'Scottish' Darters Anyone ?, Thursday 2nd October

Okay. some retrospective stuff, more to come. A fantastic day in Aberdeen today so thought we would make the most of the sunshine and check a site very near the city where we have had quite a lot of Common Darters since July this year.

It didn't take long to find some basking male and I spotted a pair in tandem along with several patrolling male Common Hawkers.

A typical Common Darter type for the site:

The taxonomy of Common and Highland Darter is comparable with that of Common and Scottish Crossbill - fraught with pitfalls and often vague ! However, the live specimens that I have examined in NE Scotland are markedly different from those more typical of nigrescens I found in Glen Affric and on the whole appear to be more characteristic of striolatum which seems to be spreading northwards along the east coast of Scotland. Last year I even had one in my garden in the city and there are no known pools in the neighbourhood. Most of the ID books I have do not show striolatum (Common) this far north but all my records will go towards the new Atlas.

Here is a profile of a basking striolatum from the site near Aberdeen :

And here is a fantastic and similar posed pic of a nigrescens to compare features:

Photo:Paul Ashton

Note the extensive black markings along the side of the thorax in nigrescens, the insect also appears more 'substantial' and robust though this may be age related. The black bands on segment 2 is not failsafe in my opinion as in the top picture these are thicker ala that suggested for nigrescens yet this specimen was clearly striolatum.

Here is one of my Glen Affric ones from July 2008:

A recent BDS Bulletin has a small update on research being conducted to determine whether or not nigrescens is a different species from striolatum. The preliminary results suggested no significant differences in DNA between specimens from Southern climes and those up here in the North, and that nigrescens is merely a 'dark morph'. Sounds familiar, ha-ha !

The Empire Strikes Back, Monday 22nd September

In stark contrast to yesterdays successful Scotbill fest the same dynamic and intrepid team of Loxia experts tried another 'all or nothing' site and........................yep that's right, we got nothing ! Strange as conditions were perfect for catching and there were quite a few birds about. However, they were obviously guzzling somewhere else, indeed I had two Parrot males with a female drink at a nearby bog pool that looked really uninviting for crossbills. Just goes to show "expect the unexpected". The large flocks I had two weeks ago had seemingly evaporated - the question is to where ?


Maximum count was 15 ( in one group) and there were small parties and singles over all day including some Common types ( sounded like Fc1).

Peewit Fest, Sunday 28th September

No Crossbills today, instead I opted for a canon net catch of Lapwings on the Ythan with GRG.

A fantastic bright and sunny autumnal day, warm in the sun and not too early a start which, for someone who works late like me, is a real plus point. Firing in eraly afternoon we caught 105 Lapwings ( 2 later escaped from the sacks they were temporarily held in - not my fault !) , 1 Golden Plover and 9 Starlings. I got to do a whole chunk of the peewits and it was a chance to do some wader type bios - total head, bill length and total foot as well as wing measurements on birds larger than I am used to. Perhaps rather worryingly we only caught one juv and this was a bird that was ringed at Rattray as a pullus by another GRG member. Has it been such a poor year for breeding with Lapwings ?

A few of the adults had completed their primary moult and most were only one primary short of completing. Some were showing signs of weird secondary moult with seemingly retained feathers. Fantastic birds to handle though, one of the best I have done.

I also got to do the Goldie after 'drawing lots' with one of the trainers ( for whom it would also have been a ringing tick ). I aged it as a juv according to Marchant.

Got to do a large chunk of the catch and subsequently learned lots. Rather bizzarely it was a ringing session where there were 3 trainers and only one trainee.

Scotbill Fest ! Sunday 21st September

Okay, non-believers please stop reading now ! You may not want to read this post as it contains images which some readers and small children may find disturbing -PLEASE CONTINUE WITH CAUTION ! Yep, that's right this post contains photographs of Scottish Crossbills (and some flash photography) ! "The horror, the horror" to quote Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurt.

These pics are from a relatively sucessful ringing session on Sunday with a couple of GRG colleagues - themselves both notable crossbill experts of some quite considerable repute (they may be reading !).

Seven birds caught in total which, to seasoned 'normal' ringers ( is there such a thing ? !), may not seem worthwhile but actually could not be further from the truth.

First bird caught, a cracking adult male with a honker of bill, almost putting it out of Scottish type range:

"Oooosha, look at the bill on that!"

As well as biometrics, speciation was also confirmed by it's call type, a classic Fc3 ( not shown as I know people have been pinching and using my sonograms - go get your own !).

Unusual bird of the day went to this female bird:

Body plumage shot here (note orangey tones):


And a shot of the rump (normally green/bright green !):

So, an orangey/bronze female type which was classified as female due to dark centres to crown feathers. A new one for me anyway, so glad I went. Nothing is straightforward as far as crossbills are concerned ! For me that is the part of their appeal.

Another male with 'classic' Scottish Crossbill mandibles:

Note the pine resin on the mandibles of all the birds who are clearly still feeding on unopened scots pine cones.

All release calls were consistent with Scottish Crossbill (as were bios) though one female bird was mute ( which happens and is annoying). Had to use my ME67 and FR2LE partly due to portability and partly due to the fact my Pro6 handle has been back in Sweden since early August but this backup setup seems to work really well in this context, although some of the harmonics are fainter without the Telinga.

Hopefully many more successful sessions over the winter !

Where The Heck Ya Been ?

Okay, okay I AM feeling guilty that at least 6 people a day are visting this site only to think "that lazy crossbill loving tosser can't be doing much these days". Well that couldn't be further from the truth though I am back and will try to post some interesting stuff as it happens. Will also post some retrospective stuff especially from my summer holidays at Glen Affric which was fabby dabby - not only were the dragonflies in abundance but also had Parrot Crossbills in upper Glen Affric and Scottish at Coire Loch and at Corrimony. Loadsa Cresties as well - a bird that we really miss in Deeside.

In relation to a recent post on Bird Forum here is a nice pic from a hide session of a 2cy Scottish Crossbill on 13/07/08:


This individual was ringed as a pullus in the nest by a GRG colleague on 31/3/07 and he was pleased of the report that it was still alive over a year later. For those that are camera geeks I am afraid the equipment was modest: Nikon D70S, Tamron 200-500mm lens. It was shot on ISO400 as the light was pretty crap and it may have been raining a bit too. Was taken at around 9 feet distance from a Keatley Standard Dome Hide. These hides are fantastic and well worth the outlay. I also use the bag hide but it is harder to sit in for long periods and is more of an 'ad hoc' option in my opinion.

Now, me and my mate would know that this is a Scottish Crossbill, even without the ringing info (though we don't measure bios on pullus), but be honest what would you have it down as and why ? Now you can see why most of those photos on Birdguides and Surfbirds that are submitted as Scottish are actually Parrots !