The Lincolnshire Bird Club

The February review brings the penultimate instalment of the Looking Back series. With regard to the number of County firsts recorded, this month has the fewest during the year, and is dominated by wildfowl and species originating from 'across the pond'. A reappearance from some of these would be welcome, and a first twitchable record from one of the species even more so. Two British firsts also feature, although unfortunately one of these is not officially recognised. On with the review…………….

1995 – LESSER SCAUP
The first County record of this Nearctic Aythya occurred in 1995. Following the shooting season drawing to a close, most of the Humber duck flock were flighting onto one of the east side pits at Barton to bathe and roost in the late afternoons. On 13th February a quick check of the new diggings pit revealed 270 Pochard and a couple of drake Scaup. Passing to the other pit, Barrow Mere, turned up another 300 Pochard, a few Goldeneye and Ruddy Ducks, another couple of Scaups and a rather odd looking, Tufted Duck sized duck fast asleep. It looked reminiscent of a Lesser Scaup but at 200 yards range could not be confirmed. When the bird awoke it certainly seemed to fit Lesser Scaup and a 1st-winter Scaup was conveniently available for direct comparison next to it. Creeping closer, at a range of 100yards in reasonable light the full suite of characters was able to be logged and the bird was confirmed as a Lesser Scaup –the first record for Lincolnshire. The bird was located again the following morning and was seen at both Barton and New Holland until 16th February. From the extensive area of brown feathering in the plumage the bird was aged as a 1st-winter. When on the pit the bird was often near to a 1st-winter male Scaup and tended to gravitate to the small group of Scaup within the flock. It was often very active feeding continually from first light both on the pit and on the Humber and in the evening was one of the few ducks to keep feeding for an hour before settling to roost. There have been a further three county records. The second was a bird which just made it onto the county list and involved a male on the River Trent at Torksey which flushed and flew over Lincs twice on 14th May 1998. This was followed by a well twitched and very confiding first-summer female present on the lake at Cleethorpes Country Park from 5th to 16th April 1999 with the last record involving a drake which showed well at Water’s Edge Country Park from 28th to 30th April 2004. A now well-known hybrid duck is that between male Tufted Duck and female Pochard, which surprisingly produces offspring closely resembling male Lesser Scaup and this has been, and still is, the main identification pitfall for acceptance of this species. Such 'Lesser Scaup type' hybrids have been reported a few times in the County, for example at Covenham Reservoir from 12th January to 28th February 1985, one or two in the Deeping St. James and Baston/Langtoft pits area in the five winters of 1990, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94 and 1994/95, one at Toft Newton Reservoir on 29th April 1995 and most recently one at Baston and Langtoft pits on 27th February 2009. It is possible that several other records of such hybrids have gone unrecorded. Lesser Scaup breeds from Central Alaska through Canada to Hudson Bay, and south to Washington and South Dakota. Isolated populations also occur East of the Great Lakes. The species winters along both coastlines of the USA, in the east from New Jersey to Mexico, the West Indies, and Central America to Northern Colombia. It is now well established as an annual transatlantic vagrant since the first, a first-winter male attracted large numbers of visiting birdwatchers at Chasewater, West Midlands, from 8th March to 26th April 1987 and which ended a somewhat tortuous period of uncertainty in terms of identifying this species as a vagrant. The following decade produced a steady trickle of records, with a notable surge in 1996 when seven were recorded and the first accepted female in 1997. The increase in records of this species has continued unabated to an impressive 25 for 2007, with a strong showing of first-winter birds, particularly males. This clearly indicates that genuine new arrivals, combined with increasing observer awareness, are fuelling the growth in records. However, for any finder of a Lesser Scaup the fullest possible documentation remains essential because of the ever-present problem of hybrids. Females still cause the most headaches, although many males arrive in first-winter plumage and can also prove tricky to identify. Occasional multiple arrivals (including pairs), coupled with the appearance of some Aythya hybrids, has raised the question of whether Lesser Scaup has already bred in the Western Palearctic. A recent returning adult female Lesser Scaup at Caerlaverock was part of a small flock which included one possible hybrid offspring. Others have been suspected elsewhere. Despite the surge in records, some counties have still to record their first while others have witnessed multiple occurrences. It is rather ironic that a surge in Western Palearctic records has coincided with a long-term decline of the species in North America. Although still one of the most numerous ducks across the ‘pond’, its numbers are currently 30% below long-term average population levels. This decline appears to be a result of lower breeding success linked to dietary changes on spring migration. It has been speculated that another reason for the predominance of males in the UK other than the identification challenges are that first-winter drakes may migrate farther from the breeding grounds than females, making them more susceptible to transatlantic vagrancy. Lesser Scaup is a classic contender for natural vagrancy to Europe, departing the breeding grounds late in the year, typically at the onset of snow or hard frosts. It also migrates farther than many other waterfowl, with the northernmost populations leapfrogging the southern populations to winter farther south and east. The recent increase in records is probably a genuine reflection of more frequent vagrancy, rather than simply due to an increase in the number of birds being identified. Despite a declining population, current trends suggest that we should expect to see more appearing here in future years. The geographic spread of sightings across the UK has indicated that almost any eutrophic lake or pond with a few other Aythya ducks will always be worth a second look for those intent on finding their own Lesser Scaup.

