Glaucous Gull

I finally caught up with the juvenile Glaucous Gull late afternoon on Thursday on what was my fourth attempt. Even in a field full of Gulls it was easy to pick out. It is nearly as large as a Great Black-backed Gull and has a very pale white and ochrous-brown mottled effect colouration. The bill is also distinctive being large and pink with just the end being clearly demarcated in a dark brown/black colour.

Glaucous Gull

Size comparison with Black-headed Gulls

Glaucous Gull - as seen for most of the time

See my blog of March 2013 for pictures of an adult Glaucous Gull at Dungeness.

Other birds present on the gull roost in addition to various gulls were Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Grey Plover.

Dunlin at roost

Dunlin

Ringed Plover

Earlier in the day we had paid a return visit to Rooksbury Mill and Pinglestone Watercress beds. With the weather bright and clear we had hoped to improve on the picture of the Ring-necked Ducks  we had taken on the mill pond early in December. The ducks were still present, the weather was perfect, but unfortunately the ducks were still wary and kept there distance so I came away with no real improvement on the pictures I had taken previously.

Ring-necked Ducks

Ring-necked Ducks

Other ducks on the Mill Pond were more obliging. Male and female Gadwall came close as did an assortment of Tufted ducks.

Gadwall

Gadwall Female

Tufted Duck

All with the ever present Heron keeping a watch over them.

Grey Heron

The visit to the watercress beds also prove a little frustrating. We saw Green Sandpiper and Grey Wagtails along with a lot of Little Egrets but they were all too distant for photographs. The real targets of the visit had been Water Pipits. Did we see them? Well maybe, there were two pipits, light in colour, pinkish legs, white underneath, and at least one with a bright supercilium. They looked good but we couldn't be sure, so this year tick will have to wait for another day.

A good days birding and in nice weather conditions for a change and it was particularly pleasing to finally catch up with the Glaucous Gull.

Shorelark

Reculver had been looking to be worth a visit for a few days. Shorelark, Snow Bunting, Lapland Bunting, and Desert Wheatear had all been present and showing well. Unfortunately other commitments had kept me away over the weekend, so Monday it was pick up Dave and head over to Kent to see if there was anything left. From reports it looked as though the Lapland bunting had gone but we were hopeful of the other three.

Delaying to the Monday was good in one respect in that whilst there were a few birders about we had missed out on the twitch that would have taken place over the weekend. Unfortunately we had also missed out on the Desert Wheatear that appeared to have moved on overnight. I was not too worried at this, the year tick would have been nice but we had good photographs of this bird from one that had turned up at Worthing in October 2012. The Shorelark was the main target of the day.

A walk along the sea wall from Reculver Castle towards Coldharbour Lagoon soon found us in the right area but with the usual message of "its just flown you should have been here ten minutes ago". We only had a short wait before it returned and gave good views and with the clouds clearing we also had good lighting, a rare combination.

The Snow Buntings proved a bit harder to find but we eventually caught up with them.

There was a large supporting cast of birds just off the sea wall and plenty of picture opportunities.

Dunlin

Juvenile Ringed Plover

Stonechat

Turnstones

Cormorant

Kestrel

Early afternoon and we set off for home with a planned stop off at Oare Marshes. There was the nagging suspicion that the Desert Wheatear would turn up just after we left but overall we were happy with pictures that we had managed to get.

Oare marshes always gives you plenty of birds to look at, so much so that it is often impossible to get a decent picture, but what you do get is a great atmosphere. As you open the car door a wall of noise hits you and there is continual movement as birds move around and squabble for the standing room that is in short supply and flocks of different birds swirl overhead.

Standing room only

Pintails against a wall of Waders

Black-tailed Godwits in flight

It was a long way to drive for a non twitcher but we had a great days birding. Reculver is a place I will be going back to. It has the one thing missing along the South Coast, the sun is over your shoulder when you are taking pictures out to sea.

Common Sandpiper

The autumn migration is underway and I have been trying to plug a few of the gaps in my year list caused by missing the birds during the spring. Wednesday saw a reasonably successful trip over to Pagham Harbour. I managed to pick up Little Ringed Plover and Green Sandpiper on the Ferry Pool and a Reed Warbler on the North Wall but they were all too far away for a picture. That left me with with just a butterfly and a dragonfly to show for the day out. So much for my first day back on serious birding.

Holly Blue

Migrant Hawker

I had not managed to find a Common Sandpiper on the trip to Pagham so Friday I took a couple of hours out and went to Arlington Reservoir. With the water in the reservoir low there were a surprising number of birds there, loafing on the exposed mud. The Canada and Greylag geese along with various gulls were the most numerous but there were other interesting birds as well.

