cryptic species, that is very similar to Eurasian Whimbrel, but with good views is actually quite straightforward to identify.  In flight the back, rump and upper-tail coverts are concolourous with the mantle and therefore very different from Eurasian Whimbrel that has a white rump and the distinctive 'V' up its back. The underwing, auxiliaries and flanks are also densely barred with a ground colour that is warmer than that of Eurasian Whimbrel. When not in flight the striking head pattern should be the first clue to a bird being a Hudsonian Whimbrel, since it is much stronger, with the pale/white supercilium and crown stripe contrasting strongly with the darker feathers. 

I nipped down to see this bird on Wednesday morning, and it was interesting to see how obvious the head markings were. I was unable to get any photos of it unfortunately but as it is still there I hope to pop down again for a second look and may get some.

Today (12th June) I popped into Manor Farm Country Park to check the Kestrel boxes and see how they were getting on. If you remember, two weeks ago the chicks were too small in one box so I didn't check the other. Today, the chicks in the first box were doing very well, and we were able to ring four very healthy chicks. There were five much younger chicks in the second box, one of which was half the weight of the others, and may not survive, but they were all big enough to ring, so fingers crossed they will all fledge.

A brood of four Kestrels - Manor Farm Country Park

A brood of five (smaller) Kestrels - Manor Farm Country Park

After ringing and a quick stroll around the woods I headed home and opened a net in the back garden. It had been a dull and humid morning and by mid afternoon, when I got home, there was a little bit of moisture in the air but no wind, so almost ideal. I only ended up catching about ten birds, which included juvenile Blue and Great Tits and Great Spotted Woodpecker, also adult Greenfinch, Robin and Nuthatch. In recent weeks I have had four Stock Doves feeding in the garden, today one strayed into my net, as did a Wood Pigeon for comparison. The iridescent green on the side of a Stock Dove's neck really is quite striking and it lacks the white that is present on Wood Pigeon. Note also the iris and bill colour.

Stock Dove - Funtley

Wood Pigeon - Funtley

Whilst waiting for birds to fly into the net I worked my way through the moth trap, that I had left out overnight. I had caught over 100 moths with nothing particularly of note. The highlights for me were Marbled Brown, which is not that regular in my garden and a few migrant species, Diamond Back Moth and Rush Veneer. The main highlight though was a Dusky Cockroach, a species that I have occasionally caught in the past, but never that frequently. This is one of three native cockroach species in the UK, the others being Tawny and Lesser Cockroach. There are of course pest species that have colonised so it is always worth checking if you find one in your house, to make sure it's not a native species.

Dusky Cockroach - Funtley

A mixed bag of bits and bobs...

Saturday 31st was a real mixed bag that started with a look thorough my moth trap and finished with a bit of bird ringing in the garden. It has been a few days since I was last able to run my moth trap, which unfortunately also coincided with the weather returning to a more seasonal cold and overcast type, which sadly the catch reflected. Only 22 moths of five species were captured, but that did included three Oak Beauty's and an Early Grey, the latter being the first for the year.

Oak Beauty

It was then off to Botley Wood for some bird ringing and hopefully the chance to catch some new arrivals....but alas that was not the case. In fact ringing was pretty poor with only four new birds captured, although one of those was a new Chiffchaff. 

Pollen Encrusted forehead of Chiffchaff

This bird was clearly a migrant that had wintered in warmer climes since it had pollen encrusted around its bill and on its forehead, and there isn't mush of that around in the UK in the winter. This bird had also lost half of its tail, presumably during migration since it was nearly half regrown. The old half of the tail, was not particularly heavily abraded, although some chips were present, and the feathers were broad and rounded, so based on my experience last week, I was included to age this bird as an adult. All of the wing feathers were of the same generation too, which tended to back that up.

Tail of Chiffchaff

A retrap Robin, was not a pretty site, since this bird too had lost a load of feathers, this time around its head, which apparently is usually a result of an infestation of feather mites or the bird being diseased...poor thing.

Balding Robin

This bird was originally captured as a first year bird in May 2011, so I knew that it was an adult bird which would have undergone a post breeding moult at the end of last summer. It was therefore interesting to see the presence of some pointed tail feathers mixed in with the adult ones. These feathers were fairly broad and all of the same generation, except for one which was still regrowing, therefore would have been replaced last autumn....I think this is another example of being cautious when ageing Robins.

Tail of Adult Robin

Whilst waiting by my car for the next net round I noticed the surface of the water in a ditch next to where I had parked rippling, and a strange white ball moving around rapidly under the water. So I sat for a while watching it before figuring out what was going on, a Water Shrew was running along under the overhang of the ditch, before darting into the water to hunt beneath its surface. With the water being so clear it was possible to watch it feed beneath the surface, which was amazing. It was possible to see that when beneath the surface the shrews whole body was enclosed within an air bubble, which is why it looked like a white ball! It was a strange beast that reminded me of a miniature Duck-billed Platypus beneath the surface. Unfortunately the shrew was moving so quickly there was no chance of a photo, but below is a picture of its ditch.

Water Shrew Ditch

With the ringing proving to be so poor it was time to close the nets and go for a stroll, Slow-worm's were slow and lethargic due to the lack of any sun to bask in.....

Slow-worm

                      ..................and invertebrates were slow and approachable, which was ideal for grabbing a few pics for later identification. Eupeodes corollae (if I have id'd it correctly) is one of the commonest hoverfly species of open habitats and its numbers are often swelled by migration and/or mass emergence in late summer.

Eupeodes corollae

It was back home for the afternoon and after a bit of uncustomary DIY, I opened a net for the last few hours of daylight. Three new birds was all that was on offer, two Greenfinchs and an adult Wood Pigeon.

Scary Eyed Wood Pigeon

Wood Pigeons are pretty much at plague proportions around my area and are very unpopular with garden bird feeders due to the large amounts of food they consume. This individual was obviously not expecting my net to be open, and I think I was lucky not to end up with a big hole in my North Ron Super Fine!