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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

A few ID's needed please (1 Viewer)

Reader

Reader

Well-known member
We have had a fortnight in Spain and It is the first time I have been abroad so late in the year so didn't really know what to expect. As we had been to the same area six months earlier we only went out for 6 of the 14 days and still managed 120 species which suprised me.

In have some photos for you to look at and some vague descriptions of other birds for you to consider.

The 1st photo surprised me as I am sure it is a Gull billed Tern. A bird I didn't expect at this time of the year. It was shot through reeds plus it was quite windy so the photo isn't brilliant but I'm sure there is enough there to possitively ID it.

The 2nd I'm sure is a Med Gull (the one with the yellowish bill)

The 3rd is of a Monk Parakeet. According to John Butler's book they are now established in Spain and I did see them in a few places. My question is:are they tickable. If so I need to add them to my list. I'm sure they are a different species to our Ring necked Parakeets.

3 more birds to ID but I only have descriptions so will do a seprate post for these.
 

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  • Gull billed Tern 9537.jpg
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  • Mediterranean Gull 9367.jpg
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  • Monk Parakeet 9529.jpg
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Perhaps I could ask for some help here also.

Why is number 1 not a Sandwich (or possibly Roseate or even Common) tern?
 
Tim100 said:
Perhaps I could ask for some help here also.

Why is number 1 not a Sandwich (or possibly Roseate or even Common) tern?
Click to expand...

Don't forget we were in Spain and it is in the winter. I doubt if Roseates or Commons were present. There were plenty of Sandwich Terns and there must have been 50 plus there whilst I was watching this Tern. This terns bill looked thicker plus it had no yellow tip (I know you can get S Tern with black bills) plus it never went near to the other Sandwich Terns. It was sufficiently different enough for me to wonder. I have seen plenty of Gull billed terns already earlier this year at Tarifa in Spain.
 
sorry, for me #1 looks also like a 1st winter Sandwich, Gull billed has a shorter and thicker bill and the amount of black in the hood would also match with Sandwich. #2 is a Med Gull, indeed.
 
HI Reader,

I can't help with the gull but it's not a Gull-billed Tern IMHO - (unless there is a european subspecies that differs considerably) the bill is all the wrong shape and the gull-billed becomes almost white-headed in winter also the back of this bird looks grayer than I would expect. As for the Monk Parakeets - you can tick them here but in Europe I really don't know - sorry.

Luke
 
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I agree that the bill shape is all wrong for GB tern. To me the plumage looks juvenile-like, maybe moulting into first winter. And yes, it looks like juv sandwich lacks the yellow tip on the bill. Maybe someone from Spain can weigh in with a note as to whether common etc. terns really are out of the question for November.

Niels
 
Hi, Reader, can't help with your IDs but I just wanted to say how much I loved the parakeet shot. It looks like a real coffee klatsch is going on there! LOL! Great capture.
 
Thanks you guys. I'll accept Sandwich Tern. I had my doubts, that is why I posted the photo. The bird threw me whilst I was watching it as it would not associate with the other Sandwich Terns and it did look a bit different but I suppose that if it had been within the Tern group the ID wouldn't have been as difficult, plus I was actually looking at these birds through reeds (something you can't really see through the photo).
 
Reader said:
We have had a fortnight in Spain and It is the first time I have been abroad so late in the year so didn't really know what to expect. As we had been to the same area six months earlier we only went out for 6 of the 14 days and still managed 120 species which suprised me.

The 3rd is of a Monk Parakeet. According to John Butler's book they are now established in Spain My question is:are they tickable.
Click to expand...

Hi Reader.

Told you November was good!

With regard to Terns. I have recorded both Roseate and Common Terns at Marismas del Odiel during October and November in previous years and have recorded Commons at Palmones, so they can be found here.

The Monk Parakeets were excepted onto the Spanish list a couple of years ago and are fully tickable.
Great photo of them. Was it taken at the Parque Natural at Sotogrande? The boardwalk looks familiar.

Regards from Donana.

John.
 
1st Winter Sandwich Tern for no.1, all the gulls in no.2 are Mediterranean Gulls of varying ages. The bird in the foreground has snow white primaries indicating an adult Winter bird whereas the the bird in profile has varying amounts of black on the primaries indicating a second-Winter although i would expect a little more red on the bill than orange.

