Fair Isle September 2015

It's taken me a few weeks to process all of the photographs I took during the last week or so in September whilst birding Fair Isle and mainland Shetland. I journeyed up to Aberdeen on Thursday 17th September along with four guys from the BTO. We were planning to meet another BTO employee and a couple more friends to make up a team of nine birders who would spend the next ten days grubbing about in the hope of finding that really rare bird!
We caught the overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick and after a 14 hour crossing we disembarked at 0700 on Friday. Lack of a good night's sleep was having an effect but a few northern specialities: Hooded Crow, Black Guillemot and Eider as well as Raven and Great Northen Diver added to the Arctic and Great Skuas seen off the boat livened me up a bit. After loading our gear into the hire car we set off for Sumburgh to look for a Western Bonelli's Warbler which had been knocking about in a dog rose hedge for a few days. We found it sure enough but it was being a devil to see clearly: flitting about in deep cover and giving nanosecond views. I saw the bird five or six times and I bet that if all of the time I saw it was totalled it would come to about a second and a half!
No chance of photographs but there was an obliging Kestrel and an equally obliging Spotted Flycatcher.

Kestrel waiting to catch a Western Bonelli's Warbler

Spotted Flycatcher - Sumburgh

We saw a very late Common Swift near to the lighthouse as well as brief views of a couple of Minke Whales. Other species of note here were Common Redstart and Little Stint as well as a Yellow-browed Warbler. The first of what proved to be a bumper count over the next week.
Our flight from Tingwall was due out around 1500 so after a fruitless visit to Quendale we clambered into the plane to cross to Fair Isle. Well, at least, some of us did!
Arriving on Fair Isle and walking down towards Pund we had great views of a juvenile Pallid Harrier. This was virtually the first bird we saw...and it was a life tick for me. Although it flew quite close I did not have my camera at the ready (let that be a lesson) so no photographs. Its gingery underparts and neck markings: the black boa, in particular, seperating it from juvenile Hen Harrier (which we also saw). The Pallid Harrier was to prove quite reliable for the next few days although I only managed a few distant record shots which are pretty rubbish as this one testifies:

Juvenile Pallid Harrier - Record shot of a distant bird.

The island seemed to be covered with Great Skuas, presumably they had been feeding out at sea and along the cliffs during the day and they were coming back in for the late afternoon, early evening and laying claim to a patch of moorland in the north of the island. We noticed that during the following days numbers would fall during the day and increase again during the evenings. There were so many of these that they were recorded as presnt during the daily log rather than being counted. The same applied to the island's Gannet and Northen Fulmar populations. As well as the Pallid Harrier we also managed to see the island's only Red-breasted Flycatcher which was loitering around the north haven where the Good Shepherd docks.

Red-breasted Flycatcher on the north haven cliff retaining wire.

The following morning this bird had departed and there were to be no more RBFs during the week.
On the Saturday we thought we had had a good day with 3 Yellow-browed Warblers! Twite, a couple of Common Rosefinch and flocks of Snow Buntings kept us entertained as we tried hard but failed to locate a Lanceolated Warbler in any of the ditches that criss-cross the island. A few common migrants such as Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Whinchat, Spotted Flycatcher, Blackcap and Wheatear kept us on our toes.

Whinchat.

Our first Barred Warbler cropped up the next day along with a Blyth's Reed Warbler which was duly netted and ringed by the observatory's assistant wardens. Here are a couple of in-hand photographs of this bird but for a more thorough identification discussion see an earlier posting on this blog titled: (unsurprisingly) Identification of Blyth's Reed Warbler.

Blyth's Reed Warbler - Fair Isle Sept 20th 2015

Blyth's Reed Warbler - Fair Isle Sept 2015

On the Monday we split into three teams and spent the day enjoying a 'bird race' designed to see if we could clean-up on the islands birds on one specific day, We saw 61 species, the other teams saw 60 and 61 respectively but we had a flyover Redpoll discounted because we had not nailed it down to a spcies. Between us I think we managed around 68 species and the wardens claimed around 72 species recorded during the day so we did OK. Pallid Harrier, Common Rosefinch, Yellow-browed Warbler and Blyth's Reed Warbler all figured on the day's lists.

Monster Fair Isle Wren!

Common Rosefinch

Dunlin

Fulmar

Juvenile Gannet

Great Skua...and dead rabbit

Jack Snipe...pretending to be invisible.

Lesser Whitethraot and Fair Isle ring

Merlin. Regular on the island.

Proper...real Rock Dove

Skylark...good numbers all week.

Twite...flocks reached three figures.

Northern Wheatear

Yellow-browed Warbler.Over 50 individuals recorded in one day!