1979 – LAUGHING GULL
A second-winter Laughing Gull seen by one fortunate birder at Donna Nook on 24th February 1979 was the first county record of this Nearctic gull. This was very quickly followed by the second record however, when a first-winter bird was seen at Huttoft Bank on 6th October the same year. Just 5 years later a further two records occurred in the County, although these relate to the same individual which crossed the Humber during an extended stay in Humberside (E Yorks). This first-summer bird was first photographed in East Park, Hull on 16th April 1984, but was not then seen again until it made an appearance in Lincolnshire when it was observed at Thorpe Pits, near Lincoln on 23rd May 1984. This same bird, now in second-winter plumage was relocated feeding with Black-headed Gulls feeding in playing fields in Hull Town Centre on 9th November 1984 and went on to remain in the area until at least 27th December 1985. During the early part of this period, it ventured over the Humber once again to makes its second appearance in Lincolnshire when it was seen at Barton-on-Humber on 28th December 1984. Thirteen years later another bird made a brief appearance in the County showing itself to just one fortunate observer when an adult was seen at Cleethorpes on 21st October 1997. The following year an equally brief bird, a fine adult in summer plumage, graced Kirkby-on-Bain Gravel Pits on 24th May 1998. Just 11 days previously the same site had hosted the County's first record of Franklin's Gull. The Kirkby Laughing Gull was considered to be the same long-staying summer adult from North Norfolk which first displayed in the Black-headed Gull colony at Titchwell from 9th May and then went on to remain in the Holme, Hunstanton and Titchwell area until June, where during the latter part of its stay it came regularly to bread in Hunstanton Town Centre. A further 16 years have now elapsed since we have been visited by this smart gull, and although there have now been a very respectable 6 records for the County, we still await our first twitchable bird. This Nearctic species breeds along the eastern seaboard of North America and in the Caribbean and winters from the USA to northern South America. In Britain and Ireland it shows very little pattern in its occurrences with the 193 records up to the end of 2011 having occurred throughout the year and at widely scattered localities (although with a coastal bias). The first British record occurred in East Sussex in July 1923, but it was another 34 years before the second was found in Essex in 1957. It became gradually more frequent and sightings have increased markedly since the mid-1970s, mainly due to greater observer awareness. It appeared that 2005 was destined to be an unremarkable year for Laughing Gull in Britain, with, by the end of October three typically widespread records in Scotland and northern England. The dramatic events of November 2005 changed all that. Hurricane Wilma, the most intense hurricane recorded in the Atlantic basin, wreaked havoc in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in mid-October, and its remnants swept up the eastern seaboard of North America in the last week of October, and reached the Western Approaches by the end of the month. In its wake trailed an unprecedented influx of Laughing Gulls. The simultaneous arrival of several birds in Scilly and west Cornwall at the beginning of November first alerted birders to the influx and heralded the discovery of many more in the first week of the month. By 10th November, as many as 35 birds had been discovered and others continued to be found during the remainder of the month and into December. The focus of the influx centred on the southwest peninsula and Bristol Channel coast, with Scilly (4), Cornwall (12), Devon (8) and Pembrokeshire (6) between them accounting for more than half of the total of those recorded. A few stragglers penetrated inland and as far north as the Western Isles, and along the English Channel as far as Kent; surprisingly, other than one in Co. Durham, none reached the North Sea coast before the end of the year. The final tally for the year was a record breaking 58 an astonishing 30% of the total number of British records.

