25th anniversary

I've got a thing for Iceland Gull. There's just something about 'm! Something Glaucous Gull for instance misses. Like there's something about Caspian Gull that's missing in Yellow-legged.

In 1992, as a young teenager, I saw my first IG on my local winter patch: the harbour of Scheveningen. In the Netherlands, Scheveningen is Iceland Gull capital.

Now, 25 years later, I saw my 25th one for the site (see pic on top of this post). A milestone (thanks Wim). Who would have thought back in 1992? Until 1997 Iceland Gull even had to be submitted to the Dutch rarity committee!

22 of these birds were 1st winters (calling them juveniles would be more appropriate). I haven't seen a single 2nd winter in Scheveningen (though I have seen it elsewhere). The first IG I found myself wasn't until 2004. Now I've found at least six. Remarkably I found all of the (sub)adults I saw myself.

I think back at the thrill the adult caused that flew past me in January 2012. I started looking for it to get another view, and finally got another fly by. Or so I thought. When I checked my photographs it appeared that I first photographed a 3rd winter and then found a true adult an hour later!

I think about the another adult in December 2013. When it got closer the thrill got even bigger: it turned out to be the 3rd Kumlien's Gull for the Netherlands (pic below).

However, nothing beats early 2017, when an unprecedented influx of white-wingers hit our coast. Amongst at least 12 (but probably more) Glaucous, we identified no less than 8 Iceland Gulls (of which I saw 7), with up to 6 birds present at the same time.

But most of all, in these 25 years, I've learnt how wonderfully variable the young birds are. Some are very white, others are quite dark, some are a bit smudgy (2nd pic of this post!), some pretty big, others incredibly neatly patterned and so slim that they reach esthetical perfection (see below!).

Iceland Gull is clearly on the increase. I hope it won't take another 25 years to hit the 50 mark.

#IcelandGull

Spurn Wildlife review & Sovon Bird Festival

An invasion of one of my favourite species - Mealy Redpoll - hits the country at the moment. But hey, there's more to life than field work! I'll be giving a lecture on pipit identification the yearly Sovon Festival on Saturday 2 December! The entire programme can be found here.

Furthermore I've added a review of the lovely Spurn 2016 year report.

Hume's Leaf Warbler: my bird of the autumn

Autumn 2016 was nothing less than perfect. But this autumn, well... it was a bit boring to be honest. I missed most good vis mig days, ringing was often impossible due to unfavourable weather, and I hardly saw anything notable in the field. The Hawfinch an Parrot Crossbill invasions were the rare highlights.

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But since November, things seem to have changed a bit. A self-found Richard's pipit that performed well was an omen. And I found the motivation to go ringing again. And while I enjoyed ringing the common species, I started trapping interesting birds, like Jack Snipe, Long-eared Owl and Siberian Chiffchaff.

And then, on 7 November I got my star bird of the autumn: a lovely Hume's Leaf Warbler (pic on top of this page by Noël Aarts). I've been lucky enough to have found them in the field twice before, but it was a new bird for me in the hand!

The ID was more or less straight forward. See the differences with Yellow-browed below (please not that not all Hume's are so easy to tell apart from YB on plumage).

A= Note Yellow-browed Warbler (YBW) has a clear dark shade on the secondaries, below the (2nd) wingbar. This is nearly absent in Hume's Leaf Warbler (HLW)

B= YBW has a clear upper wingbar on the median coverts, in HLW this is often absent or faint

C= HLW has greyish green upperparts, vs. moss green in YBW

D= Note that YBW (hence the name!) has a yellow in the supercilium, whereas it's buff in HLW

E= YBW usually has a faint crown stripe

F= "Dirty", green streaked cheek in YBW vs. cleaner, pale cheek in HLW G= Note cleaner, whitish underparts in HLW vs. often yellow streaks in YBW

A= Edges of primaries and secondaries greenish on YBW, buff on HLW B= Note yellowish tone on tips of greater coverts in YBW, vs white in HLW

C= Primary coverts with brownish grey edges in HLW, vs. greenish in YBW

D= Obvious pale edges on median coverts in YBW forming an obvious 2nd wingbar; brownish buff on this HLW only creates a faint one

In YBW the legs are usually orange, or at least the toes and soles.

This is only the 6th to be ringed in The Netherlands (on little over 60 records) and the first for our ringing site in Meijendel, Wassenaar, The Netherlands (since 1927, the oldest ringing site in Holland!).

#birdringing #rarities #HumesLeafWarbler #identification