February 2021 — Just A Bird

It was 8th February, “Lockdown 2” had been happening for just over 2 weeks and I had been stuck inside, working from home most of the time, with generally poor weather visible through the window. However, this was the first Monday of the half-term holiday so I was able to unshackle myself from the laptop for a while. This also coincided with a snowy snap in the UK and Europe, a mini-beast from the east apparently, which meant a small frisson of excitement amongst the local birders that something might get pushed onto the island. The cold weather wasn’t quite hitting Guernsey yet, that was due to arrive later that night with the chance of a bit of snow.

Late morning, my daughter seemed keen to get out of the house so we decided to go for a drive round the island. I headed first for the fields at Rue des Hougues to see if any Lapwings had appeared yet, but there were none - probably would arrive tomorrow. I pulled up next to the weedy strip along the edge of one of the fields where there were quite a few Chaffinches flying around and I caught sight of the white rump of a Brambling flying amongst them (which had been seen a few days ago) which was a lucky spot.

We carried on round the island and eventually found ourselves at L’Eree where I stopped at the triangle to scan from the car across the old aerodrome. There wasn’t much new here that I hadn’t seen previously, so not really any cold-weather arrivals here either - although two Bar-tailed Godwits were feeding on the scrape. We set off again and I suddenly realised that I was actually quite desperate for a pee. The nearby public toilets were closed due to lockdown but I couldn’t wait and decided I had to stop at the next pull-in to find a hidden spot for urinatory relief.

So we stopped above L’Eree Shingle Bank and luckily there were no other people there. I scurried out of the car and down the slipway a short way, where I found a big rock to hide behind and do what was required. I zipped up again and turned round to face the shoreline. Just below the slipway, sat on the water, close in, by itself, was a small gull - and it seemed smaller than expected on first glance. Of course, I had automatically put my bins round my neck when I exited the car, so I lifted them and focused on the bird.

The thing that piqued my interest was that it had a plain black bill. The automatic birding gear system in my brain immediately sprung into action and I thought to myself with incredulity, “It’s not a Bonaparte’s is it?”. Whenever I get a sudden sniff that I might have found a rarity, my stomach drops and I was definitely feeling that physical reaction now!

It was clearly a first-winter bird and a 1-w Black-headed Gull would have an obvious orange base to the bill. Even though you can get odd-coloured individuals, I was pretty certain straight away it wasn’t Black-headed. Then I started to rein myself in a bit - “maybe it’s a Little Gull? - that’d be much more likely”. I was looking at it and trying to see why it wasn’t a Little Gull - it didn’t really seem small and dainty enough, but was that an illusion since the bird was by itself? I couldn’t really see any features as it swam around which totally ruled out Little Gull. Even though I didn’t actually think it was one, you have to go through the process of ruling everything out.

[The picture below shows, more or less, where it was, and the views I had, when I first saw the bird]

Bonaparte’s Gull - L’Eree Shingle Bank, 8 Feb 21

The next thing the gull did was walk out of the water onto the sand briefly, and I spotted a pair of splendid pale pink legs. I knew this was a key feature of Bonaparte’s and was getting quite giddy now. Definitely not a Black-headed Gull with their orangey legs, but I couldn’t remember what Little Gull legs were like. I really needed to see the wing pattern properly but the bird wasn’t flying. It did flap a few times and I could sort of see a faint ‘M’ pattern on the wings (or is it ‘W’?) which was made by the darker coverts and leading edge to primaries. I couldn’t get a view of the underwing.

I thought that it was about time I went back to the car for my camera to take some snaps and also grabbed my phone with the Collins bird guide on it to double check any features I had missed. I think it was about now that Tony L pulled up in his car and I excitedly gabbled towards him (from 2m away of course) that I thought I’d got a Bonaparte’s and pointed in the direction of the bird. I looked through the features on the phone and ran back down the slipway to take a few record shots, especially to try and get a clear wing pattern pic.

I was now realising how cold I was, trying to take photos into an icy easterly without any gloves or hat on. It was very dull light for any decent photos but after a few pictures of the bird on the deck, it took flight. I managed to get clear photos of both the upperwing and underwing and so I could compare the exact patterns with the book (see the two pics below). The upperwing pattern definitely ruled out Little Gull, with the fully dark, thick trailing edge and much narrower dark leading edge to the primaries - but anyway, once it started flying it was so obviously not a Little Gull that fine plumage details were not really needed. The pale underwing with a narrow dark trailing edge to the primaries was classic Bonaparte’s and ruled out any possibility of a Black-headed.

