Birding etc with Dominic Mitchell

Bona fide gull

2012-05-22T13:50:00.000+01:00

First-winter Bonaparte's Gull at Barking Bay: note the diagnostic white under-primaries with black trailing edge. Black bill aside, there is something subtly different about the head pattern of Bonaparte's cf Black-headed. I was delighted to get a phone call from Rich Bonser last Saturday to say that he was looking at a Bonaparte's Gull on the Thames at Crossness. Less pleasing was the fact

You wouldn't Adam and Eve it

2012-05-16T18:23:00.004+01:00

London's 10th Melodious Warbler skulks this morning within a stone's throw of Leyton Orient's ground. When I lived in east London some years ago I did a regular commute by car through Leyton, queuing daily in the traffic past Leyton Orient FC's ground. On all those hundreds of occasions I doubt I ever saw anything more remarkable than a Magpie or a Mistle Thrush in such a limited urban

A declining migrant

2012-05-13T13:02:00.000+01:00

Singing male Wood Warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix, Alexandra Park, London, 12 May 2012. Spring has been rather late this year for many species, so even with a third of May over I was still hopeful of some migrants moving through my local patch of Alexandra Park yesterday morning. But plans for a sky-watch from the viewpoint we optimistically term the 'obs' were abandoned within two minutes

Big day patch record

2012-05-08T19:01:00.000+01:00

Two Grey Plovers drop in to Aveley Bay on their way north to the tundra. For many years the first weekend in May was known as bird-racing weekend. For bird race, newcomers to birding (and North American birders) should read ‘big day’. I did a London bird race for many years as part of a team of four, but since 2006 when we succeeded in setting a new record of 113 species, the pressure has been

Stunning site tick

2012-05-06T23:18:00.000+01:00

One of the two Black-necked Grebes at Rainham on Friday 4 May. They didn't linger over the weekend. Although Friday's trip to Rainham Marshes came to a premature end following the appearance of Dotterel elsewhere in the London Area (see previous post), it was shaping up to be an excellent day on the reserve. Aside from a wealth of waders which included 36 Bar-tailed Godwits, six Eurasian

Unexpected trip

2012-05-05T17:16:00.002+01:00

Good news and bad news. The bad news first: I had to abort a great day out at Rainham Marshes at lunchtime yesterday and give up what would almost certainly have been a new personal best day total for the site (well in excess of 80 species was on the cards - more of that in a separate post). The good news: a trip of Eurasian Dotterel was found on the Surrey fringe of the London Area at the

Wet, wet, wet

2012-04-29T21:40:00.000+01:00

One of two first-summer Little Gulls at Staines Reservoirs yesterday. But great, great, great. Or at least that’s the theory. The weather forecast for this weekend in the South-East was the kind that separates birders from ordinary mortals, putting smiles on our faces and strange pumping motions into our firsts while others cancel long-standing arrangements and prepare for a lockdown.

Name that gull 2 ...

2012-04-18T18:05:00.003+01:00

Can you name and age this gull? Answers welcome in the Comments box below. After my last mystery gull post drew a unanimous response with the correct answer (but see my comment below under 'Name that gull ...'), it's clearly time for another test of larophile wits. Have a go at the above bird, which I photographed in western Europe last year - can you name the species and age the bird? All

Last Caspian of the season?

2012-04-13T23:59:00.004+01:00

Today's heavily worn second-calendar-year Caspian Gull at Rainham. I put in a brief gulling stint in the Rainham area this morning, but numbers of birds are well down now and the effort produced little reward. Best in class was this second-calendar-year Caspian Gull, badly in need of a new set of feathers. Five Yellow-legged Gulls added some interest, but otherwise the action was new migrants

Name that gull ...

2012-04-12T23:48:00.000+01:00

Test your ID skills and have a go at naming this relatively pale first-cycle gull, here surrounded by the local atlantis form of Yellow-legged Gull (or 'Azores Gull', if you will - and I do). I've been going back through hundreds of gull images from last month's superb Azores trip, and came across several of a bird which puzzled me somewhat at the time. The default gull in the islands is the

Odds and sods

2012-03-30T22:12:00.000+01:00

One of seven Little Ringed Plovers seen south of the river today. There are a wealth of good sites south of the Thames which, mainly for logistical reasons, I don't visit as often as I would like. So today it was time to renew my acquaintance with two of them - Crayford Marshes, on the south shore of the river, and Sevenoaks Wildfowl Reserve. Thanks to Kev Jarvis's spot-on directions I

Spring has sprung

2012-03-28T23:25:00.000+01:00

One of six Peacock butterflies seen in the Broxbourne-Amwell area today. With record-breaking March temperatures in parts of Britain at the moment, it's no surprise that spring seems visibly early this year. Apart from an early-awakening Red Admiral in February, I'd seen no butterflies until today - and then all of a sudden logged another five species. First up was a Holly Blue in the garden,