1974 – AMERICAN WIGEON
A male bird purchased at a London market and exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological society in April 1838 had reputedly been shot in the Lincolnshire Fens in the winter of 1837/38, although is not formally recognised. Although many ducks were sent to London from Lincolnshire the claim could not be authenticated. If so this would have been the first British record, instead that falls to a first-winter male purchased at a Leeds market, which had been shot on the Yorkshire coast in February 1895 and retained in the Leeds Museum. Therefore the first fully recognised record of this Nearctic dabbling duck for Lincolnshire was a male bird discovered at Covenham Reservoir on 12th February 1974. It was subsequently seen by many observers during its 12 day stay until 24th February. A further 16 years elapsed before the second record when an eclipse adult male was found at Messingham sand quarries on 14th September 1990. It was present with odd absences until 1st December moulting to full plumage by late October and was also seen at nearby Kirton Quarries on 4th October. Since these birds there have been a further twelve County records as follows; A male was present at Whisby pits from 12th to 28th October 1991, a male seen at Toft Newton Reservoir from 14th to 15th March 1996, an adult male in full plumage was seen in the Read's Island/South Ferriby area on 5th October 1997, a male was well watched at Marston Sewage Farm on 6th and 7th April 2000, a male at Butterwick Hale on 26th October 2002 and a male at Covenham Reservoir accompanying a flock of Wigeon from 30th September to 12th October 2003 with a drake also seen at Covenham (the sites third) on 3rd January 2004. Two birds during the early part of 2007 included a drake at Freiston Shore from 27th to 28th February and the only county record that didn't involve a drake, when a female was present at Baston and Langtoft Pits on 1st and 2nd March. An adult drake was found at Manby Flashes/Little Carlton on 31st March 2009 but flew off late in the day and could not be relocated the next morning and this was followed by a rather unusual and very unseasonal record involving a drake bird moulting into eclipse plumage at Freiston Shore from 13th to 18th July 2011. The most recent record was another (often elusive) drake seen at Fiskerton Fen from 9th February to 3rd April 2013. American Wigeon breeds in North America, from Alaska to Hudson Bay, and south through the Prairies to the eastern seaboard. The majority of the population are highly migratory, wintering across the southern United States and Mexico, through the Caribbean and into Central America and northern South America. It is one of the most numerous dabbling ducks in North America; its breeding population has oscillated around the long-term average of 2.8 million birds, although the population increased from a 40-year low of 1.8 million in 1987 to over 3 million in 1998. Prior to 1958, there were just 22 records of American Wigeon in Britain & Ireland, but between 1958 and 2001 there was a total of 440 accepted records. During this period, the number of new birds recorded each year showed a steady, consistent (and statistically significant) increase. American Wigeons have been recorded in a total of 77 counties or recording areas in Britain & Ireland. There is a broad spread of records, with the greatest numbers in Ireland and the Northern Isles, but also with relatively large numbers in counties with both high levels of observer coverage and sizeable wintering populations of Eurasian Wigeon. Although most records refer to singles or occasionally pairs there have been a few records involving small flocks with the largest and most notable being flocks of 13 in Co. Kerry in October 1968 and ten in Shetland in October 2000. The greatest numbers of American Wigeons appear in October and November. The number of new arrivals declines in December, but new birds continue to be recorded throughout the first four months of the year followed by a further peak in May, suggestive of northbound spring migrants which arrived in Europe the previous autumn. As with all species of ducks commonly held in captivity, it is possible that escapes may cloud their true status. While American Wigeon is commonly found in many collections, and birds are known to escape, five ringing recoveries from North America show unequivocally that genuine migrants do cross the Atlantic. In addition, the arrival of flocks in the west and north in autumn is a strong indicator of wild origin, rather than a mass escape from captivity, while evidence of a northward spring