AUGUST 2008'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS

Twenty six entrants participated in this months competition though many admitted to struggling and being entirely frustrated with number 15 (atleast!), but isn't that what it's all about ☺? The results were promising though and I feel confident that we're actually getting there as even those that got it wrong really weren't that far off an came up with plausible entries, a great effort all round as usual. So, right or wrong, which one were you...?

Mystery Bird 15

With 7 various species offered as answers to this mystery bird, more heads were scratched that possibly ever before in this competition with this one, after all a bird seen flying away as here doesn't offer many features, or does it? Either way, I don't know about you but this is the sort of view I all too often get of many birds I see so I think we'd better attempt to work through it. So, plumage: plain uniform (milk chocolate?) brown on the upperparts and underwings and what appears to be atleast some white visible on the rear underparts, not much to go on really. Okay, structure and jizz: The first thing that strikes me and indeed it also struck atleast some of those entered, is the length of the wings, they're really long, compare them to the width of the body and you'll see what I mean. More so, on the underwings we can see a darker brownish/black area close to the body, extending to roughly about half way (infact just slightly under) along and these are the underwing coverts, so the rest of the wing is all primaries! What does this signify? That this mystery bird really does have very long primaries, very long indeed, long enough to quickly eliminate the entries of Mistle and Song Thrush (one and two entries respectively, our bird also lacking Mistle Thrush's paler rump and white underwing coverts and Song Thrushes mush brighter rusty/buff underwing coverts), female Sparrowhawk (one entry, for that species would also lack the much solidly darker underwing) and Buzzard (a single entry, we would also expect to see some white or pale on the underwing on that species, a dark terminal bar on the tail and more obvious fingers on the wing-tips, coupled to Buzzard's more obvious bulk). The other 3 entries all could display similarly long primaries and they are Hobby (2 votes), Common Swift (1 vote) and Sand Martin (16 votes, could so many people be wrong?). Hobby though wouldn't show such clearly and uniformly solid brown underwings and being so brown it would have to be a juvenile which would show some evidence of pale fringing to the rump and lower back in this image, Common Swift of course wouldn't show any white on the rear underparts as our mystery bird (not even Alpine Swift), though of course Common Swifts can rarely show white in patches I doubt they're ever quite as extensive as this bird's and rarely if ever on the rear underparts but this bird is too pale a brown for Common Swift (Pallid Swift ?) and the tail is all wrong for any of any of the swift species (obviously not then!). That does in fact leave us with our correct answer and indeed those 16 entrants weren't wrong, Sand Martin it is, carrying nesting material and not a dragonfly as many at least one of the Hobby entrants thought although that's the sort of 'thinking outside the box' approach I admire.

Sand Martin by Adrian Dancy

Mystery Bird 16

A gull, atleast everybody got that far but 4 species were offered as correct answers and as we know, only one can be right so which one is it, Mediterranean Gull, Little Gull, Back-headed Gull or Bonaparte's Gull? Obviously it's an immature gull and one of the 'smaller species' at that which you all gauged no problem, but taking that one essential step further it can be specifically aged as a first year bird (2nd calendar year, but if you don't understand that please ignore it, it really will only confuse matters!), after all, correct ageing is the primary step in any gull identification. The legs are reddish (if they aren't on your monitor, then it requires adjustment or disposal ☺), there is an obvious and isolated black 'spot' on the rear of the ear coverts and the very centre of the crown shows a dark, blackish and fairly extensive cap, so where does this leads us? In fact, our correct ageing combined with the few features we've picked out takes us a long way, far enough to exclude Mediterranean Gull, Black-headed Gull and Bonaparte's Gull as all of them lack such an obvious dark 'cap' on the crown in 1st year plumage, Mediterranean Gull should have dark (blackish) legs and none of their greater covert bars would appear quite so solidly and extensively black either. So, where does that lave us now? With Little Gull of course, which is just as well as that is the correct answer!

Little Gull, Pennington Flash, May 2008 by Ian McKerchar

Thirteen of the 26 entrants managed to identify both species correctly Simon Warford, Rob and Sonia Adderley, Peter Rolph, Henry Cook, Brogan Scrimgeour, Steve Scrimgeour, Eric, Ian Bowker, John Frankland, Tony Coatsworth, Ian Woosey, Simon Johnson and John Tymon. Within that lot, there is no change in the leader board as Simon Johnson continues his uninterrupted run of correct answers but everyone has an Achilles heel so keep plugging away, he may trip up yet...