Juvenile Egyptian Goose

This juvenile Egyptian Goose had me wondering for a few seconds until the adult, displaying the more familiar dark eye patches and white wing bars, came into view.

There were at least three Common Sandpipers on the dam wall. The first was very flighty but the other two gave good views. The pale edging to the wing feathers and barring on the back suggests the second bird is a juvenile.

Common Sandpiper

Juvenile Common Sandpiper

Other birds on the wall were a Ringed Plover, a Juvenile Dunlin, and the usual juvenile Pied Wagtails.

Ringed Plover

Ringed  Plover (the other side)

Juvenile Dunlin

Pale or warm brown fringing on feathers and silvery V on scapulars
 show this as a juvenile bird

There were lots of "little brown" birds in the hedgerows but I did not have time to stop and look for anything unusual. A pity really as I still need a Lesser Whitethroat for this years list.

Finally, ever wondered what goes into your drinking water. This pipe has been exposed by the low water levels. I am sure the water must be OK by the time it gets to you but it doesn't look very healthy.

Emptying into Arlington Reservoir

Cattle Egret

 I think that I will soon have to remove the word "novice" from the descriptor above. I am starting to notice things that even surprise me.

Today I was searching the salt marshes on Sheppey having made yet another failed attempt to get a picture of the Lesser Yellowlegs at Cliffe Pools. There were a few distant Little Egrets and nothing much else but then there was one bird that did not look quite right. I do not carry a scope so my technique is to take a picture on the 700mm set up I use and then to blow it up on the back of the camera to see what I've got. Its not much use on hazy summer days but works quite well as we move into the crisper, clearer winter days.

My initial shot below showed an Egret but the shape looked wrong, the head was too big and rounded and there was no sign of a dark bill.

View through 700mm lens

Blowing up the shot on the back of the camera confirmed a yellow bill but it was clearly not a Great White Egret as it was too small. That only leaves a Cattle Egret. Initially I had my doubts. I would not expect to see it on a salt marsh. It is an insect eater and in this country would normally be seen around cattle.  A  quick check in Collins confirmed the identification ( I hope! ).

Digital enlargement of the shot above.

 I would have liked a better shot but it was quite mobile and stayed distant so all my shots suffer from being huge crops and over sharpened.

Cattle Egret in Flight

Cattle Egret

There were lots of other waders on the mud flats but very few that were close enough for a picture.

Grey Plover

and one still showing the remnants of its summer plumage

Ringed Plover

 There were also a number of Raptors around. Peregrines, Buzzards, Marsh Harrier, etc but the only picture I managed to get was yet another Kestrel.

Kestrel

And finally a few shots of a Wren hunting insects in the fading light.

Wren

There is one around here somewhere.

There were plenty of birds around today although they were mostly the usual suspects and very few were close enough for pictures. Still Sheppey is a new area for me and I enjoyed searching out new birding locations. On the way off the island I went past the entrance to Elmley NNR. It was getting late and its a big site to get around so I decided to leave it for another day. Bad mistake. This evening there is a report of nine White-fronted Geese on the reserve and I haven't managed to see one yet this year.

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The identification of the Cattle Egret in this blog was questioned and led to the publishing of a BIRDGUIDES Webzine article, The article and comments are set out below for completeness.

Throughout October and November 2013, a Cattle Egret was reported regularly (although intermittently) from the Isle of Sheppey, in north Kent. The bird, first reported on 3rd October and last seen on 29th November, was generally to be found on the saltmarsh at Harty Ferry, at the south-east end of the island. Despite its being around for several weeks, we received no images directly here at BirdGuides — unusual for such a long-staying scarcity. However, towards the end of last year, Marc Read emailed me a link to Sussex birder Martin Peacock's blog, asking me to have a look at the egret featured in his post from 17th October. On opening it up and looking at the photos of the bird in question — the Harty Ferry bird no less — it was instantly clear that something was wrong. Though labelled as a Cattle Egret, there appeared to be multiple plumage and structural features at odds with that species, although it didn't really seem to fit any of the European or African egret species. I got in touch with Martin to express my thoughts, and he responded with the following:

"The pictures below are of the 'Cattle Egret' seen regularly around Harty Ferry on Sheppey back in October. It was my first Cattle Egret, so I spent some time checking the identification, photographing and learning about the bird. Although I was happy at the time that it could not be anything other than a Cattle Egret, I could not find any pictures on the web that showed examples of black legs and yellow feet as you would find on a Little Egret. The shape of the lower jaw also seemed to be different to the pictures that I was looking at but I put this down to the bird being a juvenile. Finally there was the fact that it was feeding on a saltmarsh along with other Little Egrets, when I would have expected to find it in pastures, feeding around cattle, or in similar habitats.
The shots were published on my blog back in October and I thought nothing more of it. However, since that time I have received queries suggesting that this may be a Little × Cattle Egret hybrid. I have searched the web but although this hybrid is recognised I cannot find any details on what the resulting bird would look like. This is getting a bit beyond my current levels of expertise and I wondered if there is anyone out there that can help me with the identification...
Finally, my apologies for the quality of the pictures. The bird was about quite distant and the pictures are heavily cropped."

