Phylloscopus warblers

Among the many birds that we saw during our recent visit to Thailand were ten species of leaf warblers from the genus Phylloscopus.  That’s Phylloscopus from the Ancient Greek phullon, “leaf”, and skopus “seeker” (from skopeo, “to watch”).  They included Dusky (P. fuscatus), Radde’s (P. schwarzi), Two-barred (P. plumbeitarsus) and Yellow-browed (P. inornatus), all of which have long been autumn vagrants to Western Europe and Eastern Crowned (P. coronatus) and Pale-legged Leaf Warbler (P. tenellipes), which have reached Britain for the first time only quite recently.

Identifying some of these warblers can be a bit of a challenge and so we were very pleased to have Neil Lawson with us to help sort them out!  Mostly they are very similar looking birds with greenish or brownish upperparts and off-white or yellowish underparts; most of them have eye-stripes and/or crown-stripes.  The fact that they tend to be very active, constantly moving and flicking their wings as they glean the foliage for insects, sometimes high in the trees, often makes it difficult to see them well and distinguish the finer details that are required to differentiate between them.  Although some have fairly distinctive calls, some don’t and anyway it takes time to get tuned into them.

 Yellow-browed Warbler - Algarve 2013

Although it was no longer calling and close inspection was possible, the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler that was found dead last October on St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, remained unidentified until analysis of its DNA.  That’s how difficult some of them can be!

Common Chiffchaff - Algarve 2008

Of course, we have seen more than a few Yellow-browed Warblers over the years but the status of this species in Western Europe has changed markedly in recent times.  These are birds that breed in Siberia and normally migrate to spend the winter in the forests of South-east Asia.  However, every year in September and October a small number could be expected to arrive ‘by accident’ on the east coast of Britain.  Gradually over recent years the number of Yellow-broweds arriving in Britain has increased considerably and last autumn was exceptional. Back in the 1970s an annual total of about 70 birds was the norm; in 1988 there were more than 700 and in 2005 at least 1,250 were recorded.  Last year it was believed that there may have been 5,000 or more!

Common Chiffchaff - Algarve 2008

Not surprisingly, the increase in the number of Yellow-browed Warblers occurring in Britain has been reflected in the numbers seen in the Iberian Peninsula.  One theory is that these birds have taken to wintering in West Africa instead of South-east Asia and are passing through Spain and Portugal on their way south.  In Portugal the numbers occurring are still relatively small (about 40 in 2015) but the upward trend is clear and there have now been at least two or three instances of birds actually wintering here, including one that remains this week, reported again by Georg Schreier.

Iberian Chiffchaff - Algarve 2017

It was partly with the intention of tracking down the wintering Yellow-browed Warbler that together with Ray Tipper we set out a few days ago to Fonte Ferrea.  However, we also had another aim, which was to see and to photograph three species of Phylloscopus warblers in one morning.  It seems unlikely that there is currently any site in Europe other than this small park in the Algarve where this might be possible and the window of opportunity is quite a short one.  Presumably, the Yellow-browed can be expected to leave any day now and the same is true of the Common Chiffchaffs (P. collybita) that have been with us, as usual, throughout the winter but will breed further north.  The third species, Iberian Chiffchaff (P. ibericus), is now just returning to breed here after spending the winter away so there is just a small period of overlap.

Iberian Chiffchaff - Algarve 2017

Not surprisingly, our ambitious mission met with only limited success!  We did manage to see all three species but the Yellow-browed showed no inclination at all to be photographed. Common Chiffchaffs are numerous in the Algarve in winter and have been photographed many times so in the end we didn’t bother much with them.  Instead we concentrated our efforts on the Iberian Chiffchaffs, which obligingly sang to confirm identification and sometimes remained still for just long enough for the lens to focus.  Eventually we did manage to get a few reasonable images, which all importantly are better than our efforts in previous years. It's interesting to compare these images with some of our old ones of Common Chiffchaff and to see how difficult it is to separate these species by plumage alone.

