Teesmouth Bird Club

I was at Dormans Pool a few days ago and there were no signs warning you not to climb the mound to view the Reclamation Pond. Fortunately, I had seen the web site announcement but others may not have done so. A sign at the bottom of the mound by the easy climb route (where you park your car) is clearly needed.

Just to let you know that a very kind man from New Marske found my camcorder at South Gare yesterday and returned it to me. Re refused to accept a reward. Can I take the opportunity to thank, Brian Foster, John Money and Jason for helping me search for the camcorder last Tuesday in very difficult terrain (the sueda bushes). I still need to get hold of an old Hi8 camcorder. Someone must have one in the attic I could buy.

Its odd that whenever anyone flags up the deplorable shooting situation, a load of nonsense flows from the pro shooting lobby. It simply is not the case that most country people support the activities of 'bloodthirsty cowards' (to quote one recent letter in a sunday newspaper). One of my daughters lives in a tiny Berkshire village and many of her neighbours are newcomers (houses too expensive for locals which is another issue). They don't integrate by becoming shooters etc. as might have been the case a century ago. They often integrate by helping at the village fetes, local produce selling, joining the local cricket team etc. My son in law recently scored 170 not out for the village cricket team and that impressed the locals far more than had he bought a shot gun and joined in the minority activities. Less than one percent of the UK population hold shot gun licenses. The fox hunting lobby did the same thing during the debates leading up to the ban, widely distributing posters claiming a majority supported fox hunting (from memory, I think the percentage they quoted was something like 57%). This was complete fiction, independent polls showing that only about 20% of the UK pupulation supported fox hunting.
To end on a lighter note, a few years ago the Queen was caught out by the paparazzi and was photographed wringing a Pheasant's neck. This hit the headlines and was discussed on the excellent 'Have I got News for you'. Someone said that she was just being kind, putting it out of its misery. Paul Merton replied that it might have been kinder had she had not shot it in the first place!

I have lost two camcorders in recent years. A Hi8 was stolen from my car and now I have lost a Sony DVD Camcorder (one that writes to 8cm DVD's). This was labelled with my address and phone number so if found I was unlucky in the finder. So, I now have lots of Hi8 tapes that I cannot read and lots of DVD's which have to be finalised in order to read them on either a DVD player or a PC. I found out today that Sony no longer make DVD based Camcorders; they have moved to hard drives. Could anyone possibly lend me either a Hi8 camcorder (a real museum piece) or a Sony DVD Camcorder? My lost one was a DVD404.

I think we are unique in Europe in several deplorable respects. We are apparently the only country with no closed season for Hare killing (info from mammal specialist working for the RSPB in Oxon) and probably the only one where mass releases of Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges take place (I gather these are actually illegal in some more enlightened European countries). It seems that about 17 million Pheasants are released each year in UK for shooting purposes. I have no number for Red-legged Partridges but I have heard of one release of 25,000 RLP's near Osmotherly (from a shooter) and another in excess of 10,000 in West Yorkshire (I actually logged over 1000 around one moorland reservoir, in large bewildered groups). Other species inevitably get caught up in the sadistic activities of so called 'country people', in particular Grey Partridge which is a seriously declining species in UK. I know many real country people who love their wildlife rather than love killing it. So, wise up whoever you are!

These are actually quite sharp, Renton, and show many of the id features. Pretty good in the circumstances. Can I use them for my BBRC record submission? I hope no bright spark is going to tell me Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is no longer on the BBRC list! Best wishes, Dave

I should add that for insurance purposes, I would urge everyone to try to see this wagtail. The 1999 Essex bird, the recent Cresswell bird and this one are basically all in the same boat. None fit the current understanding of Feldegg but it is theoretically possible that our understanding of Flavas will eventually expand to allow such birds in with Feldegg. It is also likely that the 'Feldegg group' will become a separate species on the BOURC list (it already is with some authorities). Still, I thought that after the 1999 bird (which I saw) but a decade on nothing has changed so don't hold your breath. Dave Britton

The Andrea Corso paper in Birding World (14:162-166) is clearly giving some people hope that this might be a Feldegg despite its obvious problems but note (1) Some of the pics said to be Feldegg are only Corso's opinion and may not actually be Feldegg. (2) Corso specifically refers to 'Very early in the year (mainly in late February to March), male Black-headed Wagtail may show a variable amount of greyish-green mixed in the black of the head ---- As the early spring progresses, this green colour abrades and completely disappears, leaving the well known glossy black of breeding plumage'. Today is 28th April! Also, the blue grey colour on the whole hind-neck/nape, which only becomes clear in views when the bird faces away from you, is less easy to explain away than a green tinge. Unfortunately, this has not been captured in any of the excellent pics I have seen. The bird looks far more impressive in profile than when facing away. I don't personally feel too bothered about the supercilium other than this being one extra point to explain away. The precise identity of this interesting (and quite beautiful) bird it is is not entirely clear but I will be extremely surprised if this ever becomes an armchair subspecies Cleveland tick. It is most probably one of those very dark thunbergi said to occur (rather than a hybrid). Incidentally, the Essex bird in June 1999 also had a significant blue grey component to the hind neck, even later in the year than the Cleveland bird, but less of a supercilium. That was rejected by BBRC (BB96:291-296). Dave Britton

