bird Mastermind round 4...

[Jane Turner]

Keeping off the gulls and raptors for now.

[Jane Turner]

One in the garden, another vrey locally the third in the UK and one in the US.

[chris23565]

1. ??????????
2. Willet
3. Leach's Petrel
4. Chiffchaff (East Euro) ?

[Harry Hussey]

1)Woodchat Shrike
2)Willet
3)Leach's Petrel
4)Chiffchaff(tristis or abietinus)
Harry H

[Michael Frankis]

I reckon Harry's got them all right - can't fault any of those dets.

Michael

[Michael Frankis]

The Chiff is in a hawthorn (Crataegus sp.), and there's heather (Calluna vulgaris) + assorted grasses behind the shrike

[Jane Turner]

Blimey that was quick. The Woodchat was supposed to hold you up

Right...time to pull out some hard ones!

Obviously the Willet was in the garden..... no it was the petrel

The Chiff called like an abientinus.

Harry in the lead there.

[Joern Lehmhus]

Well, I was late. I would have got the Leachs and the Chiffchaff, but the other two...no.

[Steve G]

Snowba's chance in hell of beating you lot. 2,3 & 4 as per Harry but I wouldn't have got the Woodchat shrike in number 1 despite kind of seeing it once suggested. I was initially thinking along the lines of a first winter Ficedula (?pied).

[Jane Turner]

Supplementaries on the way.... to keep the thread alive

[Jane Turner]

here you are

[Jane Turner]

No more clues.... I only have two more in hand, I need daylight to get pics off the slides!

Two in my garden..that's a clue. Herbage too please

[Jane Turner]

I have reasons for adding this too. Two species.

[marek_walford]

First lot:

1. Bunting sp. Female Cirl? (have no faith in this answer)
2. Garden Warbler
3. Spotless Starling
4. Female Lady A Pheasant

Second lot:
Left hand bird - Pied-billed Grebe
Right hand bird - Long-tailed Duck

Must bring some field guides into work.

[Harry Hussey]

1)Little Bunting?
2)Garden Warbler
3)Either very odd-looking Starlings or a non-WP species?
4)Lady Amherst's Pheasant?
Harry H

[Harry Hussey]

Hadn't seen last photo.Def.Long-tailed Duck on the right,and Marek may well be right with Pied-billed Grebe:that head and bill look good for one,BUT can Little be ruled out on this photo?
Harry H

[Jane Turner]

I added that pic because I gave myself a fright with that bird on the left. My estranged hubby took it and I had never blown it up before. The pic was taken in November I think... I found the LTD on a private site. Its a brick pit that's easy to view, being only 20 ft from a road but you climb a gate and often have outrun the guard dogs.

Not sure there has been A PBG in Cheshire. The bill head and hape look a bit good to me. This could be a one that got away!

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I'm going for:

1) Cirl Bunting
2) Garden warbler
3) Spotless Starling
4) Silver Pheasant
5 + 6) Little Grebe and Long-tailed Duck

[Jane Turner]

ok 2 is clearly too easy. Yes its a garden warbler

On orignal slide of the grebe, which I now have under a microscope (literally) the bill and head shape still look pretty good for PBG.

Any views on the sex of the LTD? I was trying for size, since I make the grebe 2/3 the length of the duck!

[Steve G]

1. female Cirl B.
2. Garden Warbler
3. Spotless Starling
4. female Golden pheasant (convinced myself the belly is barred)
5. Dabchick
6. Long tailed duck

[Steve G]

Coal & candlelight a female?

[Bluetail]

1. Cirl Bunting
2. Garden Warbler
3. Starling
4. Golden Pheasant
5. Little Grebe (?)
6. Long-tailed Duck

[Jane Turner]

Hmm. oor er

Wish I'd got out of the car to look at the duck now!

[CJW]

1. Pine Bunting.
2. Garden Warbler
3. Spotless Starling
4. Lady 'A'
5. Dabchick - nothing suggests PBG at all to me.
6. Long tailed duck

[Jane Turner]

1. is a female cirl
2. GW
3. Indeed are spltless starling - don't they look a little spiky-billed and pin-headed

4..is a mess
5...is excluded
6. LTD

The Pheasant looked like a Lady A....sounded like a Golden. I caught it in the end it was in the company of a male Lady A.....which got away....actually it punched a hole through a mistnet! I gave the bird to a friend who keeps birds while I tried to find out who had lost them.

It grew up to be a male Golden x Lady A....but showing mostly Lady A features..... I was cheating!

[Jane Turner]

More!

[Bluetail]

Good job I don't mind making a fool of myself, isn't it?

1. Woodlark
2. Long-billed Dowitcher
3. Long-tailed Skua

[Bluetail]

Nah, def not a Woodlark. Skylark more like (but not convinced)

[Michael Frankis]

1 Wood Lark
2 Dowitcher (sp) probably Long-billed (I'm not going to offer any spurious accuracy on this thing!)
3 Black-winged Pratincole (presumably the one that visited your area a few times a few years ago?)

