A MYSTERIOUS Brünnich’s GUILLEMOT

By Martin Heubeck

Reprinted from the Shetland Bird Club Newsletter No. 169

There are two freezers in the basement at Sumburgh Head into which dead birds get put, usually but not always in a plastic bag clearly marked with the species, date, location and finder. Every so often I box up some of the more interesting specimens and mail them to Bob McGowan at the National Museums of Scotland. This is what I did, in a hurry, on 7^th March 2010 and I later emailed Bob a list of the birds I’d sent. One was the Brünnich’s Guillemot found on Scousburgh beach by Roger Riddington on 25^th March 2007, which had been properly bagged and labelled, but there had been another Brünnich’s in the freezer, not in a bag and not labelled, which at the time I assumed had to have been that found by Mick Mellor at West Yell on 4^th May 2006. However, I do remember being puzzled when I packed it, because I thought I’d already sent that one off; stupidly, I didn't check the photos of that individual, which was in summer plumage and clearly a different bird.

I’d forgotten all about this until I got an email from Bob on 9^th August, who’d only just got around to defrosting and opening the box. The West Yell bird was indeed already in the skin collection – so where had this one been found, and by whom? Who had put it in the freezer, and why? The pale tomium (pale stripe along the upper mandible), the extent of black on the face, the blackness of the upperwing and the dark shaft on the outer primary all point to Brünnich’s Guillemot, but the only clues to its origin are that it is in winter plumage and appears to have been found on a sandy beach. Pete Ellis and Mick Mellor are certain they had never seen this bird before, it rang no bells with Helen Moncrieff, and few other people have access to the freezers. The twine around the neck and through the gape is highly unusual for a Common Guillemot, and had it been a beached bird survey corpse mis-identified as Common Guillemot it should have been recorded as ‘entangled’.

Upper left: The mystery bird. Upper right: The mystery bird (left) and the March 2007 Scousburgh Brünnich’s Guillemot (right). Lower left: The mystery bird (upper) and a curated Brünnich’s Guillemot upperwing. Lower right: The mystery bird (left) and a Common Guillemot. Photos: Bob McGowan.

A check of beached bird survey records found only two entangled Common Guillemots between January 2000 and February 2010. One, on Bardister Ness in Sullom Voe on 27^th February 2003 (monofil) didn’t fit the bill, as Bardister Ness is rocky and the orange twine on the mystery bird isn’t monofil. The other, on Sands of Meal, Burra on Tuesday 28^th January 2003 ‘unaged remains (rope)’ looked more promising. Dave Okill normally covers Sands of Meal but has no memory of picking up a guillemot tangled in twine, or of putting one in the freezer. Since that day was an Up Helly Aa Tuesday, Dave should have been at work, with no daylight outside working hours. It is quite possible I did this survey, but for me to have scored a Guillemot as unaged means there would have been very little left of it, and I can’t believe I would have overlooked the head features and not checked the outer primary shaft on such an interesting corpse.

This leaves us in the embarrassing situation of there being a 15^th record of Brünnich’s Guillemot for Shetland, but with no idea as to when or where it was found. There can only be two reasons why somebody took the trouble to put this bird in the freezer (or asked somebody to store it). First, they knew or suspected it was a Brünnich’s Guillemot but forgot all about it and forgot to tell anybody. This seems most unlikely. Second, they didn't realise it was a Brünnich’s but thought the fact that it was entangled in twine was unusual enough for somebody to be interested in it. If anyone can shed any light on this mystery bird, please contact me, Martin Heubeck Mansefield, Dunrossness, Shetland ZE2 9JH.
Tel. 01950 460304. Email: martinheubeck@btinternet.com).

Waxwings in Shetland in early November 2012

Waxwings are scarce passage migrants in Shetland, with the majority usually recorded in late autumn (October and November). It is a classic 'irruptive' species, and when berry crops fail in northern Europe they move long distances in search of food. In these circumstances, Shetland is invariably one of the first places in Britain to record Waxwings, due to its close proximity to Scandinavia where many of these birds are leaving from. Their appearance in Shetland is often fairly brief, due no doubt in part to the relative lack of 'berry trees' in the islands - once in Shetland, Waxwings usually feed on rosehips, and can be attracted to gardens by the provision of fruit (particularly apples).

