Lesser Yellowlegs and more at Black Rock

Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Rock, 19th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

An adult bird, and the 19th record for Co. Kerry.

Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Rock, 19th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Rock, 19th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Rock, 19th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Curlew Sandpipers, Black Rock, 19th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Yellow-legged Gull, Black Rock, 18th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Yellow-legged Gull, Black Rock, 18th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Yellow-legged Gull, Black Rock, 18th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Yellow-legged Gull, Black Rock, 18th August 2016 (David O'Connor).

Short-eared Owl probably bred this year, close to the Cork/Kerry border

Click on the image to read the article from this weeks' Kerryman newspaper.

Little Stint, Blennerville

Juvenile Little Stint (with Dunlin), Blennerville, 8th August 2016 (Kilian Kelly).

Juvenile Little Stint, Blennerville, 8th August 2016 (Kilian Kelly).

GPS tracking of Kerry Barn Owls

Readers of this blog will be well aware of the impact that major roads have had on local Barn Owls with, for example, 14 Barn Owl casualties recorded on the 13.4km stretch of the Tralee Bypass in just two years. BirdWatch Ireland and Transport Infrastructure Ireland have been undertaking a two-year project to try to find out how and why Barn Owls might use or interact with these major roads, and ultimately to address how best to prevent and/or reduce such casualties in future.

Part of this project was to put GPS data loggers on individual owls to track their movements in incredible detail, and several of those owls have been tracked in Co. Kerry.

Adult Barn Owl ready to be released, with the GPS tag in place, July 2016 (M.O'Clery, under licence from NPWS).

The GPS data loggers capture the birds' position, height and speed every few seconds, showing exactly where the birds hunt, roost and rest. 

So, how have Barn Owls been interacting with the major roads in their home ranges? The findings so far have been striking. Have a close look at the image below, tracking part of the movement of a female Barn Owl whose nest in north Kerry is about 2km distant...

 The image above shows the tracking of a female Barn Owl hunting along the grass verges of the Tralee to Listowel road near Kilflyn, crossing the road three times in just a few minutes. Red dots show where the bird was stationary (perching/perch-hunting), orange is slow (hunting) flight, yellow is faster flight (J.Lusby/M.O'Clery, under licence from NPWS).

Of three Barn Owls tagged in Kerry so far, two had major roads in their home territory. In both these, the birds actively hunted for extended periods along the grassy verges of those major roads.

And in an even more striking example, the video below tracks the movements of a female Barn Owl from a nest site just outside Castleisland, Co. Kerry, in late July. The video starts with a view of her nest site, but we join her nearly 2km away, at a farmyard where she has been sheltering from torrential rain for four hours. It is now 1.30 a.m. and, as the rain finally lets up, off she goes. We can track her movements as she perches on trees and hedges and then, she arrives at the Castleisland Bypass...

Video showing the movements of a female Barn Owl along the Castleisland Bypass, Co. Kerry. The GPS device was scheduled to record one fix every five seconds - yellow fixes are where the bird was flying at speed, orange fixes indicate slower hunting flight and red is where the bird was stationary (J.Lusby/M.O'Clery, under licence from NPWS/BTO).
(You can click on the 'four arrows' symbol, bottom right, to see a full screen version of the video)

On one night she hunted along a 1km stretch of the Bypass for 55 minutes, crossed the road six times, and even perched on the central median for 17 seconds! The dangers to the Barn Owl are obvious, however this information also highlights the suitability of road-side grassy verges for foraging. On this occasion  she does does not successfully capture prey, and moves on to forage elsewhere to try and provision the three chicks which are back at the nest site.
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Lots more on this, and more to come, on the Irish Raptor Blog HERE

Couple more photos of the SemiP

The adult Semipalmated Sandpiper, found on the 6th August, was again present at the morning and evening high tide roost on the 7th.

Adult Semipalmated Sandpiper, top left, with Dunlin and Ringed Plover, Reenroe Beach, 7th August 2016 (M.O'Clery).

Adult Semipalmated Sandpiper, Reenroe Beach, 7th August 2016 (M.O'Clery).

Adult SemiP and Little Stint at Reenroe beach

Adult Semipalmated Sandpiper with Dunlin, Reenroe beach, 6th August 2016 (M.O’Clery).