Michael

[Michael Frankis]

Looks like I missed a set between . . .

All that's left to ident is some herbage - on the Cirl pic, it's a Tamarix sp. top left. The others are too blurred to ident any veg.

Oh and that grebe . . . now we know what became of that Cornish hybrid Little x Pied-billed . . . . ;)

Michael

[Michael Frankis]

Yeah, that lark . . looks short-tailed enough for Wood. But I'm having second thoughts too, it doesn't have joined-up supercilia on the nape. Cancel Wood Lark, insert Sky for me too.

[Bluetail]

Hmm. I thought it didn't look short-tailed enough for Woodlark! Alula ought to show up on that pic too.

Reckon you're right about the pratincole, though. That just didn't occur to me.

[Jane Turner]

That grebe! A friend called me to say he thought he had seen a PGB but got a closer look and thought it was prob a hybrid. Can't for the life of me remember if it was the same time, but that was on a nearby pi... I wonder. not going to be able to do anything with it....

I see a few things that make me worry. The bum looks surprisingly neatly white, the bill looks stubby and pale, and its looks quite big. It the last film in the the box - not in a holder, and I never looked at it before.

I sense a run of high flying raptors and distant seabirds coming soon!

two out of three of the most recent batch are named correctly. The one that isn't probably isn't identifiable on that picture...

[Bluetail]

two out of three of the most recent batch are named correctly. The one that isn't probably isn't identifiable on that picture...
Well I suppose it's got to be a Short-billed Dowitcher then - unless you mean the third bird, in which case I'll hazard "Soft-plumaged Petrel".

Jason

[Jane Turner]

Its a Long-billed - at Frodsham

[Joern Lehmhus]

Uh all this has happened while I was off? would have got most, but definitely not the Cirl bunting (agree on Tamarix for the plant, though) and the dowitcher-well and the grebe is not clear to me. Well, and the pheasant , I´d have said amherstiae

Even when I am late and out of competition, it is real fun to improve my identification skills like that. Looking forward to the next!

[Jane Turner]

The nxt I will put up in a few minutes. I'll not mke any comment until 6pm, that way everyone can have a go. You can change your minds of course, I'll take your last answer.

These three were Skylark, LBD and Collared Pratincole. It ws one of 200 or so...perhap I missed a Black-winged, but I think its just a crap photo!

[Harry Hussey]

Hi Jane,
Seem to have missed a round completely!Would have gone for Skylark and LB Dowitcher,but may have plumped for BW Prat or pratincole sp. for the third!
Actually forgot all about Spotless Starling!Have never seen sp.,and it doesn't cross my mind that often,so that's understandable!
Harry H

[Jane Turner]

I never looked at SS hard enough really...but the structural differences seem pretty consistent. They are easier id when you are not confused by the plumage I think. One day one will turn up, probably your way.

[Harry Hussey]

Hi Jane,
Not disputing the vagrancy potential of SS(remember all the excitement caused by that odd Starling on Scilly a few years back?It's still there as well!),but it's just one of those species that doesn't really cross one's mind all that often,a bit like Rufous Bushchat(which has made it here 3 times,but not since 1968).
Had never come across references to structural differences,will bear that in mind if I ever get to Spain.
Harry H

[Jane Turner]

Bushchat.... like GS Cuckoo. As good a chance of getting one in the west as anywhere.... that's what I tell myself each year. Orphean W is another one that is staying rare, while Sibes are getting commoner all the time.

Managed one of the three here and I guess any more ould be greedy.

[Harry Hussey]

Hi Jane,
It seems that a lot of overshoots are going through a period of scarcity as vagrants:for every Bee-eater,Woodchat Shrike or Alpine Swift,there are birds such as BW Stilt(if it wasn't for "Sammy",this would be a tough year tick in the UK now,and the last twitchable ones here were in 1995!),Purple Heron(only 1 record 1998-2003 inclusive here,and that wasn't twitchable),Squacco Heron(only 1 since mid 90's here) etc.
Also,despite the increasing regularity of Sardinian Warblers in the UK,there have been none here since the only 2 records,both in April 1993.
GS Cuckoo did make a welcome reappearance in Ireland in May 2002,very nice indeed!;)
Harry H

[Jane Turner]

I've seen two GW Cuckoos pre 1980! There was a time when they were more or less untwitchable.

Tawny pipit seems had to see.... in the 80's they were more or less anuual here.

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I've seen two GW Cuckoos pre 1980! There was a time when they were more or less untwitchable.

A Great-white Cuckoo - that'd be something to see! ;)

[Michael Frankis]

Green-winged Cuckoo?

[Jane Turner]

I've seen two GW Cuckoos pre 1980! There was a time when they were more or less untwitchable.

Tawny pipit seems had to see.... in the 80's they were more or less anuual here.