Siberian Chiffchaff - Swineham

As the weather looked half decent for a change I decided to book a day off work and check a few sites out around Poole with the ultimate aim of trying to get some photos of Siberian Chiffchaff at Swineham. The first spot where I saw a stunning Sibe Chiff a couple of weeks ago yielded nothing unfortunately as the light here was excellent. I carried on to where the second of three birds had been seen previously and could hear some Long-tailed Tits so was optimistic they may be carrying the Chiffs. Sure enough a collybita called so I quickly blasted out the Sibe Chiff song and immediately a bird starting singing back - I'd never heard them singing before so was very happy. The collybita and tristis showed quite well together but never really posed for the camera. This was the best I could manage of this bird:

I moved further along to the NE corner of the pit and saw something moving in the gorse there. On playing the recording not one, but two Sibe Chiffs popped out and then amazingly a third. I spent quite a while trying to get some decent photos but the light had now deteriorated and my old camera just wasn't up to the job of focusing quick enough. Nonetheless, perseverance paid off and I got some shots I was quite happy with. They really are chameleon birds and depending on the light, angle of observation and even surrounding foliage the appearance of their plumage tones changes quite dramatically.

This last bird looks just like "patch" who featured in the excellent Catching the Bug book by the Sound Approach.

Other highlights at Swineham were an adult male Hen Harrier, 8 or 9 Marsh Harrier and a Jack Snipe. I had hoped for a white-winger but this was found via video-cam at the other end of the harbour on Brownsea. The saturating light drizzle, which then set in, put paid to the viewing of the gathering gulls off the point.

Chiff central

A quick post to display some of the photos from yesterday's ringing session (and one from the 17th Feb). In total an amazing 73 Chiffchaff were caught in the PC World drain, Poole, of which  68 were new (incl tristis), 4 were re-trapped from previous visits and 1 was a control.

This is what we certainly believe to be a tristis

tristis

This next bird was caught on the 17th Feb and was a retrap having originally been trapped here in 2009. Could it be a tristis? Not heard to call and quite a bit of yellow below but other features look good.

tristis-type

I saw the next bird in the field yesterday before we caught it and it certainly looked interesting but it's not a bird I had seen previously this winter. In the hand it called twice, a fairly typical Chiffy "huet" but sadly it wouldn't call again when I had the recorder ready so no sonograms unfortunately.

Another tristis-type

This last bird is not a tristis-type but was quite a striking individual

Chiffchaff

Lastly here's a standard collybita

collybita

Chiff Heaven or Hell

Wednesday gave me a chance to try and add a few species to my Foot-it list so I thought I would wander down to Holes Bay and take in the PC World drain on the way there. It took about half an hour to reach the eastern end of the drain where the first bird I put my bins on was a Common Sandpiper and next was a Grey Wagtail which was all good.

PC World drain

However, there were no Chiffchaff here so I moved into the car park at the back of PC World and immediately could see at least half a dozen of varying hues. One bird looked interesting but didn't appear quite right to me for tristis and in correspondence with one of the local birders he informed me that they caught a bird last year which looked good in the hand for tristis and responded well to the appropriate recordings but they also felt wasn't the full package - the same bird?
Here's a couple of photos of it:

Tristis or not tristis that is the question

I then played a sound recording of tristis call and this bird appeared which to my eye looks good for tristis but both of these birds were silent.

 Siberian Chiffchaff

Looks good to me but usual caveats apply!

I saw the bird again yesterday but couldn't find it today, there must have been upwards of 15 Chiffchaff in the sunny conditions but they were more dispersed along the drain. Whilst playing the Sibe Chiff call a male Kingfisher flew in and perched no less than 20 feet away but didn't stop long enough for a photo unfortunately.

Chiffchaff

On to Holes Bay where it was the lowest tide I've seen since being down here. It was alive with birds, mainly Wigeon and Teal along with a handful of Gadwall and I could only locate one male Pintail but that's all I needed! There were over 100 Redshank scattered around the bay and I was pleased to pick up a Spotted Redshank amongst them. A tight flock of Avocet numbered 80 and it was good to see some Dunlin (18) as they're not always guaranteed up here. I picked up another Common Sandpiper flying in from over by the railway line and it pitched down in the drain. I hadn't included Kestrel on my target list for Foot-it as I hadn't seen one hereabouts so one perched on the lamp-posts along the road was a bonus.

Holes Bay - not much water but loads of birds - honest!

A quick look south of the railway revealed 5 Goldeneye but still no Black-tailed Godwit to be seen anywhere. The roof at Kerry Foods was covered in large white-headed gulls but I just wasn't inclined to scrutinise them but even with a cursory glance four Yellow-legged Gulls jumped out at me.

I calculated that I had walked 5.8 miles and upped my Foot-it total to 73 (target 82).

Any constructive comments on the various Chiffchaff gladly welcomed!

On the 5th January I took part in a bird-race and as one of the team members has already written a blog post that it quite amusing then I'll just direct you to it:
http://petermooreblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/poole-harbour-big-day.html