DECEMBER 2010'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS

Another year over and another round of frustrating mystery birds, apparently! Considering it was Christmas and we were all preoccupied with mince pies and mulled wine, an excellent 33 entrants continued the competitions superb support and I am very grateful for it. Anyway, by popular demand (no, seriously) it will be back next year and hopefully that support will continue if not increase, afterall throughout the year there were 61 entrants in total at some point or another. But enough of this. What were those birds?

Mystery Bird 23

Oh dear. What a stinker! That so many entrants couldn't even see a bird in the image was obvious given the variety of species offered as answers, which stood at 12 in total. Look at the photo above again and see if you can catch a glimpse of any of the following species:

Lapwing, Red-legged Partridge, Pied Wagtail, Dotterel, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Stone Curlew, Citrine Wagtail, Snipe, Jack Snipe, Hoopoe, Goldfinch or Spur-winged Plover.

Rather than try to explain away that exhaustive list, take a look at a cop of the photo below. Any clearer now?

Any alarm bells ringing? Anyone hurling insults in my direction? Is it actually any clearer at all? Hmmm. Sort of black and white stripy section with, what's that? Is that a long, pinkish crest with black bits at the end? Check the list above again. Does it fit anything now?

It was a very difficult photo. Difficult just because finding the bloody bird in it was a nightmare. Indeed my own twelve year old son, having a go at the competition for the very first time, didn't get it right and he was stood next to me when I took it (and I shall of course suitably punish him for his error)! Of course someone else, who shall remain nameless Neil Calbrade, went one step further and seemingly ignored the opinions of his fellow BTO staff (who only went and got it right!) down there in Norfolk and subsequently got it wrong. Hopefully though they'll go easy on him, especially as it meant he missed out on second position. Only nine entrants obviously saw the bird in question or at least had a fabulously lucky guess at it and they were Pete Kinsella, Henry Cook, John Tymon, Phil Greenwood, Gary Crowder, Karen Foulkes, Paul Brown, Adrian Dancy and John Frankland. The mystery bird was of course, well, you can make it out for yourselves below...

Hoopoe, Qatar, October 2010 (Ian McKerchar)

Mystery Bird 24

Ah, yet another swine of a mystery bird! All entrants guessed it was some form of raptor but opinion as to which one varied considerably. The majority at 55% managed to get this one right though and highly commendable that was. It was it has to be said, one of those 'feely' birds. Plumage wise, not all that much to go on but as for jizz, the clues were all there. Many entrants had a 'feel' for how big it was, of it's proportions and importantly, of how it differed from other species it might purport to be. There was a distinct divide in the answers offered too, with the smaller raptors and larger raptors split roughly 60/40 in favour of a larger species. So was it big or small? Well, Kestrel, Lesser Kestrel and Red-footed Falcon formed the basis for the smaller species. Not surprising really, especially as the mystery bird appears to be hovering. But (and it's an important but) the wings do appear a little too 'full' around the 'hand' in particular, a little too rounded at the tips. Further more, those 'fingers' at the end of the wing are decidedly long and of an almost equal length, something the smaller species would not display with their considerably more pointed, less deeply 'fingered' wings and marked difference in outer primary length. We can be fairly sure then that a smaller raptor species it is not! So, that leaves the larger species, namely Hen Harrier, Honey Buzzard, Common Buzzard and to finish us off, Rough-legged Buzzard. I think the image shows a fairly broad winged raptor which, even taking into consideration the angle the bird is at, has a fairly shortish tail. Given that we are now agreed (hopefully) that is one of the aforementioned larger species, the wings appear rather short too given the width of the bird's body. Plumage wise there's certainly very little to go on but the outer primaries appear pale and unmarked but for a fairly broad dark terminal edge to the wing which looks to run it's full length. The tail looks pale but a closer look shows very fine barring across the feathers and some narrow solid dark tips. That's enough I feel to eliminate Hen Harrier (any sex/age) and I also feel that we would be able to see at least one of the inner tail bands of a Honey Buzzard were it to be one and so I think we've done away with that too. That leaves Rough-legged and Common Buzzard. Of course it's all fine and dandy to bring up the subtle structural differences between the two species (also with Honey Buzzard too) but with only a photograph of a bird in such a pose they are of little value I'm afraid though our bird does really seem stocky and short winged. At the end of the day it falls down to something and nothing and in this instance, that would seem to be the tail. It does appear pale to be fair but is it really? Look closely and it is very finely but distinctly barred and the contrast between it and the darker terminal band is really not very apparent. I'd expect a Rough-legged Buzzard to portray a distinctly much paler, whiter looking tail lacking in those fine, regular bars and a broader more contrasting dark terminal tail band. With that we have our answer, that it is a Common Buzzard (and yes, my son redeemed himself slightly by getting this one correct, grounded with a copy of Collins for only two weeks then!). Of course they do hover of sorts, in the same way a Kestrel or Rough-legged Buzzard uses the wind to it's advantage and that's exactly what this individual was doing. The photo (of which I don't have the usual 'better' shot!) was taken at Sennen Cove, Cornwall in October 2007 by me.

Only six entrants managed to correctly identify both species this month, illustrating just how confusing they were! Very well done therefore to Pete Kinsella, Henry Cook, Paul Brown, John Tymon, Adrian Dancy and John Frankland.

As the year ended there was no slip up from our leader who had maintained his lead right from the very first month. Dropping only a single point out of the twenty four on offer, North Ronaldsay resident Paul Brown wins for his second year in a row, a highly commendable achievement showing just what time he has on his hands ☺. A copy of the 2009 Greater Manchester County Bird Report is on it's way to him, so he can see what he's missing whilst he's stuck up there! The race for second position was finally won by John Tymon, scoring twenty one points along the way. Neil Calbrade and Henry Cook both finished the year off with nineteen points and secured joint third place whilst fourth deserves a mention too with another out-of-county birder, James Latham, not only managing eighteen points but also in beating his dad, though I'm sure he won't mention it too often!

I'd really like to thanks everyone who's ever entered though, for their support and participation. Hopefully this will continue into 2011 and perhaps increase especially considering those 61 who gave it a go at some point last year. Either way, I really enjoy doing it and it seems by the correspondence I've received, you (sort of) enjoy it too. You gluttons for punishment! I'll have to make 2011 really hard then.

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