The ageing and sexing of birds can be notoriously difficult but I would think this excellent find by Chris (only beaten by his Cliff Swallow) is more likely a first-winter female (and not a male as widely reported elsewhere). Check out Peter Clement's book 'Thrushes'. The extensive quite dark and clear cut spots on the lower flanks (they looked quite heart shaped in the field with at least 20 on each side) seem quite wrong for a first-winter male and other first-winter males I have seen a little earlier than this have looked more obviously males with more striking adult male like throats (eg. the late February 1976 male in Norfolk. One thing for certain is that this is not the Whitby bird. Dave Britton

Pic 3518 is now showing the white lines at the top edge of the lower face (adjoining the brown hood), very similar to the first-spring male pic in the National Geographic Birds of North America (5th edition). This further confirms that it is a first-winter male which arrived too early to be a transatlantic vagrant (sadly). Excellent pics. Dave

Access at South Gare back to normal today (Tuesday 23rd February). Dave

Thanks, Martyn. Pleased to hear you are not one of the 1600 (I didn't actually know which part of Corus you worked for). Re walking out there through the dunes, as most people seawatch from the car this would be quite a problem. Best wishes, Dave

John Money reported today (Sunday 21st February 2010) that the South Gare access road is 'still closed'. Does anyone know what is going on? This is presumably a side effect of the Steel Works closure (called a moth balling). Perhaps Martyn Sidwell knows? I feared that the closure might have unexpected consequences for bird watching at South Gare.

Thanks, Chris. These are very good pics in the circumstances. Quite evocative for me as I rang this in to BirdNet having only seen what is visible here. It was on the water when found and I didn't want to delay too long as there was only an hour of good daylight left but had it disappeared I would, in all honesty, not have had enough to get it accepted (eg. nothing on upper and under wing pattern and leg colour). Description embellishment is not my thing, I leave that to others! Could you possibly e-mail me these pics for the BBRC record submission? Cheers, Dave

Greylag Geese in Cleveland are a mixture of feral and wild birds. eg. a local farmer introduced Greylag Geese to Scaling Dam about 20 years ago (using winged birds he had rescued) and they have built up to around 400 birds through breeding but the population is supplemented by immigrant wild birds from the Icelandic population and Scotland. The well known neck collared bird NDF is an example of this.
The Barnacle Goose situation is more complex. A feral population in Yorkshire (once up to 200 birds but I don't know the current population) appears to have originated from free flying birds at Flamingo Park Zoo in the 1980's. Bizarrely, they sometimes 'migrate' to Hornsea Mere in the winter. Some Yorkshire birders will only tick Caerlaverock migrating birds (the big numbers in late September or early October). Odd birds in Cleveland with Canada Geese are probably mostly feral (possibly from the Yorkshire population). However, the compexity of the situation is well illustrated by the two Barnacles on Coatham Marsh on 24 to 31 October 86. They seemed far too tame to be wild birds and in a very enclosed urban area for a week but they had both been ringed in Spitzbergen so were undoubtedly wild.
Canada Gese are obviously feral apart from the few USA birds which appear in Scotland (eg. 3 races this winter at Caerlaverock). Mini Canada Geese with Atlantic race Canadas in England are probably all interbred mixed up birds of no particular race (eg. the Locke Park/ Coatham area bird in January 03 which was wrongly published as Parvipes in the TBC report).
Pink-footed Geese are also a problem. Up to 3 at Scaling Dam are feral (put there originally by the local farmer) but I tend to tick any larger groups seen in winter. Odd birds around Saltholme also appear to be feral (again, if you see a large enough flock you are on safe grounds).
Snow Geese in Cleveland have all been feral in my view so it should not be on the county list. There used to be a feral population in Yorkshire but I was told recently that this has died out. However, it is only a matter of time before one of the birds migrating between Scotland & Norfolk gets seen here and they are generally regarded as tickable (eg. by Birding World). Ironically, if Ross's Goose gets added to the UK list in category A, the Saltholme bird on 5th October 07 is a much better candidate than any of the Cleveland Snow Geese. Pity I missed it!
Incidentally, introduced species on the UK list on this basis (such as Mandarin, Egyptian Goose and Canada Goose) are tickable despite being feral but feral examples of wild species (eg. an escaped Red-crested Pochard) are not tickable. This can seem a bit complicated to new birders. Dave Britton