Above: the 'Harty Ferry egret', both at rest and in flight, 17th October 2013 (Photos: Martin Peacock).

So, what is it? For starters, it seems quite clear that this isn't a Cattle Egret. Perhaps the most striking feature is the yellow feet (as in Little Egret), but there are other differences that point away from that as a diagnosis. For example, the bill is comparatively long, thin, and posseses a dark tip, while it also appears rather long-necked for that species. The legs are also rather long and spindly. Could it be an aberrant Little Egret? Personally, I'm not sure: facially, it looks quite Cattle Egret-like with those bright yellowish lores and the predominately yellowish bill (which is perhaps a little shorter than on your average Little Egret). Similarly, the neck, though longer than a typical Cattle, looks quite thickset and rather less 'snaky' than you'd expect in a Little Egret. This, along with the quite plump body and shortish legs, give it quite a dumpy, stunted feel.

Composite showing (left to right) Little Egret, the 'Sheppey egret' and Cattle Egret in similar poses, demonstrating the apparently intermediate structure and appearance of the Sheppey bird. Photos of Little Egret (John Freeman) and Cattle Egret (Tom Victory) from the BirdGuides Iris galleries.

Another species with a yellow bill is Intermediate Egret but, like Cattle Egrets, they have black (not yellow) feet and are larger, longer-necked and more elegant-looking than Little Egrets (not smaller and short-necked as in the Kent bird). White-morph Western Reef Egrets would show paler, greenish legs and a duller bill, as well as a different structure. The bird is also clearly not a Great White Egret.
It is at this point that we mention the 'H' word for the first time. Hybrids between herons, egrets and their allies are rare but certainly not unknown. The Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World lists Cattle Egret as having hybridised with both Little Blue Heron and Snowy Egret in the USA, and with Little Egret in both Europe and Africa. Furthermore, examples of Cattle Egrets apparently hybridising with Squacco Heron have been recorded in the wild in Spain and Italy (see here and here), while an apparent Cattle Egret × Night Heron has been recorded in captivity in Germany (see here).
Therefore, displaying characteristics seemingly intermediate between Cattle and Little Egret, could the Sheppey bird be a hybrid between the two species? Based on what we can see in Martin's photographs, such an assumption certainly seems reasonable. We'd love to hear your views and opinions on the bird — feel free to leave any comments in the section at the foot of this article!

Martin Peacock & Josh Jones
Friday 10th January 2014

Comments

a lesson for all in checking a rarities true identity. how many people must have seen this and just 'ticked' without thinking. photos show very clearly its not a simple cattle and H seems right
Mark Welfare, 10/01/14 14:08	Report

#2 According to Collins....Western Reef Egret (Egretta gularis) can have an all yellow bill, legs greenish grey to black, with yellow toes, clearly it can be cosmetically variable, also size ranges between 55-68cm. (garzetta/Little Egret) 55-65cm. with gularis at the upper range wings can stretch to 112cm as opposed to 106cm for garzetta. Cheers
Ken Murray, 10/01/14 21:01	Report

#3 Well spotted Marc. I wonder how many people saw this and didn't question the ID?
Andy Lawson, 10/01/14 22:23	Report

#4 Hybrid Little x Cattle looks the most likely. It is obviously not a proper Cattle Egret and to be honest I am surprised that it was reported as such for so long.
Steve Lister, 11/01/14 12:55	Report

#5 Why not simply a Little Egret, with an individual fault in the complex mechanisms for controlling the production and accumulation of melanin. Perhaps, with the substitution of a carotenoid-based bill colour?
Colin Selway, 12/01/14 14:23	Report

#6 Perhaps worth remembering that juvenile Little Egrets can look like this http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?v=1&f=365422 Of course this isnt a juv but individual variation can occur, what did these birds look like when they fledged!
Richard Ford, 15/01/14 00:17	Report

#7 On the Western Reef v Little point Ken Murray raised - it should perhaps be noted that the tip of the bird's bill appears to be decurved. Normally regarded as a distinguishing characteristic between these two easily confused species.
kev roy, 15/01/14 17:34	Report

#8 A breeding plumaged Cattle Egret was present in North Kent last spring and was seen on Higham Marsh, Cliffe and finally Northward Hill close to a Little Egret colony............

Paul Larkin., 15/01/14 17:38