Adult Semipalmated Sandpiper, Reenroe beach, 6th August 2016 (M.O’Clery).

The 46th county record, the fifth in August and only the fourth adult to be recorded in Kerry (with thanks to Ed Carty for stats).

Juvenile Little Stint, Reenroe beach, 6th August 2016 (M.O’Clery).

Juvenile Little Stint, Reenroe beach, 6th August 2016 (M.O’Clery).

Kamchatka Gull in Kerry, a potential first for the Western Palearctic

On 6th March 2014, David O'Connor saw and photographed an unusually dark-backed Common Gull at Black Rock, Co, Kerry. The post with photos from this sighting can be seen HERE.

There was much conjecture at the time that it was one of the eastern races of Common Gull, perhaps even a Kamchatka Gull, though it was thought there might be too little detail on the photos - particularly the flight shots - to be certain.

Putative Kamchatka Gull, Black Rock, March 2014 (David O'Connor).

However, a recent paper published in the journal Dutch Birding has refined and defined the identification of this north-west Pacific sub-species of Common Gull, and David submitted the photos to the authors Peter Adriaens and Chris Gibbons for comment. Their replies, shown below, indicate that the Black Rock bird looks likely to be the first record of Kamchatka Gull for Ireland and the Western Palearctic.

Although currently considered to be one of four sub-species of Common Gull, it also seems increasingly likely that Kamchatka Gull will be 'split' in the near future.

From Chris Gibbins:

Hi. David. 

Hi David,

My immediate reaction on opening these images was jesus christ! It is an amazing bird. You are right that the features you would like to see/resolve are not easy to see due to image resolution, but least my first/gut impressions of the standing bird are in line with what Killian [Mullarney] suggests. Ideally you’d like head/neck shawl to be heavier but the jizz is impressive – even in the flight images.  I will have a proper look at the open wing photos as soon as I have a chance to see what I can make out, and get back to you as soon as I can... Wow...

I’m sure Peter will be in touch, and always has very insightful thoughts…

Many thanks for sharing these images

C  

And from Peter Adriaens:

Hello David, 

Well what do you know - looks like this is a fully identifiable kamtschatschensis, in Ireland!! 

As Chris said, the photos strongly suggest (or even scream) this taxon: it is clearly a bulky Common Gull with rather long forehead, long, strong bill, and strikingly dark upperparts. Head streaking is extensive and the bill pattern (with extensive dusky gonys spot but no dark markings on upper mandible) looks good. It then becomes a matter of finding something in the primary pattern to support and confirm the identification. 

Fortunately, in this bird this is possible, despite the quality of the photos being less than ideal. 

We can pretty much focus solely on the Old World taxa, since nothing in this bird suggests Short-billed Gull really; size, shape, and patterns of head, bill and primaries are all wrong.

Adult heinei does not normally have this distinct head streaking nor such a strong bill. The bill pattern is still within range of this taxon, but is more typical of kamtschatschensis. A major difference from heinei can be seen on the underwing of this bird: only the outermost primary (p10) has largely black underside, while p9 is extensively grey (the grey tongue clearly covers more than half of the length of the inner web). Adult heinei has a largely black p9, so the impression is that of a more extensive black zone on the underside of the outer hand. On the upperwing, the broad white tongue-tip on p7 is also not typical of heinei.

That leaves canus as the other contender. I believe this taxon can already be excluded on the colour of the upperparts alone. My guess is that this was what attracted your attention to the bird in the first place? The bill does not normally look this strong in canus, but the main difference is again in the primaries: the grey tongue on p9 is also a bit too long for (most) canus, but even more useful is the size of the p9 mirror, which is clearly small. It looks to me like the mirror is confined to the inner web; there is definitely a complete black division between the white mirror of p9 and the one on p10. 

It is also clear (in the flight shots where the outer primaries are more or less in focus) that the p9 mirror is only half the size of the one on p10. Canus has larger white mirrors, particularly on p9. A complete black division between the two adjacent mirrors is lacking. There are a few adult canus with small p9 mirror (only half the size of the one on p10 - though still bleeding onto outer web) but such birds have only a (very) short grey tongue on p9.