We have photographed Yellow-browed Warbler here in the past (at Castro Marim in 2013) and have included one of those images here.  It will be interesting to see what the autumn of 2017 brings but it seems very likely that there will be more opportunities to catch up with this remarkable little bird that seems to be undergoing a serious change in its migratory strategy.

Algarve rarity update

The second half of October saw more rare birds arriving in the Algarve.  The star attraction was an Olive-backed Pipit found near the Cabranosa raptor watch point on the 21st.  The only accepted record of this species in Portugal was down here in the south at Alvor some 20 years ago but several have been reported from the Berlengas, Cabo da Roca and elsewhere in the last three years and those reports are still in the hands of the Rarities Committee.

Also found near Cabranosa on the 21st was a Yellow-browed Warbler, which proved to be the first of many!  So far there have been about a dozen in the Algarve and others further north.  There is still time for more to be found and numbers look certain to exceed last year’s total, which itself far surpassed anything that had gone before.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Castro Marim, November 2013

As might be expected, these birds at Cabranosa attracted some attention and perhaps it was increased observer activity in the area that resulted in three Rüppell’s Vultures being identified amongst the many Griffons and to the discovery of a White-rumped Sandpiper at nearby Martinhal on the 22nd.

Rüppell’s Vultures, while still very rare in the Algarve, are now birds that can almost be expected at this time of year at Sagres.  Recently we wrote here about vultures in Portugal and the fact that five Rüppell’s had been seen together in the Eastern Alentejo.

The White-rumped Sandpiper, which stayed until at least the 26th, is interesting as it is only the seventh record of this species in Portugal and it follows two others at Martinhal in 2009 and 2013.  Or does it?  What are the chances of three different White-rumped Sandpipers turning up in exactly the same place?  The 2009 bird was a juvenile; we believe the subsequent reports have referred to adult birds.  There seems no reason at all why this latest record (and last year’s) isn’t the return of the same bird and, who knows, it may well have remained undetected when making other visits to Martinhal.

White-rumped Sandpiper - Martinhal, November 2009

Perhaps because it was more of an oddity than a rarity, we omitted to mention in our earlier rarities roundup the hybrid Western Reef x Little Egret that we saw near Forte do Rato in Tavira on 19th September.  It looked very much like the bird that we had seen in the same place in September 2013 and we are reminded of it now because it seems to have moved to Spain.  See here a photograph that appears to be the same bird reported from Isla Cristina, Huelva on 26th October.

Western Reef x Little Egret hybrid - Tavira, September, 2013

No doubt November will bring more interesting birds to the Algarve; last year we had Eider, American Wigeon and Lesser Yellowlegs amongst others and from a previous November we recall a Red-breasted Flycatcher so there’s still time to look for passerine vagrants.

Yellow-browed Warbler at Castro Marim

On a cold and damp morning our thoughts were more on shopping and housework than they were on birding but a message from Filipe Moniz at Castro Marim quickly brought us to our senses! He had had a brief view of what he thought was a Yellow-browed Warbler on the reserve at Castro Marim but he had to go to work and wasn’t able to spend any time with the bird. Did we want to go and check it out? Did we!

We got there as soon as we could; by this time it wasn’t just damp, it was raining. We met Dinis Versa Silva and Sao Gomes and the four of us spent an hour or so searching in the area that Filipe had described. Chiffchaffs appeared from time to time to raise our hopes briefly but regrettably there was no sign of any other Phyllosc.

Understandably, Dinis and Sao decided that enough was enough - conditions were starting to be fairly unpleasant! They left and it was almost inevitable that no more than 10 minutes later, having widened our search, we re-located the target bird in trees by the visitor centre. We were able to watch it from close range for several minutes and even managed a few photographs.

Yellow-browed Warblers are more or less annual visitors to Portugal but this autumn has been exceptional with several records from further north being followed by at least three here in the Algarve. This one was our first ever in Portugal and for Filipe a ‘lifer’, which we hope stays around for him (and Dinis and Sao) to see on another day.