passage is a strategy which a number of North American vagrants may adopt. It is, of course, possible that escaped American Wigeons could join flocks of Eurasians and essentially behave as wild birds, but at present there is no direct evidence for this happening. The five ringing recoveries are as follows; a female shot in Shetland in October 1966 had been ringed as a chick near Sheffield, New Brunswick, Canada, August 1966; a male shot in Co. Kerry in October 1968 had been ringed at Jemseg, New Brunswick, Canada, in August 1968, a female shot in Co. Galway in October 1977 had been ringed on Prince Edward Island, Canada, in August 1977, a first-year was trapped on Fair Isle, Shetland had been ringed in New Brunswick, Canada in August 1986 and finally a first-year female shot in Co.Wexford in November 1986 which had been ringed in Washington DC, USA, in 1986. Both wild and captive pairings have resulted in a variety of hybrids which have caused identification problems in the past, and which need to be considered before claiming a vagrant American Wigeon. As well as hybrids between American Wigeon and Eurasian Wigeon and between Eurasian Wigeon and Chiloe Wigeon, which constitute the main pitfalls, other potentially confusing hybrid combinations have included Eurasian Wigeon × Eurasian Teal, Eurasian Wigeon × Falcated Duck, Eurasian Wigeon × Gadwall, Eurasian Wigeon × Mallard as well as American Wigeon × Falcated Duck, American Wigeon × Gadwall, American Wigeon × Mallard, Chiloe Wigeon × Gadwall, Chiloe Wigeon × Falcated Duck, and possibly American Wigeon × Chiloe Wigeon! . In claiming a possible American Wigeon it is also necessary to take into account variant and aberrant plumages which do not result from hybridisation. Good luck!


1929 – FERRUGINOUS DUCK
The first Lincolnshire, and more significantly, British record of this species was of an undated specimen involving a drake which had been killed in the county prior to 1771, the details of which were subsequently published in British Zoology. There is no published information on this bird in Lincolnshire Avifauna. However, the first fully documented record that could be attributed to a specific date occurred in 1929. That year one or possibly two birds were observed at Newsham Lake on the Brocklesby Estate from 3rd to 24th February. There were then a further nine records up to the early 1980s as follows (although it is noted that the escape likelihood had to be considered with some of the records); a male was seen at Holywell near Stamford from 25th to 27th December 1957, a female was shot at Baston Pits near Bourne on 21st November 1959, an adult frequented Goxhill Marsh from 4th to 26th September 1960, a male was present at Wisbech Sewage Farm from 22nd July to 10th August 1972, a male was seen at Boston between 16th and 24th March 1974, a male was present at Covenham Reservoir from 4th to 5th November 1974, a male at Chapel Pit on 11th July 1976 another male at nearby Chapel Pit from 24th to 30th January 1980 and a male first located at South Killingholme Pits on 5th March which was then seen at North Killingholme Pits on 6th March 1981. Since then there have only been a further 5 records, the first of these occurring after a 17 year gap and involving a well watched adult male seen at Kirkby Pits on several dates between 18th October and 5th November 1998 with possibly the same bird seen again on 10th December. This was then followed by a male at Barton-on-Humber from 16th February to 18th April 2001, a drake at Huttoft Pit on 25th February 2007 (with either the same or a different drake reported again there on 15th June) and then the most recent birds in 2009 when an adult drake was found at Whisby Quarry Silt lagoons on 5th January and was well watched between then and 31st January when it frequently communicated between the silt lagoons and a private quarry pit. It was thought to be the same bird present at Girton, Notts on 3rd January. Later in the year an eclipse drake was present on a private reservoir at Glentworth near Fillingham from 6th to 11th October where it fed in loose company of a small group of Tufted Ducks. A first-winter drake resembling this species was present at Barton Pits from 8th October to 4th November 2011. Although similar to a true Ferruginous Duck, concerns over its head colour, crown and bill shape raised the possibility that it was potentially a hybrid. More rarely encountered than other hybrid Aythya ducks, Pochard x Ferruginous Duck produces another tricky hybrid closely resembling Ferruginous Duck and is a major pitfall for the unwary, especially as some of the differences can