Azores 2: gulls, and then some

2012-03-21T23:00:00.000Z

Chalk and cheese: a second-winter Kumlien's Gull mixes it with three first-winter Azores Gulls on Terceira. The second leg of this trip takes place on Terceira, where I arrived yesterday afternoon. Despite the fierce winds and overcast conditions things got off to a good start, with Semipalmated Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper at Cabo da Praia and a (or should that be 'the'?) Hudsonian

Azores 1: ducks deluxe

2012-03-18T23:30:00.000Z

One of the two drake Blue-winged Teal which have overwintered on Sao Miguel (there were originally three). After an unfeasibly early start yesterday, I was on Sao Miguel by lunchtime ready to begin an exploratory late winter/early spring trip to the Azores. A day and a half later and I'm shattered - but it's been well worth it. Haven't got time right now to do it justice in words (though watch

White-winged bedlam

2012-03-16T23:08:00.001Z

Second-winter Kumlien's Gull (left) with adult Lesser Black-backed Gull of the subspecies graellsii. The dark pigmentation in the primaries tips was not always obvious when the bird was perched, even at close range. With temperatures edging into the high teens this week and the first summer migrants arriving in numbers in southern England, it feels like the gulling season is drawing to a

Lophodyte tendency

2012-03-09T16:28:00.000Z

Female Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus at Whetsted GP, Kent, 5 March 2012: Britain's sixth, or not? There are definitely better ways to spend a half day than going to see a Hooded Merganser of unknown origin, but why let logic get in the way of a bad idea? With this in mind, I set off earlier in the week to Whetsted GP in Kent. Target: one North American sawbill of undetermined

A mystery solved

2012-03-05T23:02:00.002Z

That Barrier Reef frigatebird - now sorted. Last July I posted about a mystery frigatebird I photographed in the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia, back in 2009. The characters it showed didn't seem to fit clearly with either Great or Lesser, the two candidate species in the area, and a good birding friend of mine who has lived in Queensland for years was also reticent about calling

Iceland in London

2012-02-24T23:42:00.000Z

Gulls galore at Beddington: spot the first-winter Iceland. This very white second-winter Iceland Gull stayed on the far side of the lake. Despite numerous gulling sessions along the Thames this winter, and finding them in Scotland and Ireland, I've yet to run into an Iceland Gull in London since January's nationwide influx. So there was only one thing for it today: a trip across town to

County Gullway

2012-02-06T23:57:00.002Z

First-winter Glaucous Gull (Killala, Mayo, 3 February 2012). This winter has seen an unprecedented influx of Iceland Gulls, and an excellent (record?) haul of Kumlien’s too. Although there has been a sprinkling of white-wingers in London, there is no substitute for seeing them in ‘proper’ habitat – that is, wild celtic coasts rather than the industrial South-East. I needed more material on

Hampshire and back

2012-01-29T22:06:00.000Z

A close-up of the adult Ring-billed Gull in Gosport, a regular returning bird. Where does it go in summer? The main venue for today's birding was Hampshire, a favourite county of mine, although two species on the target list are more typically associated with New Hampshire across the Atlantic. With the presumed demise of the returning winterers in London and Westcliff-on-Sea, the Gosport

Important: Rainham landfill site

2012-01-28T21:31:00.000Z

There have been problems recently at Veolia's Rainham landfill, which unlike the adjacent RSPB reserve and riverside footpath is a private industrial site to which public access is not permitted. On three recent occasions birders have been found trespassing; one incident apparently involved 10 people on the site without permission.Anyone who wants to watch gulls in the area should stay outside

Wrong side of the river

2012-01-23T22:54:00.000Z

Tale of the unexpected: an American Mink is mobbed as it breaks cover in Thamesmead, south-east London. I made a rare trip across the Thames to ‘sarf’ London today, mainly with the aim of seeing the second-winter Iceland Gull at Crayford after a tip-off from Kev Jarvis. In that ambition I failed, the gull departing before I arrived on site. A fly-by first-winter Yellow-legged Gull was scant

Where there's muck ...

2012-01-09T22:51:00.000Z

I could think of no better way of spending last Friday than being surrounded by gulls for hours on end. With a major influx of Iceland and Glaucous Gulls taking place after last week's Atlantic storms, I was hoping for a white-winger locally, but in the event it was Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls that provided the main interest. At least four of the former comprised a first-winter, a

Out with the old ...

2011-12-31T22:57:00.044Z

A few of the thousands of European Golden Plover at Cley NWT, Norfolk. I spent the last three days of the year in Norfolk, but because of family commitments only managed to get out in the field for a couple of hours just before heading back to London for New Year's Eve. Having studiously ignored it on the last two trips up here, I therefore decided to do the decent thing and twitch the Western

Gulls galore

2011-12-29T08:48:00.009Z

Adult gull showing characters recalling the atlantis form of Yellow-legged Gull (or Azores Gull, reflecting the range of true atlantis). This is the second such bird I've seen in London. Note the pattern and density of head streaking. I managed to squeeze in the last gulling session of the year at my local study site yesterday, and it was well worth it on a number of counts. Top billing