So the ID was complete and confirmed. Just as I thought straight away, it was indeed a first-winter BONAPARTE’S GULL. A new species for Guernsey, and new for the Channel Islands. What a bird!

So I scrambled back up to the car and told Tony that I had confirmed the ID and got out the phone to send out a bird alert message on Whatsapp. The bird didn’t seem to want to go anywhere and was quite settled in its little corner. Birders arrived quickly to tick it off and everyone was chuffed. I was very chuffed of course, this being the first new bird for Guernsey I had found for ages and ages - but richly deserved, even though I say so myself :D

My daughter had been incredibly patient waiting all this time and I drove her home for a late lunch. I returned to L’Eree a couple of hours later to see if I could get any better photos of the bird. I did improve on the first efforts, despite the conditions being much worse, with squally snowy showers whizzing in from the East, literally freezing my fingers off. I managed to get some pleasing photos but was unable to get anything close to pin sharp.

Being able to study the bird in more detail there were a few other features that could be seen. The bill wasn’t actually fully black but it had a slightly pale base to the lower mandible. The ear spot was a rounder, smudgy inky thumb-mark than (most) BHGs, and two grey stripes extended vertically upwards from this and the eye, with a darkish grey smudge on the top of the head. There was a very clear greyish cast over the whole hind neck, extending onto the sides of the neck and breast, which was really obvious in dull light conditions. The shade of grey on the mantle was not clearly different than BHG even though Bonaparte’s is supposed to be slightly darker. The covert markings were distinctly dark brown, rather than blackish, but still obviously darker than any of the BHGs. The trailing edge of the upperwing had a full, thick black band all the way down which could also be seen when looking at the underwing when the light shone through.

I made my way down there again on 10th February and saw the Bonaparte’s Gull on the same beach, but it was low tide and it kept disappearing so no better photos. On the aerodrome the Lapwings had arrived in more of a force, escaping from the cold on the continent, and there were 6 Golden Plovers with them. Unfortunately, even though the temperatures were very cold we didn’t get any snow laying here in the island this time. Out driving again on the 12th I bumped into a flock of c.80 Lapwing along Route de Torteval and there was a group of 36 Golden Plover in one of the fields at Rue des Hougues. If I hadn’t seen the Bonaparte’s I would have been pretty disappointed with the cold snap, apart from the two plover species, very little new stuff appeared on the island. Maybe the Bonaparte’s was forced here by the weather, perhaps wintering somewhere further east, who knows.

On 13th February, I managed to get out again to see the Bonaparte’s Gull but this time I was able to hit high tide, with the bird feeding amongst a flock of gulls at the waters edge including two Med Gulls. The brightness of the light wasn’t great but I was pleased I managed to get some really nice shots of the bird. (In all, I actually had 2000 photographs to sort through of it!).

Bonaparte’s Gull - L’Eree Shingle Bank, 13 Feb 21

Bonaparte’s Gull - L’Eree Shingle Bank, 13 Feb 21 - doing a phalarope impression

Just as I was leaving L’Eree, rushing to get home, I scanned the Aerodrome and four of the Brent Geese stood out from the others as they were seemingly Pale-bellied Brent Geese. We hardly get any records of this subspecies here in the island so this was a pleasing sighting. I also saw them the next day and one of them was really aggressive to the dark-bellies. Looked like a family party of two adults and 2 juvs.

Pale-bellied Brent Geese - L’Eree, 13 Feb 21

Pale-bellied Brent Geese - L’Eree, 14 Feb 21

Early morning of 9th February, I was drinking my cuppa staring out the front window when I noticed a Song Thrush stood on the road outside the house. I looked through my bins and saw that it had its mouth open and didn’t fly off when a car went past, and also it was ringed! So I dashed out into the freezing cold and was able to pick it up by hand. I brought it inside and it pretty soon started squealing in the kitchen, I have a feeling it had been stunned by a car rather than suffering from the cold. I jotted down the ring number before releasing it into the safety of the back garden. I saw (presumably) the same ringed bird in the field opposite a few days later so it survived fine. It had been ringed by Trevor B at the Chateau de Marais a few months earlier in November - a massive recovery distance of just under 1 km!

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Just A Bird