Also of interest is that a query of our database reveals that the combination of the p5 pattern (lacking a complete black band) and the small mirror on p9 being limited to the inner web occurred in two adult kamtschatschensis from our sample, but in not a single bird from any of the other taxa. 

Despite some minor features being absent which would have made the bird even more typical, such as a pale iris, bright yellow bill, and/or distinct streaking on chin, throat or forehead, I think enough elements are present and visible in the photos to build a strong case for this bird as a Kamchatka Gull - as Killian already suspected...

Cheers, Peter

And remarkable as this is, it seems that possibly this same bird was seen again by Davey Farrar on 4th February 2015, fully eleven months later, in fields not far to the north, around the Cashen Estuary.

Dark-backed Common Gull, near the Cashen, February 2015 (Davey Farrar).

Unfortunately, the photos (in this post HERE) are, according to the authors above, just not quite good enough to resolve whether it too was a (or the) Kamchatka Gull, but so convinced was Davey of the importance of the sighting that he spent the whole of the next week scouring the fields in the area in the hope of clinching it with better views and photos.

More on this as we get it, but congratulations to David O'Connor on this jaw-dropping find. It seems Kamchatka Gull is ready to join the celebrity A-listers of ultra rare gulls seen in Ireland recently, a list which includes Slaty-backed, Glaucous-winged and Vega Gull.

There's an interesting blog on a recent occurrence of Kamchatka Gull in Nova Scotia HERE, and a good overview of the Common Gull races HERE.

Reference:

Adriaens, P. & C. Gibbins. 2016. Identification of the Larus canus complex. Dutch Birding 38:1-64.

A rare Kerry chick

While searching a Barn Owl nest in a wall cavity in an old building near Milltown, we came across this newly hatched chick at the nest entrance, next to an unhatched egg. It's not a Barn Owl chick, but rather a Stock Dove chick. The owls haven't nested there this year and the male is currently only occasionally visiting the nest site, but it looks as though the doves are giving it a go. A high risk nest, as this chick would no doubt make a tasty snack for the Barn Owl should he return.

Stock Dove chick, Milltown, 2nd August 2016 (M.O'Clery).

Stock Dove chick, Milltown, 2nd August 2016 (M.O'Clery).

There are probably fewer than 15 pairs of Stock Dove nesting in Kerry, so this really is a very scarce breeding species in the county. The 2007-2011 Atlas shows just a few breeding records. Most of the recent occurrences have been around Milltown, to the east of Tralee town, and a few around Ardfert and Abbeydorney.

Atlas records of Stock Dove in Ireland, with just a handful of breeding records in Kerry.

Stock Doves are cavity nesters and, like Barn Owls, will nest in a suitably large hole in an old building or tree. The nest mentioned above is the square-shaped cavity just above the clump of grass on the wall (M.O'Clery).

Storm Petrel ringing recovery

One of the Storm Petrels ringed at the Magharees in the early hours of 11th July last was re-trapped and again released near Belmullet, Co. Mayo, on 24th July - last Sunday (see post below HERE).

Storm Petrel, Magharees, 11th July 2016 (M.O'Clery).

About one in a hundred ringed Storm Petrels are ever recorded again, often many years later, but this was a particularly quick return from the 90 or so birds ringed on the Magharees just two weeks ago. The bird is still out there, and might yet be re-trapped again.

Storm Petrel, Magharees, 11th July 2016 (M.O'Clery).

Barn Owl nests, created by Jackdaws

The blocked chimneys of derelict cottages, houses and castles form about a third of known Barn Owl nest sites in Kerry. The chimneys are often blocked as a result of Jackdaws adding sticks to the cavity for their own nests. Here's a couple of examples from recent weeks.

John Lusby from BirdWatch Ireland inspecting a nest in the chimney of a ruined house in SW Kerry. The pile of Jackdaw sticks reached some seven feet (2.5m) on top of which Barn Owls nested on a broad, flat platform inside the chimney, July 2016 (M.O'Clery, under licence from NPWS).

Blocked chimney of a derelict cottage with two Barn Owl chicks, north Kerry, July 2016 (M.O'Clery, under licence from NPWS).

Chimney nest with three Barn Owl chicks, SW Kerry, July 2016 (M.O'Clery, under licence from NPWS).

There is much more on this on the Irish Raptor Blog HERE