Rare Bird Alert weekly round-up: 28 November - 04 December 2012

The week's highlights:
Wood Duck in Wexford ~ could it be the real deal….?
Ireland also receives their third American Coot
The Pied-billed Grebe remains on the Outer Hebrides
Shetland steals in with a late, late Black-throated Thrush
Single Buff-bellied Pipit hangs on in Down

The veritable mixed bag of early winter came at most of us during the course of the past week….rain (there was quite a bit more of that sadly), wind (some of last week’s unpleasant raw northeasterlies lingering for a day or two, with stiff northwesterlies following), some snow (even to some lower altitudes) and, thankfully, joy of joys, some clear blue skies, glorious sunshine and crisp, cold air too…..

To go with the mixed bag of weather, a suitably mixed bag of birds. There were new arrivals, old faithfuls and, to start things off, another one of those species that opens up the can labelled “worms”….as Caroline Aherne might say, in her best old lady guise, “let’s have a heated debate”….”!

Headline birds
When the words Wood Duck appear on the pager they often elicit a number of responses ~ many of them on the negative side of negative.

If the words Wood Duck are accompanied, as they were earlier this year, for instance, by the word Abbotsbury, the species in question will (for whatever reason) quickly be deemed unworthy, with a high escape potential. If though the words Wood Duck are followed by an altogether rather more alluring location, say an Irish off-island, like maybe Arranmore, then (for some) an eyebrow or two will be raised and interest will be peaked.

…such was the case in January this year when a drake Wood Duck was seen on Arranmore, off the coast of Donegal. Soon established to be perhaps injured and with what may have been a poorly wing, there was an initial degree of positivity towards the bird from a few (injury could have been sustained in Ireland, that sort of thing…).

However, it was quickly established, before Euros were invested in a trip to the northwest coast, that the bird was actually a local escape with a duff pinion. Lesson learned (again) with a potential vagrant mega-duck in Ireland (don’t forget the tale of the ringed escape Hooded Merganser in Kerry in 1996)…..

Now though, to perhaps redress the balance to the positive, a bird to really make you wonder again about the acceptable vagrancy potential of the species. A drake Wood Duck found by Noel Keogh and Brian Porter in the Forgotten Corner at Tacumshin (Co. Wexford) on the morning of 2nd.

One of the premier rarity site anywhere in Ireland and Britain (arguably, over the past few years, one of Europe’s prime vagrant hotspots), this autumn has seen a procession of Nearctic new arrivals make their way to this magnificent corner of Wexford ~ two new juvenile Marsh Hawks lead the way, along with, multiple American Golden Plovers and White-rumped Sandpipers, the inevitable Pectoral and Buff-breasted Sandpipers, American Wigeon and Green-winged Teal and Ireland’s earliest-ever autumn Kumlien’s Gull. An impressive list and there’s no reason why a wild Wood Duck shouldn’t top the lot.

The weather has, in recent days, certainly been conducive for delivering fresh transatlantic arrivals (one or two American Coots and a Pied-billed Grebe for starters) so could this be the Wood Duck to finally unlock the door to official recognition?

Shetland was the last great island hope for Wood Duck, the drake on southern Mainland from April to June 2009 generated a significant degree of interest (the arrival date of April 16th was just one day adrift from the now accepted Hooded Merganser on Shetland three years earlier….) but despite northern populations of this gaudy species being famed long-range migrants in North America and vagrancy to Azores regarded as par for the course, the road to acceptance closer to home remains a particularly twisted one.

...but with numerous presumed escapes almost going noticed throughout the year, it seems as though fans of Category A Wood Ducks may still have significant wait until the lights change to green...which seems odd (and perhaps a little unfair too) as many of the same rules apply to the arguably more contentious acceptance of some Hooded Mergansers in the past 12 years….

Ducks eh?!?!

Moving on to something far less gaudy and, thank heavens, way, way less contentious ~ just two days after a one-day American Coot appeared on South Uist, the (presumed) second of the month was located in County Galway, at Ballyconneely, on Murlach during the morning of 28th.

Finder Dermot Breen takes up the story...

“I was finishing up some I-WeBS counts down around Ballyconneely at around 1030hrs on the morning of 28th. The last time I attempted to undertake a count at this site, I got nicely bitten on my left wrist by a sheepdog. The wrist is only now back to normal….

Anyway, the first site to cover was Murlach, a small brackish lough located between Ballyconneely village and bay. It is a great looking spot and has a real rarity hotspot look about the place, especially for waders, but it's never produced anything really in the five years that I've been in the area ~ a single Ruff this autumn was probably the best I've had in there to date.

So, while counting from a second viewpoint on the south side I had distant views of what I initially thought was the back end of a Moorhen. Thankfully it turned around and produced an all white bill. White undertail coverts on a Coot ~ it couldn't be anything else but American Coot!

The bird moved happily around the lough. Some of the back pools and channels were frozen over but the bird feed easily by upending and occasionally diving.

There's no way of knowing how long the bird has been present here as the place hasn't been checked in around three weeks. However the UK only got its seventh record just two days previously, up on South Uist on the Outer Hebrides, so maybe this bird isn't too long.

I had seen the American Coot found by Dave Suddaby two years ago, up on Termoncarragh Lough on the Mullet peninsula. That bird showed up on 15th November 2010 and stayed until 9th April 2011. It was only the second Irish record, the first was at Ballycotton, Co. Cork, present from 7th February to 4th April 1981. Will my bird hang around until next April? Time will tell.

I've never even seen Eurasian Coot in the Ballyconneely/Slyne Head area and have only seen them less than three times in Connemara before. The No.1 and 3 best Irish sites for Eurasian Coots both lie within County Galway. Lough Corrib is the most important site for the species in Ireland. A peak of 20,444 birds were counted during the 2003/2004 count season, though numbers have decreased dramatically mirroring the huge declines here also of diving duck.

The last count I have to hand is the 2008/2009 count when only 4,840 were counted. 1,500 to 2,000 Coots are found at the third best site - Loughrea. I've often looked through these vast flocks wondering what the chances of picking up an American were and as to how noticeable the white undertail coverts would be in comparsion to their Eurasian relations.

One slight note of caution for potential American Coot finders ~ I must say that the undertail coverts were eye-catching at all times on Murlach bird on the day of discovery, but the following day in very dull and overcast conditions, the white undertail coverts were very difficult to pick out at any reasonable distance. Along with the faint blackish sub-terminal band on the bill, it could easily be overlooked as a Eurasian.”

Many thanks to Dermot for his first-hand account and also for the neat selection of images of his terrific find ~ the Murlach American Coot was present to 2nd, with birders soon discovering another rarity there, a drake Green-winged Teal ~ in place on 29th-30th.


Inevitably, it is tempting to speculate on the odds (however long they may be) as to whether this bird could even be one-in-the-same as the South Uist bird from the tail end of last week….but that may be a theory too far….

Last week’s other star-turn on South Uist, the first-winter Pied-billed Grebe on Loch na Bagh, at Smerclate was seen to 29th.

New this week, and yet another outstanding bird for Shetland in a manic autumn, a brief Black-throated Thrush, a first-winter male, seen at Loch of Benston, on Mainland, during the middle of the day on 1st. The second for Shetland this autumn, following one on Fair Isle on October 6th, this bird will become the 30th record for the islands of this wonderfully exciting vagrant (and the 14th records since the start of the 2000’s) ~ Shetland’s overall total represents just under half of all UK records…..

Back over to Ireland, and to Tyrella where one of the Buff-bellied Pipits remained on Corbett’s Beach until 28th at least.