Yellow-browed Warbler numbers went through the roof on 21st as over fifty individuals were counted on the island. A couple of weeks later this record was broken as in excess of seventy birds were recorded in a single day. Again there is a seperate posting on this phenomena for those interested.
Cetaceans were regular during the week and we logged more Minke Whales, Orcas, Risso's Dolphins, Bottle-nosed Dolphins and Harbour Porpoise.
Back on mainland Shetland we preferred to have a feast of fish and chips rather than go see a Thick-billed Warbler but more about that anon.

Identification of Blyth's Reed Warbler

Over the past few years I have seen three Blyth's Reed Warblers in Britain and the last one, on Fair Isle in 2011, was mist netted and ringed and so I was able to get some in-hand shots of the bird. The photos have been sitting on my hard drive serving very little purpose since then. I thought I'd stick a few on my blog so that they are available for anyone wanting help with identifying putative Blyth's Reed Warblers or who just want to brush up their ID skills.
Blyth's Reed is an un-streaked Acrocephalus and as such is pretty difficult to identify as there are a number of other, very similar, un-streaked Acrocephalus warblers in the Palearctic region. Blyth's, Marsh and Eurasian Reed can all be told apart on song but the chances are a bird in the UK will be a first-winter bird in the autumn and will be silent. If it does call you are listening for a Lesser Whitethroat type 'tuk'  which is unlike the 'tcharrr' of a Eurasian Reed or the softer note of a Marsh warbler. So what do you look for in a Blyth's? They have a combination of relatively short primary projection and clear emargination on two of the primaries. O.K. if you have a bird in the hand but difficult in the field! The emargination on the primaries can be seen on the first photograph but it would not, I suggest, be of much use generally.

1st autumn Blyth's Reed Warbler Acrocephalus dumetorum  Fair Isle October 2011

In this second picture we can see that the wing is quite rounded, more so than in Marsh Warbler or Eurasian Reed Warbler. The bird has a short primary projection, about 50-60% of the length of the exposed tertials. According to Kennerley and Pearson in " Reed and Bush Warblers" Helm 2010, "The wing point is formed by p3 and p4, and p5 is often so close in length that just six closely spaced primary tips are visible on the closed wing, fewer than in Marsh and Eurasian Reed." This feature is clear on this bird and it is a particularly important identification feature

1st autumn Blyth's Reed Warbler Acrocephalus dumetorum  Fair Isle October 2011

In this third picture we can see that the bill is quite deep and broad based and so it appears to be more substantial than on Eurasian Reed Warbler but they tend to be about the same length. The bill of Marsh Warbler is slightly smaller. Guidebooks always point to the long, sloping forehead and the low angular crown, peaking just after the eye as a useful ID feature of Blyth's and again this feature can clearly be seen in these photographs. This bird has a clear open-faced expression that can also be a useful ID feature of Blyth's.

1st autumn Blyth's Reed Warbler Acrocephalus dumetorum  Fair Isle October 2011

Blyth's Reed lacks the hint of warm tawny-brown shading to the rump and uppertail coverts that you would expect on a Eurasian Reed Warbler and it is not as greenish as a Marsh Warbler's rump. The overall colour impression of this first-autumn bird is a cool olive-brown above with hints of warmer, browner tones in the wings and on the tail and pale below with a whiter chin and throat. On these pictures we can see that the supercillium is quite indistinct, especially behind the eye. It is quite poorly defined on this individual. Blyth's tend to have a supercillium that bulges in front of the eye but that is less prominent behind the eye and this gives the bird a bland appearance.



1st autumn Blyth's Reed Warbler Acrocephalus dumetorum  Fair Isle October 2011

This bird is showing very worn rectrices and fresh primaries. It is a classic first-winter bird in autumn: the tail feathers are browner than in an adult and the upperwing coverts, tertials and flight feathers are all brighter than in an adult. The first three photographs show that the upper mandible is grey with pinkish cutting edges whilst the lower mandible is a pale pink.



There are a number of confusion species. As well as Marsh and Eurasian Reed, Large-billed Reed Warbler Acrocephalus orinus is probably the most difficult to tell apart - fortunately not a problem in Britain...not yet!

Back on Fair Isle during the week of September 18th to 25th I witnessed a repeat performance as another Blyth's Reed was located, captured and ringed. This bird then hung around showing well on and off in a couple of crofters' gardens for the rest of the week. I took photos of the bird in the hand.

The next three photographs are of the 2015 bird.The gingery colouration on the primaries and secondaries is quite noticeable on this bird. Note the pale pink lower mandible. The wing length of this bird was 60.5 mm. I think that the wing length for Eurasian Reed Warbler lies between 65 and 70mm so the wing length of this bird is quite short in comparison.