A visit from the Queen of Spain

In this autumn of endless westerlies we saw a gap, a breeze of NE, and Mike and I headed for Canvey Island. The birders were all in attendance - standing room only, but sadly the birds weren't. An Arctic Skua so distant it was in a different county, a Whimbrel, and then the usual mix of Sandwich Terns, Mediterranean Gull, Teal, and a few Great-Crested Grebes. Fortunately a small pod of Porpoises livened things up, the occasional arc of fin leading us on a chase.

But we had other plans. After just over an hour we headed for East Tilbury. We toured a remote estate, parked gingerly on the roadside and headed through an area of lock-up garages, rusty transit vans, past men with large dogs. On the Thornberry scale this was scoring significantly. As we exited the estate towards our target field a local man approached us, clearly intent on finding out what we strangers were doing on his manor.

"You can enter the field at that end, or just round that corner. Are you here for the orange butterflies?" We were indeed there for the Queen of Spain Fritillary which has been reported in variable but occasionally large numbers from here recently. He told us exactly where other men had looked for them, asked about the butterflies and wished us luck. But it was our lucky day to get such accurate information.

We took a slow walk round the field initially seeing only white butterflies. But as time passed the sun burnt through the clouds, the heat built, more insects appeared, and a quick flash of orange flew across then disappeared. Could I tick that? We spent a frustrating ten minutes, then another sighting, then another frustrating ten minutes, then one settled on the path in front of us. It sunned itself for a minute or so, then flew off.

It kept returning. We kept looking. Eventually getting excellent views of the upper wing, all dots and whit edging, then finally it lifted its wings and we got the full spread of large white spots. QoS well and truly ticked. 

We had definite three, possibly four. In flight they are fast and generally low. They are hard to follow. But they seemed territorial coming back to plants or more commonly sunig themselves on the ground in the same area.

A Clouded Yellow to finish and we were off. I'd hoped for QoS, I hadn't dared hope to see them like that.

Phone pic of a Queen of Spain Fritillary

Two lifers in One Day

And so to Portland Bill, currently suffering from westerly winds and a dearth of migrants. We headed up to the top fields but firstly had a look in the field opposite. Its weird to be in a field and hear bird-song from everywhere and know these are tapes to lure birds to the nets, not actual birds. I failed to find the  Whinchat but there was a large dragonfly whizzing around, and on inspection it was generally dullish brownish apart from a prominent blue segment at the rear of the thorax. Lesser Emperor! I had just been telling someone I was not going to twitch one but wait for one to cross my path, and here it was.

Onwards in wind to the top and across to the coastal path. I had seen a photo on X of Autumn Ladies Tresses with the lighthouse far below as a backdrop, and guessed it was from the top of the slope below the coastguard lookout, but it was still a bit of a moment when I found myself looking at a two-inch stalk of spiral flowers, and thought Eureka that's it! There were about ten more in the area, mostly gone over. Mrs D said 'no-ones going to dig these up' and she's right, but still nice to finally tick them, and the spiral is distinctive and quite cute. There's a phone picture below. I should have knelt down for it, but given the state of my hip I wasn't sure I could get down and pretty certain I couldn't get up again afterwards. 

Then down to the Bill and an ice-cream. 5 Wheatears in the calm of the bill and east-cliffs, a Yellow Wagtail, 2 Bull Seals entertaining the crowds, and Clouded Yellow Butterflies. Lots of them. Everywhere. Minimum 20 but surely many more.

Mistakes in ID: Episode s 155 & 156

I went back to Ferrybridge to revisit the Curlew Sandpiper fiasco. 5 Wheatear, 1 Knot, 4 Sanderling, and a wader that looked like a massive over-size Dunlin which I confidently told myself was the Curlew Sand from last week. In fact I wandered round to a chap with a scope and confidently told him that, and he quietly said no its just a big Dunlin. And as soon as he said it I thought yes that's obviously what it is. So there we have it, back to where we started. Dunlins are variable in size. Some are quite small and some are the size of small industrial units.

More ID confusion the following day. This is an old one and to be honest still not fully resolved. Back to Stour Bridge at Wareham Forest and a Common Redstart doing Common Redstart things, namely singing briefly like a Common Redstart, and being territorial like a Redstart and just looking like one, mostly. Plumage has progressed to a couple of white wing flashes, greyish back, black face, but then things get a bit complicated. There is no white flash over the eye and the breast is mainly dark grey. But there is quite a lot of orange on the belly. So not a Black Redstart, yet not a classic Common Redstart, more a Blackish Common Redstart.

A quick google of male common redstart images does reveal a bit of variation. None quite like this. So put this one in the 'interesting' file.

Mistakes in ID. Episode 154

Another Saturday morning whizz round Abberton. First to Wigborough Bay, and despite the heat haze and distance I was able to pick up 4 juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and a juvenile Little Stint. The Curlew Sandpipers were distinctive both in shape and plumage and easy to pick out even at this range.

Then onto Layer Breton Causeway and three resting Red-Crested Pochard. As well as the usual Spoonbills and Egrets. There was no mention of the female Ring-Necked Duck so I started going through the ducks and found a suitable candidate asleep. Eventually it became clear this was the bird, and as if to confirm I took a photo on my phone down the telescope lens and when I did the ID thing it came up with Ring-Necked Duck!

Phone scoped Ring-Necked Duck, confirmed by Google!

Next stop Weymouth and a stop at Ferrybridge. Still feeling the warm glow of guru-level ID master from my RND I scanned across the waders. A single Knot, a few Sanderlings, and lots and lots of Ringed Plover. There were quite a few Dunlin and in one group there was a slightly larger bird, but they do vary, Alpine races being a bit larger, and this was quite fluffed up. Furthermore it had the distinctive rich brown back colour of Dunlin, a plumage that ruled out Curlew Sandpiper as both the adults and the juveniles have distinct plumages. Go on, have a look in your guide book of choice, Hayman, Marchant, Prater, or Collins in my case. No overlap whatsoever.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see on Birdguides Curlew Sandpiper reported from Ferrybridge for the same day. I checked the Portland Bird Observatory sightings page and they even had a couple of photos of it. And it was clearly the bird I'd seen, in Dunlinesque plumage. And it clearly was a Curlew Sandpiper. 

So, I'm back to novice level ID skills. Curlew Sandpipers don't have a plumage overlap with Dunlin, apart from the ones that do.