Waxwings at Baltasound, 3rd November 2012 - Rob Brookes

Towards the end of October 2012, it became clear that there were lots of Waxwings in Shetland, with numerous reports of small groups throughout the islands. On November 1st, a flock of 55, one of the largest ever in Shetland, was at Baltasound school on Unst, and 40 appeared at Toab in South Mainland the same afternoon. An appeal was made via the Nature in Shetland facebook page www.facebook.com/natureinshetland for as many people to get in touch over the period Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th November with their sightings of Waxwings, to try and get as good a picture as possible of the invasion. As Waxwings are distinctive, sociable and often very tame birds that usually frequent gardens, the response to the request was excellent; almost 70 people contributed, and reports were received from all parts of Shetland.

Waxwings are well-known for moving about in search of food, so estimating the exact numbers of birds involved is difficult; inevitably there will be some duplication in records, especially in the larger towns such as Lerwick, Scalloway and Brae. Conversely, many birds will have been missed, as it appears that the influx was very widespread: several birders have commented that there seemed to be a handful of Waxwings in virtually every rose bush they looked in!



Waxwings in Lerwick, 3rd November 2012 - Larry Dalziel

It seems likely that there were as many as 975 Waxwings recorded in Shetland during the three-day period. The most favoured area was Lerwick, where a maximum of 113 in scattered flocks was recorded on 3rd November. Central Mainland, with its large number of mature gardens, also fared well, with upwards of 200 birds found. The largest total, however, came from South Mainland, with almost 250 birds noted. It is thought that this part of Shetland did well for Waxwings in part because birds were filtering south through Shetland and congregating in favourite areas (such as Cunningsburgh, Gulberwick and the Toab/Virkie area), before continuing south and thus out of Shetland. Numbers in the well-watched Toab area fluctuated daily, whilst a total of 44 (in small groups) were seen heading south over Sumburgh Head on Saturday 3rd. The theory that there was a constant turnover of birds is ably demonstrated by sightings on Fair Isle, where the maximum day count was 60 on Saturday 3rd, but during the period 2nd to 4th, over 80 individual Waxwings were trapped and ringed (information kindly provided by Fair Isle Warden David Parnaby).

Key to graph (click on image to see enlarged version): SM = South Mainland; CM = Central Mainland; Lk = Lerwick; NM = North Mainland; FI = Fair Isle; WM = West Mainland; U = Unst; Y = Yell; Wh = Whalsay; BT = Burra & Trondra; Br = Bressay

The biggest flocks seen in Shetland during the period 2nd to 4th November 2012 were: 60-80 at Eshaness on Friday 2nd; 40 at Gott, 30 at Sellafirth (Yell), 30 at Aith and 30 at East Voe of Scalloway, all on Saturday 3rd; and 40 at Kergord on Sunday 4th. Many more groups of between 10 and 25 were recorded - for a full list of all known records during the period, see www.nature-shetland.co.uk/naturelatest/latestnews

Waxwing at Scalloway, 3rd November 2012 - Rob Fray

The largest influx recorded in Shetland was in 2004. In that year, there were more than 950 recorded on 20th October; these included the largest single flock ever recorded in Shetland, of 80 at West Yell, as well as counts of 92 in Lerwick, 90 on Fair Isle and 55 at Veensgarth, and an estimate of 400 moving south over Dunrossness in flocks of up to 40 throughout the day. Although remarkably similar to the 2012 figure, the two counts are not really comparable. In 2004, it is clear that there were larger flocks around and the figure for that year was a single-day count, not spread over three days. Additionally, the 2004 count did not have the same access to social networking that made the 2012 survey such a success. Overall, it would seem that the 2012 Waxwing influx is second only to the 2004 influx, but by passing the message quickly around the internet, even more people have enjoyed the pleasure of watching these magnificent birds in their gardens.

 

Our grateful thanks to everybody who reported Waxwings during the period.

 

Rob Fray

IGC Goose Count weekend

The weekend of 25th/26th February is the international weekend for goose counts for the Icelandic-breeding Goose Census (IGC), which aims to count all the Greylag Geese and Pink-footed Geese from Icelandic populations. Shetland birds included winterers from Iceland, while local breeders are probably 'short-stoppers' which have stopped short on their migration north in the past and bred in the islands.

