Rare Bird Alert weekly round-up: 05 - 11 December 2012

The week's highlights:
Suffolk’s Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll proves popular
Adult Pacific Diver returns to west Cornwall for another winter
Galway’s American Coot still in situ…..
…..likewise, South Uist’s Pied-billed Grebe
Juvenile female Northern Harrier remains in Wexford
Oxfordshire’s drake Falcated Duck opens up a familiar well-worn debate…..

Here we go again ~ the cold weather came back this week ~ though in all fairness, it wasn’t that chilly….pleasantly crisp was the order of the day as the week drew to a close, after assorted wet fronts had bundled their way across the country as the new review period opened up.

And although we’re heading towards the shortest day and the mid-winter blues, there was masses on offer, notably a pre-Christmas cracker (for a lot of people) on the East Anglian coast…..

Headline birds
Despite there being several far rarer species on offer this week (be they recent discoveries or returning favourites) the true star of this week’s far-from-dull proceedings was a most welcome second bite at the cherry for many mainland birders, following the discovery of a stunning Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll on the Suffolk coast, at Aldeburgh, on 8th.

As with the delightful bird seen at the end of October in neighbouring Norfolk, there was a tale to tell with the Suffolk bird ~ the Norfolk bird was initially called correctly, then “demoted” to “just” a Coues’, while this week’s winter wonder began life as a Lapland Bunting.

A couple of shots were posted locally during the evening and the rapid response was testament to just how special this bird was ~ the “RFP” of the week award firmly in place as the bird’s identity switched from pleasant, regular bunting to mainland mega redpoll….

….seemingly (and perhaps unsurprisingly) the first county record of this ultra-distinctive form (if they can split exilipes from flammea, Europe’s assorted all-knowing taxonomic sages could surely see the sense and reasoning in making a move that would see a parting of the ways for hornemanni and exilipes…), Suffolk birders pronounced that their Redpoll was the county’s bird of the year (just as their discerning neighbours in Norfolk did with regard to the recent Holkham bird).

But this wasn’t just a bird for local listers. Despite the lumped status, this was a “new” bird for a lot of folk and even a few of those who have been fortunate enough to encounter Hornemann’s on Shetland or the Hebrides made a move to the east coast at the weekend to witness what remains a truly rare event away from Scottish islands.

Wonderfully documented (and still present to 11th), the Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll is the county’s second “Arctic Redpoll” of 2012, following on from a trapped bird, a Coues’, in the Breckland forests at Santon Downham in March.

Prior to that, one was reported at Mayday Farm in March 2011 and before that came a one-day bird, also trapped in the Brecks, at Brandon in April 2006 and long-stayers at Rendlesham and a wintering bird at Icklingham (in 2006 and 2005 respectively).

Far, far rarer but, funnily enough, seen by many more people than have seen a Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll, the week’s other new star turn was a (presumed) returning favourite of old…..

An adult Pacific Diver was back in Mount’s Bay from 5th this week and was seen every day between Penzance and Marazion to 11th in what could be the bird’s fifth year of visiting west Cornwall.

First seen in February 2007 (where it stayed for almost a month), the bird appeared again late in the same year, noted through to end of March 2008 off both Porthpean and Marazion.

After a handful of “possible” sightings, the bird was finally confirmed as being back off Marazion in early December 2008 (albeit only for a short stay). Then, in November 2009, the bird performed wonderfully well on the Carnsew Basin (alongside the nearby Hayle Estuary) for over a fortnight, before a brief sojourn to Carbis Bay.

Just before Christmas in 2010, the bird was back in Mount’s Bay and spent almost four months in the area (departing in the middle of March 2011) but (a couple of possible sightings aside) may have given Cornwall a miss in the second-winter period of the year.

Now, in December 2012, normal service has been resumed and this exceptional vagrant is giving all interested parties the chance to reacquaint themselves with a teasing tho’ ultimately pleasing identification puzzle.

The Cornish bird’s first appearance was the final part of a remarkable diver trilogy during the first two months of 2007. Britain’s first Pacific Diver spent the first two weeks or so of a 24 day January, straddling February, stay firmly under wraps at Farnham Gravel Pits in North Yorkshire ~ thankfully the secret-squirrel inner circle was eventually broken and the gloriously showy juvenile was enjoyed by hundreds of visiting birders before departing on February 4th.

Two days before that, Britain’s second juvenile Pacific Diver was discovered on the reservoir at Llys-a-Fran in Pembrokeshire ~ rattling up a 47 day stay in to the bargain ~ and the third, the Cornish adult, was wrangled with from the third week of February to the middle of March. The latter two, not as showy as the first, took a little time to resolve but the conclusions for both were definitive and absolute.

The only other British county to have an acceptable record of Pacific Diver is Gloucestershire ~ an adult on the Severn for two days in November 2009 (reappearing a week or so later for a day) while one bird visited two Irish counties (Galway then Clare) between January and May 2010.

Whilst Galway is on the agenda, racing back to the present day, Dermot Breen’s American Coot (Ireland’s third) remained at Murloch, Ballyconneely to 8th at least and further quality lingering Nearctic stars this week included South Uist’s Pied-billed Grebe still on Loch na Bagh, at Smerclate (also to 8th) and the juvenile female Northern Harrier again at Tacumshin (Co. Wexford) on 7th and 9th.

…talking of Tacumshin, no sign of the one-day (eeek!) Wood Duck there this week but there was another ultra-contentious quacker to muse upon ~ step forward please the handsome drake Falcated Duck at Farmoor Reservoir (Oxfordshire) present from 9th-11th.

Of course you could almost re-write assorted paragraphs from recent reviews relating to potentially rare ducks and insert the words Falcated Duck by way of replacement for Wood Duck or Hooded Merganser because the arguments, for and against will largely be the same ~ some would champion the cause, others would argue ‘til the cows come home that Falcated Duck /Wood Duck /Hooded Merganser (take your pick) has no place on the British List given that they are nigh-on impossible to prove as a vagrant.

So, rather than rehash the whys and wherefores of who likes which duck more and which duck is the more likely long-range vagrant, we’ll marvel at the intense beauty of the species and the long-distance migration that it undertakes every year from breeding grounds from eastern Russia through to Sakhalin (I have a cunning plan….), North Korea, northern China and northern Japan over in to much of southeast Asia.

Actually though….(here we go again….), let’s take a skew-whiff delve in to this one…

….we know that genuine Baikal Teal can get to Europe (all hail the isotoped Danish bird of 2005!). Indeed, the county currently graced by this week’s Falcated Duck ~ née Teal ~ has an accepted record of the first-named species (one of just four on the British List) from a pit almost within ducky spitting distance of Farmoor (at Dix Pit from December 22nd-24th 2002).

You’d like to think that the BOURC would have the chance to engage in new investigations relating to the strongest of claims of Falcated Duck~ indeed they may well get the chance ~ two birds are back in circulation with the BBRC (and have been for almost a year).

It would be nice to think that the Pitsford drake of 1987, the Welney and Cley drake/s of 1986/’87 and ’89, the Exe Estuary bird from 2006 all get half a look in at least. You’d also hope that the Irish Records committee may view last year’s beauty on the Mullet in County Mayo in a favourable light…..

The autumn presence of a tiny handful of ultra-far eastern vagrant passerines is tentatively becoming established, almost expected, in optimum conditions and the optimist would suggest that if a Sakhalin Leaf Warbler can make it to the UK, then a long-range migratory duck from within the same core range may have half a chance too…..

Meanwhile much more of last week's news in the full round-up online including;