Oxfordshire Weekend

Always great to get out of London. Went to Otmoor yesterday afternoon with Jacob and did some moth trapping and some vis mig from the Old Vicarage. Redwings, Fieldfares, Chaffinch and Siskin going over the Old Vicarage with Treecreeper, Coal Tit and 3 Goldcrest in the garden. 

 The Starling roost at Otmoor was just immense- surely well over 50,000 birds (above and below) 

 Sprawler (above and below)- moth of the weekend was this species- a November speciality. 

 Dark Sword Grass- a migrant moth and if I remember correctly a first for the Old Vicarage 

 Feathered Thorn- another late autumn speciality 

Willow Beauty- many of these late generation specimens are small and crisply marked 

Hackbridge and Beddington Corner Neighbourhood Development Plan Referendum 29th November

All rather wintery

 There was still a bit of movement going on at Beddington this morning- 100+ Redwing, 40+ Fieldfare, 20+ Chaffinch, noticeable numbers of Song Thrush and Blackbird around etc. However the main theme was large numbers of ducks and gulls- no matter how much we try to deny it- autumn is almost over and winter is almost upon us. Today 120+ Shoveler, 10+ Wigeon, 25+ Gadwall, 6 Pochard, 18 Tufted Duck, Teal (mostly on 100 acre so not counted), 22 Mute Swan (an influx) and good numbers of gulls including 1 1st-winter Caspian Gull.

No sign of the Richard's Pipit after Viridor sent in machinery to mow the mound (on Thursday) hours after informing them of the bird's presence and of the public interest.

 Beddington Wildfowl- Wigeon, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Gadwall 

 First-winter 'Caspian Gull' the dark markings around the eye and the pale greater coverts could indicate a non-pure bird

 Part of an influx of Mute Sean include these ringed birds 4CSR and 4CSN- will be interesting to get the results on where they have originated 

The moth trap has been very quiet recently- the highlights being several Bricks and November Moths

Extinction Rebellion- 17th November 2018

Is this the beginning of something? Extinction rebellion backed by leading environmentalists such as Caroline Lucas and George Monbiot and over 100 prominent scientific academics are declaring rebellion on the British government on November 17th. 

Last chance saloon

A promising forecast of north winds across the Thames Estuary and north easterlies over the North Sea for Tuesday failed to materialise but I'd already chosen to give it a punt considering there will probably be few other easterly blows this autumn. I always think 15th November is the end of the autumn and I'm away next week. So basically I spent 8 hours seeing bugger all on Tuesday at Oare. 

 Brents (above and below) 

 Best bird was this ringtail Harrier flying over Horse Sands- presumably the Hen Harrier that has been at Shellness recently 

Marsh Harrier past the sea watching hide 

More on Richard's Pipit

First-winter Richard's Pipit, Anthus richardi richardi, Beddington Farmlands (Kevin Guest). The best pic of this bird showing some of the covert and tertial details which are useful in ageing the bird (see ageing below) 

Identification: See expanded previous post HERE

Call: See expanded previous post HERE

Ageing: Looks like the bird has moulted all it's median coverts (broadly buffed tipped) and the tertials look second generation like with broad brown fringes. However these contrast with the pale tipped greater coverts (possibly moulted one of the inner greater coverts too). The contrast suggests a first-winter bird. In an adult the tips to the greater and median coverts are generally uniform light brown. 

Geographical Variation (HBW). Presumably this bird is nominate richardi (based on distribution). Centralasiae are the palest and largest subspecies. The tones in most photos are consistent with a darker toned specimen (typical of richardi). 

A. r. richardi Vieillot, 1818 – SW Siberia and NE Kazakhstan E to L Baikal; winters mainly in SW Asia, some farther W.

A. r. dauricus H. C. Johansen, 1952 – Transbaikalia and Yakutia E to Sea of Okhotsk and S to N Mongolia and NE China (NW Heilongjiang); winters in S Asia.

A. r. centralasiae (Kistiakovsky, 1928) – E Kazakhstan (Zaysan Basin, E Tien Shan) E to W & S Mongolia, S to N China (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, probably also Inner Mongolia); winters in S Asia.

A. r. ussuriensis H. C. Johansen, 1952 – SE Russia (lower Amur area, Ussuriland) S to E China (S to Sichuan and R Yangtze), probably also Korea; winters in SE Asia.

A. r. sinensis (Bonaparte, 1850) – SE China S of R Yangtze; winters in SE Asia.

Global Taxonomy:  Pipits are hosted within the Family Motacillidae (Pipits and Wagtails). HBW recognise 43 species of pipit. Richard's Pipit was formerly considered a super-species with Australasian Pipit, Paddyfield Pipit and Grassveld/African Pipit (split also adopted by IOC). 

References/Bibliography:

HBW (Del Hoyo et al) 

HWPB (Shirihai and Svennson)

Pipits and Wagtails (Alstrom and Mild)

Dutch Birding 34:1, (Lopez-Velasco et al) 

Richard's Pipit !

Found this beauty today at the farmlands. The first one at Beddington since 1970 (nearly a half century ago). Previous records are a spring bird from April 17th-18th 1958 and two autumn birds together from October 23rd-24th 1970 with one present until 26th.

 Wheatley (2007) lists 4 records (not including the early C19th birds see below) for the Surrey Vice County (with a further 2 in Spelthorne) with the last one at Barn Elms in 1994. Self (2014) lists 29 records for London, also noting that the first record of Richard's Pipit for the UK was from Kings Cross in 1812 with several records of taken birds in 1831 and 1836 in London including one from Tooting Common. According to Self the last record in London was 2008 (Spring birds at Rainham and Crossness). Of the London records 10 are from the Spring and there was also a winter bird at Staines Moor on December 11th 2004. 

There have also been 2 records of Tawny Pipit (involving 3 birds) at Beddington (with a further 2 un-submitted records). However Tawny Pipit is much rarer in London with only 9 records according to Self (2014). 

Richard's Pipit breeds in Siberia, Mongolia and China and generally winters in Southeast Asia. One of the more regular sibes to Europe with small wintering populations in Spain, Italy, Israel, Turkey and Arabia (Shirihai and Svensson 2018) 

In a WP context , the confusing species are Blyth's Pipit and Tawny Pipit. The size, structure strong bill and streaking restricted to breast is obvious- a large pipit . Structurally the bird is like a cross between Skylark and a Wagtail.  The lores appear pale (cf Tawny Pipit). The supercilium is strong and extends well behind the eye (a supporting feature of Richard's vs Blyth's). 

It certainly looks like a fresh bird with clear contrasting tips to the greater coverts. The clear definition suggests a first-winter bird. 

Another flight shot showing the pale lores . In Tawny Pipit the lores would be darker. The pattern of the median coverts is not high resolution enough to test one of the most well known features of Richard's vs Blyth's (the more square centred first-winter media coverts of Blyth's). 

In flight T6 appears all white with a wedge on T5. Extensive white on the outer rectrices is a supporting feature agaisnt Blyth's Pipit. 

The bird characteristically hovered in flight. Blyth's are less prone to this behaviour. 

Richard's Pipit and the Incinerator 

Single call- in a bird in flight the best identification feature will be the call. The call here has the typical sparrow like quality of Richards. Compare Blyth's and Tawny below. 

Double call

Tawny Pipit for comparison

Blyth's Pipit for comparison