be very subtle. In addition to the above 2011 bird a 'Ferruginous type' hybrid recorded at Sutton Ings Pit from 28th February to 6th March 1982 was only identified as a hybrid on such minor plumage discrepancies as size and proportions. Some examples of other, perhaps slightly more obvious, 'Ferruginous type' hybrid records include another bird at Sutton Ings Pit in 1982 from 18th to 28th December, at Thorpe Pits, near Lincoln with a female from 24th to 25th November 1984 and a male from 15th to 17th February 1985, a female at Barrow Haven on 14th November 1987, and a drake at New Holland on 24th April 1993 and Barton Pits on 5th December 1993. However it is likely that, as with the 'Lesser Scaup type' hybrids mentioned above, records of Ferruginous hybrids may go unrecorded or dismissed therefore clouding their true status. The main breeding range of Ferruginous Duck is in temperate steppe-forest from Poland and Hungary, east through Ukraine to the Caspian Sea, but distribution is often patchy. Other populations occur in Southern Spain, Kazakhstan, Western Mongolia and the Tibetan Plateau. The species is migratory with most wintering in the eastern Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas, NE Africa and the Indian subcontinent. First described by Güldenstädt in 1770 from southern Russia, this fine, coppery duck entered British ornithology in 1771 with the above undated Lincolnshire example. This and other early records have been ignored or questioned but, in 1939, The Handbook listed c. 145 birds, of which over 103 had occurred in southeast England. By 1970, the grand total had passed 200 and records were averaging about five a year. Earlier, however, in 1968, the bird had been shunned by BBRC owing to a reported high incidence of escapes (and confusing hybrids). Consequently, in national terms, it lost face and attention and, even from the reinvestigation of its status in 2000, no measure of its occurrences (in any guise) is available from 1969 to 1985. Because it remains a rarity in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, and the English picture is fragmented, the view of ornithologists in its British stronghold of Norfolk is important. In that county, Ferruginous Ducks have occurred since 1805, with 20 shot or caught in decoys up to 1890 and a further 45 noted up to 1929. The latter series included a sudden influx of 20 to two broads in mid April 1903. Between 1930 and 1998, another 32 were found. Few of these birds are considered to have been escapes and the occurrence pattern over the last two centuries indicates that most birds have been wintering on Norfolk’s fresh waters from November to April. Intriguingly, there may have been breeding attempts at three wetlands in 1992, 1993 and 1995. Following review it was established that records from two periods, 1958–68 and 1986–97, covering 23 years, demonstrated that the annual average between the two periods had more than doubled, from six to 13 birds a year, that there had been marked influxes of up to 28 birds in 1960, 1986 and 1987, and that monthly totals of new arrivals rose steadily from July to a November peak of 37 birds and then fell to a virtual absence in May. It was also identified that Common Pochard was a possible ‘carrier species’ from eastern Europe. This is an intriguing thought. Few Ferruginous Ducks winter above 46°N; unlike its congeners, the species does not normally form close flocks and the normal limits of their winter movements are not well known, although some dispersal west of south occurs across the Sahara. The few European recoveries also indicate movements within a southwest quadrant; none show a direct westward orientation. Most British birds may indeed be fellow travellers caught up in communities of more abundant relatives aiming at the ice-free wetlands of peripheral Europe. In 1999 another surge of 23 birds occurred but since 2000, the annual average has decreased to 13. In most of Europe, the Ferruginous Duck has been in retreat for over 25 years. As there may be as few as 30 pairs in Germany, France and Spain, it was considered that Poland could perhaps be a likely source of some of our vagrants, although another possible source could originate in Sicily and Italy, where at least 60 pairs breed, over 250 have been counted in recent winters and up to 1,500 may occur together in migrant concentrations. However, examination of 20 Ferruginous Duck records reported between 1947 and 1951 found that 15% were actually hybrids and this continues to be a problematic pitfall both for the status of the species and for finders of any potential 'Fudge Duck'.


Matthew