Well, at least it hadn't Scaupered!

For a quick trip out this afternoon, I decided to finally pay a quick visit to the long-staying female Scaup at Elton Reservoir in Bury.  All the time I was driving, I was just hoping that I'd see it and that it hadn't scarpered!

The last time I was here was when I saw the Common or Mealy Redpoll back in January, a bird which has only recently been accepted by the Greater Manchester Rarities Committee.  I had intended to pop in here on my way back from visiting the Glaucous Gull at Hollingworth Lake last month, but the weather conditions were so bad that I called it off.

Today the weather was sunny when I set off, but it became more and more cloudy as I approached the reservoir.  On arrival I met Steven Higginbottom, co-finder of the Mealy Redpoll, and I quickly asked if he had seen the Scaup - he hadn't, but he'd only had a quick look from the Creek area.  However, I marvelled at the fact that he told me he could make out some waders, probably Dunlin, on the small beach across the water at Wader Point though.

I asked him which would be the quickest way of getting down there, as at least I could get some wader shots if I couldn't find the Scaup. He suggested walking around on the path on the pump house side of the reservoir, as the one on the Creek side was very muddy, and so that's what I did.

Fortunately, when I arrived at the bay in the south-west corner of the reservoir, I spotted the Scaup which was loosely associating with a small flock of Tufted Ducks. It was quite unmistakable from the female Tufted Ducks, being slightly larger, with a large white patch at the base of its beak and a grey/brown back and sides. However, as soon as I approached the birds they spotted me too, and started moving towards the centre of the bay.

The light was all wrong on this side, so I walked round the other side of the bay only for the flock to move away again.  I spent the next two hours or so trying to get closer by walking to and fro trying to get ahead of them as well as a little closer with the light behind me.  The Scaup was always on the periphery of the group, and usually the furthest away, often preening and resting whilst always seeming to keep one eye on me.

So, due to the poor light and distance, all these shots are only really record shots, but the bird has taken my year 2018 Year List up to 124.  There were also Great Crested Grebe on the water and three Goosanders dropped in as I was leaving - I never did see any waders today though.

The Great GM Mealy Redpoll Controversy

There's been a discussion raging in Greater Manchester (GM) for the last week or so about a little bird that's turned up at Elton Reservoir in Bury.  The bird is definitely a Redpoll, but is it the rare Common or Mealy Redpoll or just the more usual Lesser Redpoll we often get at this time of year?

I went twice to see this bird, the first time with no success and then today when I had good views of it for a decent length of time.  The bird is certainly bigger and paler than the other Redpolls which are present, although a couple of the other birds are quite pale too.

Unfortunately it was very difficult to get a photo of this bird when it wasn't on a Nyger feeder and the light was poor on both occasions that I visited Elton.  But hey, you get what you can, while you can.

It was also great to meet local birder Steve Higginbottom and the original finder the bird, along with Paul Wilson. Steve has provided and hung all the feeders at Elton and stocked them with food out of his own pocket.  We had a long chat about lots of things and on my second visit I made a small donation to the costs of the food - without the feeders being there we probably wouldn't have noticed this slightly different bird.  Well done Steve!

Opinions were certainly differing on a number of Facebook groups where I posted my photos with some strongly in favour of it being a Mealy Redpolls and others stating quite categorically that it was a Lesser Redpoll. A bit of research has told me that this species has only recently been split away from the Lesser Redpoll and the whole issue of whether it is actually a separate species is still being debated.

I asked for help in making a decision on the UK Bird Identification Facebook group and the well-known birder and rather controversial Lee Evans replied with the following two comments after seeing my photographs and video:

An apparent adult male MEALY REDPOLL in plumage but you have to beware of bleached male Lessers as spring advances. Mealy generally have more feathers about the tibia and cloaking on the nape but I don't see any of that here

 After seeing the video I posted (included below), Lee went on to say:

Definitely a male MEALY REDPOLL in this video. The nape feather cloaking is apparent in the image

No matter what you think of Lee, he does have a lot of experience and generally knows his stuff, so I thought I'd cracked it.  But the saga continues ...

I also emailed Chris Batty who is the Lancashire representative at Rare Bird Alert and a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) for his thoughts too.

Here's his reply:

Hi Martyn,

Thank you for your email regarding the Redpoll at Elton Reservoir although I regret I haven’t seen the bird myself.

Looking at the photographs and video of this bird I would identify it as a Lesser Redpoll based on my experience of migrating Lesser Redpolls in Lancashire in spring that I have handled that closely resemble this bird – one such bird is attached. I have measured the wing lengths and tail lengths of the birds I have trapped for ringing and they consistently fall within the parameters of Lesser Redpoll and outside Mealy Redpoll. In the redpolls males are bigger than females, and males are paler-faced than females. I am not aware that a greater extent of red is a pro Mealy Redpoll character. 

In the Elton bird I think the absence of any white on the mantle away from the two central ‘stripes’ is a negative character for Mealy Redpoll. However, I’d be interested to be proved wrong and the most conclusive way for someone to do this would be for them to trap the bird and measure the wing and tail. If someone can do this then please do let me know the measurements.

All the best,

Chris Batty, RBA

P.S. Of course the revelation that the DNA off redpolls is indistinguishable across species limits strongly suggests that the birds themselves can’t distinguish between Lesser and Mealy

So, what do I think? Well it's certainly larger and paler than all the other Redpolls I've seen but it's probably just a variant of Lesser Redpoll. So unfortunately that's one life and year tick I'll need to rescind, unless the GM rarities Committee decide otherwise.

Burrs Country Park, Bury

I had a great half day out at Burrs Country Park in Bury today, with my target birds being the Dippers and Kingfisher here which have recently been reported on the Manchester Birding Forum - as you can see below, I wasn't disappointed with what I found.

The photos in this post and the one below were shot using my new Nikon TC-20e III 2x teleconverter on a Nikon 300mm f2.8 lens with a Nikon D90 body. The jury is still out on whether everything is working OK with this setup. Double-click any of the images to enlarge them.