Unfortunately, with many of the regular counters away this weekend, counts were largely restricted to the main wintering areas, in South Mainland and Unst. The final total for Shetland (excluding many of the islands with smaller populations but also excluding Yell and Fetlar) was around 3500 birds. In South Mainland, initial results suggest that there were about 2000 birds from Sandwick south, slightly lower numbers than earlier in the winter (there was a census in December). On Unst, there were about 750 birds, almost exactly the same number as were present earlier. Overall, counts suggest slightly lower numbers than earlier in the winter.

A paper on the status of the Greylag Goose in Shetland has just been submitted to Scottish Birds and will hopefully appear soon.

For full details on birds and other aspects of the natural history of Shetland, don't forget to visit the website at http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk, while there is also a Facebook site, with different content, at http://www.facebook.com/natureinshetland .

Iceland Gulls in January 2012

Iceland Gull is generally considered to be a scarce, but regular, winter visitor to Shetland in small numbers. From about January 7th 2012 larger than usual numbers began to appear in the islands, and it soon became clear that a major influx was taking place.

With this in mind, a co-ordinated Shetland-wide count was organised by members of the Shetland Bird Club, and others, for Saturday 14th January. Observers were despatched far and wide to locate as many birds as possible, in order to try and record the influx as best as possible. We've received virtually everything now, although there may be one or two extras to add in later. Below is what we've come up with so far:

Unst (total 24)
Skaw - 4 (all 2nd-winters)
Norwick - 1 (2nd-winter)
Baltasound - 3 (all 2nd-winters)
Westing - 1 (2nd-winter)
Belmont - 13 (4 adults, 4 3rd-winters, 4 2nd-winters, 1 1st-winter)
Uyeasound - 2 (adult and 2nd-winter)

Yell (total 12)
North Sandwick - 7 (2 adults, 2 3rd-winters, 3 2nd-winters)
Mid Yell - 1 (2nd-winter)
Ulsta - 1 (2nd-winter)
Hamnavoe - 1 (2nd-winter)
Loch of Littlester - 1 (2nd-winter)
Burravoe - 1 (2nd-winter)

Fetlar (total 1)
Just one 2nd-winter on the island

Whalsay (total 22)
Symbister - 15 (5 adults, 3 3rd-winters, 4 2nd-winters (one of which was dead) and 3 1st-winters)
Hamister/North Voe - 2 (1 adult, 1 3rd-winter, both showing characteristics of Kumlien's Gull)
Skaw - 1 (adult)
Vaivoe - 1 (2nd-winter)
Challister - 1 (2nd-winter)
Brough - 1 (2nd-winter)
Huxter Loch - 1 (2nd-winter)

North Mainland (total 2)
Ronas Voe - 1 (2nd-winter)
South Collafirth - 1 (2nd-winter)

West Mainland (total 13)
Melby - 5 (1 3rd-winter, 3 2nd-winters, 1 1st-winter)
Burrastow - 8 (5 adults/3rd-winters, 3 1st/2nd-winters)

Central/East Mainland (total 55)
Firths Voe - 3 (1 adult, 2 2nd-winters)
Laxo - 3 (1 adult, 1 2nd-winter, 1 1st-winter)
Lunna - 1 (2nd-winter)
Dury Voe - 4 (2 adults, 2 2nd-winters)
Brettabister - 1 (1st-winter)
Scalloway - 6 (all 2nd-winters)
Loch of Tingwall - 1 (3rd-winter)
Lerwick - 36 in total; 35 (8 adults, 5 3rd-winters, 20 2nd-winters, 2 1st-winters) at Shetland Catch, and 1 (1st-winter) at Breiwick

South Mainland (total 15)
Sumburgh - 1 (adult)
Scatness - 1 (adult)
Fleck - 1 (adult)
Boddam - 1 (3rd-winter)
Clumlie - 2 (adult and 2nd-winter)
Scousburgh - 3 (2 2nd-winters, 1 1st-winter)
St Ninian's Isle - 1 (2nd-winter)
Gulberwick - 1 (1st-winter)
Wester Quarff - 4 (unaged)

Fair Isle (total 8)
2 adults, 1 3rd-winter, 5 2nd-winters (one of the 2nd-winters was found dead)

Grand total: 152
We'll continue to update the totals as and when more information is received.

There was some evidence that birds had moved on over the last few days (or relocated to other sites within the islands), particularly on Unst, where there had been 33 at Belmont on January 11th (compared to 13 on the 'count day') and 13 at Skaw on January 10th (compared to 4 on 'count day'). In addition, careful scrutiny of the ages of birds in Lerwick has shown that at least 44 individuals have been present during the last week.