China - 2

After our long journey from Tavira, via Lisbon and Dubai, our first night in China was spent in Beijing, close to the airport.  The following morning before departing for Beidaihe there was just time for a short walk from our hotel to look for Azure-winged Magpies, a species that I had a particular wish to see and which I was told we were unlikely to find elsewhere during this trip.   Happily it didn’t take very long to find some in trees alongside a dual carriageway but in the short time available I wasn’t able to study them very closely and they proved impossible to photograph.  They didn’t appear very different from the Azure-winged Magpies that I ‘m familiar with in Portugal. 

Are these birds in China really a different species from those we have here in the Algarve?  We have blogged before on this subject here when the issue was of no more than of academic interest.  Now, having seen them both, I suppose I have to decide whether or not my life list is increased by this latest sighting.  Do I follow the taxonomy of the IOC and Handbook of the Birds of the World or do I follow Clements and Birdlife International?  To tick or not to tick, that is the question!  At the moment, I’m inclined not to tick but I’m open to persuasion.

The four-hour bus journey to Qinhuangdao and the shorter minibus ride from there to Beidaihe produced very few birds of note but when we arrived at the Jinshan Hotel there were plenty to see right there in the hotel grounds.  Some were resident species like the flashy Red-billed Blue Magpie, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Tree Sparrow, Light-vented Bulbul and Eastern Great Tit, with the last of these also presenting a taxonomic dilemma as it is regarded by some as a separate species from Parus major, sometimes referred to as Japanese Tit.

Japanese Tit

There were also quite a few migrants: Olive-backed Pipit, Yellow-browed Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Brown Shrike, Eurasian Wryneck, Black-faced Bunting and, best of all, a male Siberian Rubythroat.  My only previous Dusky Warbler had been a glimpse of one at Sheepwash Urban Park in the West Midlands on a typically gloomy November day in 1996 so I was pleased with a proper look at that.  I was also happier with the Black-faced Bunting than I was with the long-staying individual at Pennington Flash in 1994 that was accepted on to the British List but which I remember thinking at the time might have been an escape from captivity.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Next morning, before breakfast, we made the first of several visits to the nearby Friendship Hotel which has grounds even more extensive than those at the Jinshan.  It proved to be a good morning for thrushes with Grey-backed, White’s, Chinese and Dusky plus a Naumann’s x Dusky intergrade.  There was also a nice view of a spiffy male Taiga Flycatcher.

 Taiga Flycatcher

 Chinese Thrush

 White's Thrush

 Dusky Thrush

Dusky x Naumann's Thrush intergrade

The grounds of the two hotels and/or the nearby Lighthouse Point were visited before breakfast on five subsequent mornings during our stay but there was never again anything approaching the numbers and variety of migrants that we found on the afternoon of our arrival and the following morning.  Having read before the trip several accounts of spectacular falls of migrants at these sites on exactly these dates in previous years it was, to say the least, a disappointment that we had managed to pick a period to be there when so few birds were present.  It was a disappointment that we shared with quite a few other visiting birders but that was little consolation.  However, I know only too well from similar experience in High Island, Texas that spring migration is different every year and that weather conditions are all important.  There is nothing you can do about it.

Fortunately, there was more to this trip than just mornings around Beidaihe…. 

Arizona

After our few days birding in California we moved just a short distance east and spent more than two weeks in Arizona.

Arizona is the sixth largest of the United States behind Alaska, Texas, California, Montana and New Mexico and covers an area of 295,254 square kilometres. That makes it substantially bigger than the UK but with a population of only 6½ million people! In terms of the number of bird species recorded, it ranks third, behind only California and Texas, two states that have the obvious advantage of a coast line providing lots of seabirds and shorebirds.

We restricted ourselves to the southern portion of the state where we visited many of the well known birding sites that are familiar to us from multiple previous visits (this was Peter’s 19th time in Arizona). Some of this was part of an Avian Adventures tour but we spent a week on our own after the tour which included a few days spent with friends in Tucson when we even had some time off from birding.

Without doubt, Tucson is one of our favourite cities, not least because of its location close to such good birding areas. Sweetwater Wetlands, a wastewater treatment facility on the edge of the city is just the sort of place you would like to have on your doorstep. The nearby Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is another must-visit attraction and then there are the Santa Catalina Mountains, notably Mt Lemmon. The city itself has several small parks that regularly turn up interesting birds and within easy reach there are countless other places to find birds.

