FEBRUARY 2008'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS
There were 35 entrants to this months competition, a very good return considering that the mystery birds were found to be much more difficult and quite a break from the norm but this was purely intentional and is an attempt to further our knowledge and the way in which we look at birds, rather than it being down to a cruel streak that several entrants decided I have! So, how did you do?
Mystery Bird 3
There were five species submitted for this mystery bird, all of them incorporation something of the black and white with orange legs theme but on closer inspection all but one can be discounted with relative ease. Shoveler received two votes and whilst it's easy to see where those entrants were heading, Shoveler would display obvious brown flanks, especially on a pose like this, Tufted Duck managed a single vote but unfortunately doesn't have orange legs so is rather quickly eliminated. Three entrants followed a Puffin theme, again largely black and white and too with orange legs but as the bird is 'roll-preening' here I would expect the entirely white undertail coverts and vent of Puffin to be easily seen, likewise the black on white 'lines' around what appears to be the top of the flanks don't fit in with that species either, as doesn't the bill which despite being at an angle looks all wrong. All the other 29 entrants correctly guessed that only one other species fitted the bill (no pun intended!) and that it must be a drake Goldeneye, which of course it is.
Goldeneye, Seaforth, Lancashire, January 2008 (Ian McKerchar)
Mystery Bird 4
Being good or indeed getting better at mystery bird competitions takes two main requirements, one is the ability to assimilate the features you can see, often the tiniest of details, of feather minutiae, structural features or perhaps a very careful appraisal of colouration which can then be compared against a field guide, but the other, the one which separates the true 'men from the boys', the 'wheat from the chaff' is the ability to have a certain 'feel' for exactly what it is. Often you might not even be able to put your finger on why you think it is what it is, but experience of actually looking and studying that or indeed similar species affords you a view which no field guide can match. No amount of scouring the Collins Guide was really going to help here, you'd either know it or not, had seen it on the species with your own eyes or not. Sure, there's no doubt that we've all seen this species before but only those that have really looked closely at the rather attractive feather structure, patternation and colouration on what would initially appear to be a less than attractive bird (in the field) would be able to correctly guess the species, and the whole point of this mystery bird? Sometimes we take for granted those birds which lie right beneath our nose, we notice they're there but fail to really have a close look at them and it is this failure that inhibits our progression as birders, to learn we must first look and the best bit is, while we're looking, more often than not at the commoner birds, we might just pick out something different (a rarer species perhaps?), something we'd never realised before (and so furthering our knowledge) or something unusual about that species (and so furthering everyone's knowledge!).
Anyway, to the burning question, what the hell is it (please don't tell me you couldn't wait and have already scrolled down to the photos below ☺)? There were 12 species given as potential answers, proving just how difficult many entrants found this one, later confirmed as many owned up to not having a clue! Before we see the species offered though, lets just analyse exactly what we have in the photograph in the first place. It's certainly not easy to make out which part of a bird we're looking at, nor any size of jizz of the bird, although there does seem to be two sets of feathers (note the symmetry and angle of each set) with a clearer, less structured area in the centre, so might it be a pair of wings meeting over the back of a bird? The feathers themselves are intriguing, they appear to be very dark in colour but with an obvious iridescent quality, sowing some apparent green and purple colouration and each is edged quite broad very dark, blackish. The feather shafts are inconspicuous and the clearer, less structured feather area between the two sets of edges feathers certainly appears blackish, so what species could it be? Let's see what is isn't out of those species offered. Ruff (1 vote) has pale edged feathers, not darker edged as our bird here and the same goes for Yellow-legged Gull (moulting from 2nd winter to 2nd summer, 1 vote), Collared Dove (2 votes) lacks pale edged feathers and would be much paler as would Iceland Gull (1 vote). Grey Heron (2 votes), Purple Heron (1 vote), Stock Dove (1 vote), Woodpigeon (1 vote), Montagu's Harrier (1 vote) and Knot (2 votes) all have different feather patterns, showing: Both herons and Dove, no very dark full feather edging, Harrier: again no very dark feather edging, Pigeon: pale brown edge to the tips only in juvenile plumage and no dark feather edging in adults, Knot: black subterminally with a whitish tip and darker feather shafts. Rook (1 vote) has the required iridescent quality and dark colouration but lack the obvious contrast between the feather centre and edge of our mystery bird and Starling (1 vote) too has the iridescence and colour but lacks the conspicuous dark edging, the final incorrect answer, juvenile Dipper (2 votes) appears to have a similar colouration and patternation but unfortunately lacks the iridescence of these feathers. So, out of all the entries only one bird remains, that of Cormorant and with it we have come to our correct answer because that's exactly what it is! Note the apparent different ages of some of the feathers (proving this bird to be an immature), those newer pristinely edged ones and those older and more obviously worn items, important as immature Shag shows a clearly different feather patternation than this but adults whilst matching the pattern and colouration (although perhaps wouldn't be expected to show the purple tinge) wouldn't show such an age difference in the feathers as seen here. But what of the North American vagrant and potential county new species for the future, Double-crested Cormorant I hear you ask, well, I wouldn't be that cruel now would I ☺
Just under half of all entrants managed to identify this bird as a Cormorant and they were Ian Woosey, Simon Pinder, Mark Rigby, Michel Rogg, Nick Green, Paul Wilson, Craig Higson, Rob and Sonia Adderley, Paul Cliff, Simon Johnson, Tim Wilcox, Peter Rolph, Steve, Callum and Brogan Scrimgeour, Iain Johnson and Jimmy Meadows, a big pat on the back to you all!
Immature Cormorant, Seaforth, January 2008 (Ian McKerchar)
Only 17 entrants got both species right, Ian Woosey, Jimmy Meadows, Paul Cliff, Mark Rigby, Michel Rogg, Nick Green, Nick Patel, Paul Wilson, Peter Rolph, Rob and Sonia Adderley, Simon Johnson, Simon Pinder, Steve, Callum and Brogan Scrimgeour, Iain Johnson and Tim Wilcox. Not surprisingly, other than Mark Rigby, 'the Scrimgeour clan' and Paul Cliff, only the aforementioned twelve entrants have managed to identify all four mystery birds correctly so far but it's still early...