Regards
 
John Butler said:
Hi Reader.

Told you November was good!

With regard to Terns. I have recorded both Roseate and Common Terns at Marismas del Odiel during October and November in previous years and have recorded Commons at Palmones, so they can be found here.

The Monk Parakeets were excepted onto the Spanish list a couple of years ago and are fully tickable.
Great photo of them. Was it taken at the Parque Natural at Sotogrande? The boardwalk looks familiar.

Regards from Donana.

John.
Click to expand...


Hi John

We had a great time but didn't stray any further than La Janda so we didn't go for the Slender billed Gull. We went to Sotogrande 4 times and on 3 of those times spent at least 6 hours there. We had no sightings of any Penduline Tits at all nor did we hear any so I guess that they weren't there just yet.

You are right about the Monk Parakeets. They were at Sotogrande and we had as many as about 25 flying around us.

BTW have you seen what they have done around Fascinas? They have built a huge wind farm that stretches northwards towards the road to Zahara and also along the Zahara road. I know a few breeding sites that have been destroyed, especially a Collared Pratincole site that I stumbled across last year.
 
M Cowming said:
1st Winter Sandwich Tern for no.1, all the gulls in no.2 are Mediterranean Gulls of varying ages. The bird in the foreground has snow white primaries indicating an adult Winter bird whereas the the bird in profile has varying amounts of black on the primaries indicating a second-Winter although i would expect a little more red on the bill than orange.

Regards
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info. I have got my head around Sandwich Tern for No 1 and the Med Gulls are what I thought from the start, but it's nice to have it confirmed.
 
Reader said:
Hi John

We had a great time but didn't stray any further than La Janda so we didn't go for the Slender billed Gull. We went to Sotogrande 4 times and on 3 of those times spent at least 6 hours there. We had no sightings of any Penduline Tits at all nor did we hear any so I guess that they weren't there just yet.

You are right about the Monk Parakeets. They were at Sotogrande and we had as many as about 25 flying around us.

BTW have you seen what they have done around Fascinas? They have built a huge wind farm that stretches northwards towards the road to Zahara and also along the Zahara road. I know a few breeding sites that have been destroyed, especially a Collared Pratincole site that I stumbled across last year.
Click to expand...

Hi again Reader.

I meant to say the Monk Parakeets were ACCEPTED onto the Spanish List, not EXCEPTED.

I was down at La Janda in September and was apalled at the vastness of the wind farm that is being created. However, birds are pretty resilient creatures and I do not think that the nesting birds will be too bothered by the windmills. The same has happened elsewhere without any great long-term impact.

A worse threat to the area comes from the proposal to drain even more of the flood-plains, of what was once the largest inland lagoon and flood plain in Europe, to create more agricultural land. This WILL have an impact, especially on wintering birds like the Common Cranes.

Spain keeps talking about their commitment to conserving sensitive areas, but that's all it is. TALK.

Thank heavens I live in the Donana region, a World Heritage Site, where the area is out of the control of the Spanish authorities. At least here, the far seeing aims of the man responsible for the formation of the National Park, Jose Antonio Valverde, are secure.

Regards from Donana.

John.
 
Hi John

I forgot to say how productive Sotogrande was for unexpected birds. Firstly we had a Bonxie then a Yelkouan Shearwater. I was pleased with that but the next day we literally had hundreds and hundreds of Yelkouans going through on a totally calm day (Nov 9th). This sighting was breathtaking and to cap it off two Cory's were spotted late in the day.

We also managed plenty of Med Gulls as well as a few Audouin's. The Purple Gallinule's showed well as did a few Cetti's around the hide. We also had good views of Black necked Grebe's, Osprey (we saw 7 Osprey's at La Janda as well) plus quite a few Swallows.

I think the best moment was reserved at the end of the last day we went there. It was about an hour before dark and a few Cattle and Little Egrets landed on the island reeds in front of the hide. We decided to stay a while and ended up staying there until it got dark as well over a thousand mixed Egrets descended on that small area. The noise was tremendous. It was a fabulous sight and well worth staying to watch.

BTW I have another post entitled 3 descriptions. Can you help ID? - in the Bird Identification Q&A forum of BirdForum. One of the birds was at Sotogrande and it completely threw me as it was so strange I couldn't even tag it into any specific species never mind identifying it.
 
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