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Pipits are easy - let's do Stonechats! (1 Viewer)

Stephen Dunstan

Stephen Dunstan

Registered User
This afternoon I was birding the coast between Blackpool and St Annes, hoping for a few migrants. At Starr Hills a male Stonechat flew onto a bush fairly close by, and being a typical Stonechat allowed fairly close approach. Given the Stonechat passage in these parts was largely over more than three weeks ago, and a Red-rumped Swallow appeared five miles away this morning, I gave him more attention than I would have otherwise and was struck by just how pale (vaguely reminiscent of Sibe Stonechat) he was on the chest. A few years ago the Lancs Bird Report published a record of male rubicola at Marshside, which is only just across the estuary from St Annes.

Any thoughts? I would imagine most counties wouldn't even assess Stonechat races other than eastern birds. Anybody at west coast sites still getting passage birds, and what do they look like?

Stephen.
 
I've fallen foul of these Stephen... once had a fall of..wait for it 38 Stonechats at Red Rocks.. all the males looked like [rubecula and one looked good for Sibe. BBRC thought otherwise.. despite having a collar and putre white rump, there is I now know a need to see the underwing!
 
Having checked the Migration Atlas the only foreign ringed recovery is of a bird ringed in Spain in October, which could of course have been dispersing from Britain when caught. Siberian Stonechats clearly occur, what about Southern European birds? They disperse south like ours, so could overshoot on the way back.

But it all seems a bit woolly which makes the acceptance of a record of rubicola in Lancs perhaps surprising.

Stephen.
 
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14 birds out of 40 ish on 20/3/94 showed characteristics of the nominate race. I recall other places had an influx at the same time. 6 of them were strikingly pale underneath with whitish rumps.. one also had a collar and a huge unstraked rump.

I have no other records.
 
There's a lot of people say that hibernans should be regarded as a synonym of rubicola - while extreme individuals of each are easily identifiable, there's close to a complete continuum between them. Even among those who accept them as distinct races, there's no consensus at all as to where the boundary between them lies.

Siberian Stonechat, I agree with Urquhart & Bowley (Stonechats, Helm) that they're different species.

Michael
 
Jane Turner said:
14 birds out of 40 ish on 20/3/94 showed characteristics of the nominate race. I recall other places had an influx at the same time. 6 of them were strikingly pale underneath with whitish rumps.. one also had a collar and a huge unstraked rump.

I have no other records.
Click to expand...
By "nominate race", do you mean South African torquata, or European rubicola? :king:
 
I thought the Stonechats were from Africa,well that is what Robin said!.We have lots here,but did not realise that there were different species.Birds are so complicated!!.Incidentally Stephen,you may like to know(or not!!)that the Terns may not be breeding on our ski bank this year,as apparently the Wake Boarders complained about the smell from the Gulls,and bird scarers were installed.I think they were in the form of cd's hanging from the posts on the bank.Two weeks ago the bank was quite full of Gulls and several Terns,but now it is almost deserted.The RSPB warden for the area says he has had a word,and hopefully some of the gulls may return to nest,and the Terns may follow.So that answers my question to you as to why did the Terns depart.
 
I was passed the following views of Chris Kehoe, Secretary of the BBRC's sub-species committee, which I'm sure he won't mind me airing here. The bit about Sibe Stonechat at the end I thought particulary interesting:

Re: rubicola: hibernans is probably not a valid subspecies anyway, and
rubicola is not meaningfully recordable!.

Birds later in spring look at their brightest anyway so that British
breeders would be expected to look brighter in late April and May than in
March and early April due to ongoing and possibly accelerating
wear.Brilliant white rumps are definitely found on birds breeding in Western
Britain, as are all of the other characters - differences, if any between
British and continental breeders are averages only and very negligeable
really.

In a nutshell rubiciola and hibernans are probably synonyms and not reliably
diagnosible, certainly not in the field and doubtfully in the museum.....

All of the supposed characters of rubicola are found so regularly within
'hibernans' that 'showing characters of' one is the same as showing the
characters of the other in my view. Also, very precise details, and probably
photos, would be needed to exclude Sibe Stonechat.

Stephen.
 
Stonechat image

Jane Turner said:
Had a Stonechat on North Wirral today with a fine white bum... looked to have slightly more white in the wing too!
Click to expand...

Apologies for the poor image, but attached is the Stonechat Jane referred to. Not sure if there's enough detail to add to the dicussion though.

Des.
 
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