OCTOBER 2008'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS

Once again, the Mystery Bird Competition faithful turned out, tuned in and had a bash with 26 entrants participating, including first time entrants Nick Godden and Caroline Clay proving that it's never too late to enter and is afterall just for fun. As promised, there were no gulls once again but that didn't mean this month's pair were going to be easy, infact one of them was such a pain that a couple of entrants  begged for more gulls! Anyway, a typically great attempt regardless of their outcome, many atleast endeavoured to explain their entries and right or wrong, that proved real thought and progress ☺

Mystery Bird 19

Everyone atleast recognised this mystery bird as a wader but 3 various species were suggested, those being Greenshank, Ruff and Knot. That the Ruff mentioned was a juvenile rather swiftly excludes it from the running as the wing feathers which we can see on the photograph should be solidly blackish on that species and yet here we can see that the feathers visible are greyish internally with a darker subterminal fringe and feather shaft and very slightly paler edge to the whole feather. Whilst Greenshank shares the mystery bird's yellowish/green legs, whitish rear underparts and it's apparently white rump (just visible through the wings), it's wing feathers would still be darker centred and more obviously notched and perhaps we might expect the length of the tibia to be evidently longer even in this image. This leaves us with the only other suggested species, that of Knot and with it we have, rather promptly, arrived at our correct answer of which eighteen entrants managed to do the same.

Knot (juvenile), Beacon Lane Pools, Spurn, Yorkshire, September 2008 (Ian McKerchar)

Mystery Bird 20

This one really stirred it up, with eight species being offered as answers but was it really all that difficult...probably, yes! Lets look at the species suggested, Little Owl, Tawny Owl, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Green Woodpecker, Kestrel, Pheasant and Sparrowhawk. In fact one can be expelled 'early doors' as Jay is the only one of our suggested species which doesn't show the considerably barred remiges (flight feathers) which are perhaps the most conspicuous feature of our mystery bird. So, what of the others? Well, for starters Sparrowhawk and Kestrel lack this mystery bird's extremely short first and second primaries so evident here (and the generally very short primaries overall) and Sparrowhawk would also display more clearly barred underwing coverts, which our mystery bird lacks so Sparrowhawk, close but no cigar! Both Pheasant and Grey Partridge are again a keenly observed (and in Pheasant's case very popular) choice but Pheasant's tail would surely appear much longer (and no, I wouldn't try to deceive you with a Pheasant with a broken or missing tail) and it's underwings aren't so regularly and blatantly barred either, whereas the tail of Grey Partridge wouldn't appear so anything like our mystery bird and it's body size would appear patently different, so sorry they're out too. As we've already mentioned, the wings of our mystery bird are very rounded, with short primaries generally and first and second primaries that are particularly short (lending to the overall rounded wing look) and these could be features of any of our remaining suggested correct answers of two owls and two woodpeckers, but take a closer look, try to ignore those barred underwings and get a feel of the bird's overall shape and bulk. Personally I find the bird's overall 'feel' to be rather too long and slim in the body for either owl species, the rather evidently pointed tail feathers and their rather tapered shape too are wrong for the owls. Look closer still and is there really part of what would appear to be a long, pointed bill protruding from the birds head and those rounded wings with their very well barred remiges, pointed tail feathers, long slim body all point to a woodpecker but which one of the two, Great Spotted or Green Woodpecker? That the underwing on the right wing (as we look at the image) is obviously in sunlight we can establish that the flanks are well lit too and are not in shadow so as they clearly look darkish and 'coloured' this alone would seem to exclude Great Spotted Woodpecker and could that be the reason for the omission of colour from the photo? Well, if I'd left it green then it would have been too easy wouldn't it, Green Woodpecker it is! Only 6 entrants managed the correct answer, so a special well done to them, Simon Warford, Tim Wilcox, Simon Johnson, Mark Rigby, Paul Cliff and Ian Woosey.

Green Woodpecker, Holcombe Moor (Adrian Dancy)

Firstly, my thanks once again to those who took the effort to send me their answers, sure, many more visitors look at the mystery bird pages and most of those probably make a private suggestion at the species involved (and claim to get them right every time!) but those that took the time and trouble to send them to me are to be applauded.

Only five entrants managed to correctly identify both mystery birds correctly, a commendable achievement in what was a difficult round, they are Simon Warford, Simon Johnson, Mark Rigby, Paul Cliff and Ian Woosey. That leaves our long-standing frontrunner of Simon Johnson still infront by a nose and with only two rounds left to go can he maintain his nerve and identification skill to stay there? Bring on round eleven and lets see ☺