It is fairly safe to say that the January 2012 influx is the largest to ever be recorded in Shetland. The previous biggest arrival was in January/February 1983, which produced at least 120 birds. In addition, the record site count has also been broken this year - the previous highest count at one individual site was 31 in Lerwick in January 1993.


An interesting aspect to the arrival in January 2012 is the make-up of the ages of the birds involved, with much larger numbers of 'older' birds than would normally be expected, and a strange dearth of 1st-winter individuals. This is something that we hope to expand upon in due course.






Observers who specifically went out looking and participated in the co-ordinated counts were:

Rob Brookes (north Unst)
Mike Pennington (south Unst)
Brydon Thomason (Fetlar and north Yell)
John Lowrie Irvine and Brian Marshall (Whalsay)
Jim Nangle and Lynn Thomson (Yell)
Rob Fray (south Yell, central and east mainland)
Gary Bell (north mainland)
Rory Tallack (west mainland)
Paul Harvey and Pete Ellis (Lerwick)
Juan Brown (Scalloway, Tingwall Valley, Burra and Trondra)
Jim Nicolson and George Petrie (Cunningsburgh to Gulberwick)
Roger Riddington and Glen Tyler (south mainland)
Naomi Scott (Papa Stour)
David Parnaby and Tommy and Henry Hyndman (Fair Isle)

In addition, casual records that added to the totals were received from Martin Heubeck and Mark Chapman, and a couple of records have been gleaned from various news services.

Our grateful thanks to everybody who took part.

Rob Fray

Colour-ringed and neck-collared geese

There have been unusual numbers of geese around in the last few weeks, with European White-frontedGeese, Tundra Bean Geese, Pink-footed Geese and several other species joining the usual Greylags. In amongst all these new arrivals have been two birds with neck collars. Rory Tallack found a White-fronted Goose at Sandness on Sunday 20th November (photo by Rory Tallack).It was probably marked in its wintering grounds in Germany or the Netherlands.

On Monday 21st November, Jim Nangle found a Pink-footed Goose at Cullivoe on Yell (photo by Jim Nangle). Although the full code on the collar has not been read yet, it has been confirmed that this is a bird from Svalbard which should have been migrating down through Norway and Denmark to the Netherlands or Belgium for the winter. This is a very interesting record as the Pink-feet that pass through Shetland are usually from Iceland. Although given the the fact that the other geese that arrived at the same time all came from the east, perhaps it isn't that surprising that the Pink-feet came from the same direction.

It is alo worth pointing out that a small number of locally-bred Greylag Geese were fitted with either colour-rings or neck-collars this summer, in a attempt to find out whether local birds emigrate in the winter, Any sightings of these birds, which were marked in Dunrossness, would be welcome.

Your Shetland List may have just gone up by 2!

The most recent report from the BOU Taxonomic Committee has announced two splits which affect the Shetland List - Hudsonian Whimbrel Numenius hudsonicus (three records, on Fair Isle on 27th-31st May 1955, Out Skerries from 24th July to 8th August 1974 and Fair Isle again on 29th-31st August 2007) and Siberian Stonechat Saxicola maurus (just over 100 individuals recorded, the first on Fair Isle on 13th-21st October 1961).

The Shetland List now stands at 449 (including 5 in Category D, 2 Category D candidates, 2 not seen from land and one extinct).

To read more go here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2011.01155.x/pdf

Water Pipit, a first for Shetland

Unst managed to turn up its second first for Shetland in 2010 with a Water Pipit at Norwick on 21st-23rd November. Here is a finder's account from Brydon Thomason.

Water Pipit at Norwick by Jim Nicolson

November is traditionally a month never to be underestimated when considering winding down an autumn birding in the isles. It is a month that seldom passes without at least one surprise rarity. Personally speaking, November has indeed been more than kind and has brought  a diversity of  rarity finds such as Gyrfalcon, Lesser Scaup and Hume’s, Arctic and Dusky Warblers, to name but a few - along with multiple King Eider and White-billed Divers.

With that said though, it can certainly be a hard month to keep motivation going when out in the field. Migrants can be very few and far between and suitable habitat and cover for a potential rarity is often all but weathered away.

Although birding time had been at something of a premium, I had still had my usual November aspirations of finding Pine Bunting or Desert Wheatear but, alas, once again it was to be a year of neither! But what I was to find, in a local context at least, was to be a much rarer bird than either of these ...

