Teesmouth Bird Club

A couple more images of the Coatham Marsh duck.

The slightly misty conditions this evening produced this image.
Ian

I was also able to digiscope the Wryneck as it sat there motionless.

Ian

Still there this evening..

Ian

I missed out on last years Sharp-tailed Sandpiper travelling over to Oregon, where this species is an irregular visitor. Unfortunately I did not see any during my trip but had great fun searching through a flock of 28 Pectoral Sandpipers, convinced I would find my own Sharp-tailed.

I managed to dash across today not long after the bird was found but unfortunately even though the bird performed well the conditions were poor for photography, with a heat-haze, wind and lots of reflected light from the wet mud.

Ian

Went across to Greenabella this afternoon to see the Wilson's Phalarope. It was performing well but distantly, however I was lucky when it briefly dropped into the pool in front of me for a few minutes.

For those of you interested in seeing what an adult looks like in similar plumage at close range, I have posted a close range image of a bird photgraphed at the same time of the year in California.

Ian

Went across to the North Side yesterday hoping to see and photograph the Stone Curlew. It was in a lazy mood yesterday afternoon dozing in the sunshine on the grassy bank by the Calor Gas Pool; unfortunately at the far end of the pool.

While I was watching, it suddenly woke up and positively streaked out onto the open mud. I just managed to relocate the bird in the camera just as the source of alarm loped by!

Ian

I was also at Cowbar at the weekend attempting to get to grpis with my new digiscoping camera; conditions were too poor on Saurday for any photgraphs even though the birds were quite close on occasions. The strong winds made the birds very flighty. On Sunday the weather was much kinder, but the birds more distant.

The birds spent most of the time in the furrows and had to be photographed when traversing from one furrow to another.

I once saw on the internet a juvenile Broad-billed Sandpiper described as a "mint humbug" . A perfect description... however the description would be equally apt for the face on view of this male Lapland Bunting.

Ian

A couple of digiscoped record shots of one of two Middle-East waifs that turned up in the fields between Marske and Redcar. The birds were seen to fly in off the sea, so are presumably migrants disturbed by all the unrest in the Middle-East. :-)

At times the birds were difficult to see, just raising their heads above the oil seed rape.

Ian

Thanks Renton,

I use a Gitzo carbon fibre tripod with a Manfrotto 501 Video head.

Cheers,
Ian

Called in at Saltholme yesterday hoping to see and digiscope the Long-eared Owls. Given the murky atmosphere the bird on show was not close as I would have hoped and partially obscured by the Rosebay Willowherbs, but the still conditions enabled me to use 40x magnification on the scope. I used the delayed action shutter release function on the camera to overcome the ridiculously slow shutter speed of 1/5 second. I think these digiscoped images compare quite favourably with the DSLR images taken the same day!

Ian

It would appear there has been an influx of apparent Eastern Lesser Whitethroats into Western Europe this autumn. The Surfbirds "Europe Stop Press" has images of birds thought to be "minula" (Desert Lesser Whitethroat) from Italy and Belgium.

http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery11&start=13

Ian

Hi Stew, Damian,

I agree, probably one that got away but I favour halimodendri!

However if records are witheld from BB as being too difficult to resolve then a false impression can be given of the status of a species. I also remember seeing a very pale Lesser Whitethroat at Hummersea in 2001, which looked more distinctive than the South Gare Desert Lesser Whitethroat.

I feel there is sufficient detail on our images at least to assign it as probable Asian Lesser Whitethroat.

A link below to some superb images of the recent Sumburgh Asian Lesser Whitethroat (minula)

http://hughharropwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/central-asian-lesser-whitethroat.html

and some more images of the bird in the hand

http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/naturelatest/latestbirds.htm



Cheers,
Ian

Came across this article today by Colin Bradshaw on the identification of Central Asian Lesser Whitehroats.

http://www.ntbc.org.uk/central%20asian%20lesser%20whitethroat.html

The conclusion of the article was that Field-only claims if ever acceptable would require :

• Watched for a protracted period of time with close views

• Brown on nape

• Lack of contrast between crown and mantle

• White throat contrasting with peachy or buffy flanks and breast

• Lack of clear dark mask

• Lores paler than usual

• Sandy or pale to mid-brown upperparts

• Short-winged/long-tailed jizz

• Tit-like call

• Preferably tail noted as lots of white in outer tail and centre not contrasting with mantle



The bird was not heard to call unfortunately, but otherwise fulfils the above criteria.

Ian

Hi Stew, Richard,

Thanks very much for your comments. I have seen Eastern Lesser Whitethroats during my trips to the UAE, but they are usually difficult to see as they tend to feed in the middle of Acacia bushes and because they are relatively common you tend to ignore them in favour of the more exotic species. The Middle-East birders tend to lump the sub-species all together. The two links below show various images of birds photographed in the UAE. Based on bill size there are some good candidates for minula; I agree the South Gare bird's bill to too large for this sub-species.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/7205449_HTrve

http://www..smugmug.com/gallery/5658906_siR45

Is the record worth submitting to BB to add to the pending pile?

Cheers,
Ian