Taking My Time. (1 Viewer)

1159 : Taking My Time (23/9/23)

stonefactionbirding2014.blogspot.com

New blog-post. A rather more leisurely than intended visit to Riverside Nature Park, just letting the birds come to me (mostly).

 

[Bewick]

The bird to the right of the cormorant looks suspiciously shag like.

Edit- I see you addressed it in the blog- I do see previous records from the area on E-bird and shags are being seen pretty much all over the UK right now- right into Nottinghamshire.

 

[Stonefaction]

The bird to the right of the cormorant looks suspiciously shag like.

Edit- I see you addressed it in the blog- I do see previous records from the area on E-bird and shags are being seen pretty much all over the UK right now- right into Nottinghamshire.

There have been quite high numbers of Shags in the Tay over recent months, though they don't tend to come quite so far upriver (just 1 record there that I'm aware of despite Cormorants being almost ever present). At the time, a Shag seemed to be the obvious answer to a 'smaller Cormorant' but when viewed through my wee Svbony scope, it did appear to be 'just' a Cormorant. Looking at that particular photo, it appears to have the facial markings more like a Shag than a Cormorant. I'll have a good look at the other photos taken that day of the same bird, though none of them were particularly sharp or clear, due to the distance involved.

 

[Stonefaction]

First pic below is the 'middle' bird. Second photo is the right hand bird. On the photo used on the blog-post there appears to be a white area on the lower face but it appears to be a bit of an artifact caused by some 'blur' as similar is visible on the 'middle' Cormorant and is visible on the 1st photo in this post too. The bird could be a Shag, or it could be a smaller than usual Cormorant but none of the photos is completely conclusive either way - which was the same dilemma I had at the time. A 'proper' scope on a tripod, rather than my small scope balanced on a monopod, would also have been helpful for clinching the ID 100%. I've stuck with Cormorant as that was what it appeared to be through the scope I was using - even though I was trying (but failing) to turn it into a Shag.