It was our son Casey's belated first birthday party so, with the Sunday dinner preparations all in hand, and along with my parents, wife Vaila and our birthday boy we set out for a nice pre- dinner outing. Having enjoyed a lovely walk at Skaw beach we made time for a drive along the shore-side road which overlooks one of Shetland’s iconic vistas, Norwick beach. 

As we drove towards the turning point, a passerine flitted over the verge and down toward the beach. I caught no more than a fleeting glimpse, but what I did see certainly intrigued me; the amount of white in the outer tail suggested pipit, but perhaps even a bunting or lark were all possibilities given how poorly I’d seen it. In any case any pipit, lark or bunting in late November is worth checking; they are few and far between by late November.

Leaving the car running and family in it, I peered over the bank and down onto the dead seaweed smothered beach only to see a female Black Redstart fly away from me - confused, my eyes quickly then fixed on my mystery bird flying off along the beach. It was certainly a pipit, but which? It showed quite a lot of white in the outer tail and seemed to show some brownish tones. I knew something was unfamiliar about it as I watched it fly to the far end of the beach. I quickly shouted to Vaila to come back for me ‘in a bit’, having no earthly idea how long that would be!      

I relocated the bird at the far end and got my first ‘on the deck views’. It was some 40-50yards away and I had no scope! The split second thoughts of Blyth’s (more by its apparent choice of habitat than anything else, feeding along the edge of dunes) were expelled instantly, not least on plumage tones and underpart streaking but also structure.

Its underparts were strikingly clean white, plus the white in the tail ruled out local Rock Pipit and I was fairly certain littoralis was not in the picture either. Water or Buff-bellied Pipit were all that were possible, I thought to myself. Without even getting the chance to stalk forward and get better views, a dog walker flushed it, causing it to fly over my head and all the way back to the far end of the beach, calling once as it went - a rather flat Rock Pipit like ‘psp’- surely it must  be  a Water Pipit?  

It had been several years since I had heard Buff-bellied Pipit in the States but I was pretty confident this was not one. I began to really train my thoughts on Water Pipit, a species I had never even seen in Britain, and not since a UAE trip many years ago, and even there I had admittedly paid them little attention. BBP was very much fresh on my radar having seen the bird at Eshaness only a few weeks previously, but this was just never coming across with a Buff-bellied Pipit vibe to me.

When I returned to the other end, my father was at the wheel of my Freelander and informed me the others were back home (only a few minutes up the road). I grabbed my scope but had no tripod with me. A blustery and very anxious few seconds through the scope for the first time appeared to confirm to me the following basics;

·          Tail, coverts and tertials did not appear strikingly blackish or crisply fringed as in BBP

·         The mantle appeared to be visibly streaked as opposed to rather plain BBP

·         Streaking on clean white underparts was quite bold all the way down flanks

·         Slightly browner tones around rump area

·         Perhaps most importantly the lores appeared to be quite distinctly marked and not open

·         Nor did it show the striking eye crescents of BBP - It had to be a Water Pipit I thought to myself.

Water Pipit at Norwick by Rob Brookes

All this had happened in under ten minutes, it was just after 1500 and light was failing fast, I had to get news out to the ‘Unst boys’. Unusually, I had no camera with me nor did I even have a field guide to hand. We drove off up the road to get phone reception and where Mr P (Mike Pennington) was my first and very definitely priority call. Thankfully he answered and within ten minutes was by my side followed swiftly by Robbie Brookes – I knew young Rory T was off island.

Water Pipit was certainly a first for Unst and I was also aware that it would almost certainly be a new species for all the Shetland ‘listers’ but didn’t actually realise at the time it was in fact a county first! Whilst anxiously trying to relocate the bird with Mr P I relayed all that I had noted. Thankfully without too much distress (although perhaps maybe with a little ‘tension’ in the air!) we pinned it down back feeding on the dead kelp on the tide line of the beach, which proved to be its favourite spot. We enjoyed fairly good and definitively conclusive views through a shared scope but with light that was by now bordering on appalling neither Mike nor Rob got anything better than poor record shots.

By about 1530 we had lost the bird due to poor light. On route home we put the news out and I was back home in time for getting the ‘tatties’ on and set the table - a county first and my son's first birthday party, the perfect Sunday!