Niche Birds

Yesterday morning Clive found two Lesser Whitethroats by Seaton Bowls Club. Any Lesser Whitethroat in late November is probably going to be one of the eastern races, with Siberian Lesser Whitethroat Curruca curruca blythi I guess being the most likely candidate. I have never knowingly seen one of these things, so made an effort this morning...

Presumed Siberian Lesser Whitethroat

Without a DNA sample I don't think you can go much further than 'Mmmm...interesting...' but at least it was that, with its browny-brown-brown upperparts extending all the way onto the crown.

It was nice to bump into Tim and Ian, and to see both birds together very briefly at one point, but they didn't give themselves up to the camera without a struggle. I think all my photos depict the same bird...

Lots of white in the outer tail feathers, but can't say I can see any on the tip of t5

As well as palm berries, they did like the apples that Kev put out for them yesterday.

Bonus Black Redstart present in the same area.

I'll be honest here: I cannot get excited about a bird that needs its DNA unravelled before you can name it with any confidence. The Seaton birds appear to be Lesser Whitethroats from distant parts, and I'm quite happy to leave it at that and get on with stuff that doesn't require a sacrifice at the Genetic Temple.

Like tricky gulls, say.

There were a lot of gulls on the estuary this morning. Try as I might, nothing obvious jumped out. And then I noticed a bird on the water which just looked...interesting. It was slightly annoying really, an 'Ooh, what's this?...Ah, no, nothing...Hmm, wait a minute...' kind of bird. Really I wanted to get on and check the gulls I hadn't looked at yet, but couldn't let the thing go. In the end I took several photos while it was in the river, then a load more after it had flown to the muddy shore for a preen. Back home I loaded them onto the laptop, fired up the Gull Research website and found the pages for 3cy Caspian Gull, particularly the November page for pics and the September page for its wealth of ID info.

Finally I reached the conclusion that my annoying gull was a 3w Casp, which is not an age I've encountered previously. First, some photos. Then, some words...

It's the bird with its wings open.

And again

Note upperparts shade, and traces of tail band.

It's the headless bird on the left. Again, compare upperparts shade with HG top right, also BHGs and Med Gull.

Probably best upperwing photo I managed. Big p10 mirror (plus small one on p9) along with broad black bar on p5 and black on both webs of p4 all good.

The Gull Research page for 3cy Casps in September has much to say about moult and plumage development, primary patterns and bare parts, and I did consider systematically laying out the ID process I went through. But rather than regurgitate a load of stuff that anyone can read on that excellent web page, I shall just quote this bit:

'Despite often looking distinctive, third-winter and third-summer birds have no truly diagnostic plumage features. In essence, the distinctive features of younger birds have been lost, while the adult wing-tip pattern has not developed sufficiently for it to be considered critically important.'

In other words, a 3w Casp is subtle, and identified by the sum of its parts; no single feature nails it.

Suffice to say that the sum of this bird's parts is good enough for me, and I'm having it.