Ruddy Duck - common on most lakes and not causing any problems!

Yellow-rumped Warbler - birds of the Audubon's variety were common.

There was plenty of snow left on Mt Lemmon.

In winter, the Sulphur Springs Valley, located between the towns of Willcox and Douglas is a great place to be birding. It’s a huge area and we made a couple of trips down there. It’s famous for its raptors and Sandhill Cranes. More than 16,000 Sandhill Cranes were counted while we were there – quite a spectacle!

Thousands of Sandhill Cranes

Red-tailed Hawk in its natural habitat, a power pole.

The San Rafael Valley is another area that is probably best in winter. The attractions here are again birds of prey but also sparrows, lots of sparrows and longspurs. It’s an area of extensive grassland with limited access but where a surprising number and variety of birds can be seen from the narrow road. We looked hard for Baird’s Sparrows but without success on this occasion. As it was, Chestnut-collared Longspur was probably our highlight here.

Horned Lark - a regular species in grassland areas.

The San Rafael grasslands are best approached from the small town of Patagonia where Patons’ Birders Haven is always on the itinerary. Wally and Marion Paton unfortunately passed away some time ago but for the past couple of years the feeders in their yard have been maintained by Michael Marsden and have continued to attract birds all year round.

Another must-visit site in this area is Patagonia Lake State Park. Always trying to avoid the crowds that result from its recreational uses, particularly at weekends, we always expect to see a few species that we don’t find elsewhere. In the past we have seen a wintering Elegant Trogon here and we were fortunate this time to find what may well be the same bird somehow making a living along the Sonoita Creek that feeds the lake from its eastern end. This was probably the bird of the trip for the Avian Adventures group.

The swellegant, Elegant Trogon.

We also spent a couple of nights in the Chiricahua Mountains in the extreme south-east of the state, even crossing briefly into New Mexico. Everyone we’ve ever taken to Arizona has loved the ‘towns’ of Portal and Paradise and nearby Cave Creek Canyon and although they're not at their best in winter we couldn’t resist going for a rare chance to be there on our own.

White-breasted Nuthatch - this one at the George Walker House in Paradise.

Out to the west of Gila Bend we had a good look at part of the 68,000-acre Paloma Ranch where we found a remarkable number of Burrowing Owls as well as plenty of Mountain Bluebirds, Western Meadowlarks, American Pipits, Horned Larks and a variety of sparrows. These and flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds and doves at the cattle feedlots were a ready food supply for the Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Ferruginous Hawk and Merlin that we saw but it was less clear what an Osprey was doing there.

Burrowing Owl - always a favourite.

We also took a look at Madera Canyon and Florida Canyon (now a regular site for Rufous-capped Warblers); we had a walk along the San Pedro River and puzzled over empidonax flycatchers; we took a drive out to the famous ‘Thrasher Spot’ near Buckeye where we managed to see Sage and Bendire’s Thrashers as well as the main feature, Le Conte’s Thrasher; in the Community Park at Anthem (north of Phoenix and the furthest north we went), we were successful in finding the long-staying Rufous-backed Robin, one of several of this species present in Arizona this winter. Unfortunately, on a Saturday afternoon when the park was, to say the least, rather crowded with people, we failed to locate a Rusty Blackbird that has also been a long-stayer there.

Sage Sparrow - a sideshow when looking for Le Conte's Thrasher and much easier to photograph.

Rufous-backed Robin - braving the crowds at Anthem.

The Santa Cruz Flats, west of I-10 was where we went to find what we regard as one of the must-see species of a winter trip to Arizona – Mountain Plover. We managed to find a few and, in fact went back for a second look on our last morning before heading for the airport. We do like our plovers and sandpipers! Crested Caracaras were also notable birds in an area where, as in several places we went, the cultivation of cotton seems to have taken over, probably to the detriment of wintering bird populations.

Not snow, but cotton.

Eastern (Lilian's) Meadowlark

Vermilion Flycatcher - this one out on the Santa Cruz Flats.

All in all it was a great trip – great birding, beautiful weather and good company! What’s not to like about Arizona?