Black-tailed Godwits

As promised a few posts back...

There are three sub species of Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa in the world. L. l. melanuroides, which breeds in eastern Russia, Siberia, China and Mongolia, has never been recorded in the UK so we can forget about that one, leaving us with these two...

The Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit (L. l. islandica) breeds mostly in Iceland, but also the Faeroe Islands along with a few pairs in Scotland. The majority winter in the UK, Ireland, France and Holland.

The small number of Continental or European Black-tailed Godwit (L. l. limosa) that breed in the UK (East Anglia) are at the western limit of their breeding range, with most breeding in western and central Europe to central Asia and west Russia. They winter around the Mediterranean and as far south as the west coast of North Africa, mostly Senegal.

So to summarise the above information, it would seem that islandica is an abundant winter visitor to the UK, whereas limosa is a very rare breeding bird and probably a fairly scarce passage migrant. And this is what the case seems to be on the Axe Estuary, through my observations and the on going Black-tailed Godwit colour-ringing project undertaken by the Axe Estuary Ringing Group. In fact I can't say I've ever seen/noticed a limosa here before.

Separating the two sub species is far from easy though, especially in winter plumage when on plumage they are identical.  Spring birds in breeding plumage are do-able, as are fresh autumn juveniles, and this is why I have been paying extra attention to our Black-tailed Godwit flocks this autumn as they've contained a high proportion of juvenile birds. Everything I've seen though has  looked fine for islandica, well until last Saturday morning...

A small flock (c12 birds) of juvenile islandicas have been feeding on Colyford Common at high tide over the past couple of weeks, but last Saturday morning (9th Sept) one bird really stood out and stood up! Bingo, surely my first limosa...

Juvenile/first-winter L. l. limosa on the left and juvenile  L. l. islandica on the right

The structural differences are pretty striking in the above photo. Longer necked, bigger headed, longer billed with a broader bill base and longer legged (noticeably the tibia).

Sadly the L. l. limosa at the back is out of focus in this shot

Check out the bill size difference!

L. l. limosa at the front

The above photo shows the neck difference nicely. All the islandica in the flock lacked any sort of neck bulge when they held their heads tight to their body, whereas the limosa always showed a noticeable bulge along the lower edge of the neck. Presumably this is simply down to the fact it's a larger bird with a longer neck?

L. l. limosa at the front

Looking at the actual plumage of the bird, I'm not sure how useful this is as there was so much variation in moult and wear within all the Godwits in this group. But I'm sure it's not a coincidence this was the palest and blandest bird in the flock, lacking any orange tones to the head, neck or mantle - just a buff wash. This fits well with the literature for the limosa as they are far less colourful as juveniles than the often almost bright orange islandica. Just a pity it wasn't a month earlier though when they'd all be in much fresher plumage.

It's also worth mentioning that when the flock took to the air, the size difference was just as notable in flight. It was always easy to see which one the limosa was even if you couldn't see any plumage features.

Because all I've got for sub species specific identification of this bird is structural differences, and no real plumage traits, I reckon that means I can do no more with it that write this blog post. This limosa Black-tailed Godwit would (on paper) be the first record of this sub species for Devon, and for me to submit this as a county first I would need all the boxes ticked, not just a few. Annoying yes, but when it comes to bird ID I am strict. Oh well, at least I've got a blog post out of it!

If you're after your own limosa it's very important to remember that overall size and bill length varies between sexes (and maybe age?) in Godwits like most other wading birds, so be aware that islandica will show a variety of bill lengths and body sizes. As with many things, a direct comparison makes it so much easier so it's best to study Godwit flocks, lone birds will always be tricky unless they show a particularly striking plumage.

And here's some useful links on the subject:

Birding Frontiers
http://birdingfrontiers.com/2011/07/15/more-on-continental-black-tailed-godwits/

Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club
http://www.ntbc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Black-tailed-Godwits.pdf

Handbook of the birds of the world
http://www.hbw.com/species/black-tailed-godwit-limosa-limosa

Osprey and Continental Black-tailed Godwit

Although we see several Ospreys each year on the Axe, both in spring and autumn, we've not had a lingering bird since mid August 2014 - this one unusually preferred fishing over the sea not the Estuary!  Before that we had two lingering birds in 2012 (though neither for very long) and the most watched was THIS colour-ringed juvenile that stayed for over a week back in September 2010.  So it was high time we enjoyed another loitering bird, and that we have...

Thanks to a tweet from Martin Bennett early Thursday afternoon (a lovely chap from the New Forest who I'd met that morning in the Island Hide) we were made away of the presence of a fishing Osprey on the Estuary. It remained all of the Friday, and was around today until late morning when it flew off south west.  I though it was leaving us earlier in the day as at 9:20am it flew west over Stafford Marsh with pace...

Gladly though it came back east to offer the gathered crowd some more fishing views...

There's nothing like an Osprey to pull in the crowds! Pity it left us so soon but hopefully we will see some more before the autumn is out.

The bushes were deadly quiet this morning, and the wading bird situation isn't much better now Black Hole is full of water. All I noted here and on Colyford Marsh were four Greenshank, two Green Sandpipers and a couple of Ringed Plovers.  The highlight for me this morning was without doubt one of the 90+ Black-tailed Godwits that are currently on the Axe.  Among a small flock of Black-tailed Godwits feeding on Colyford Common I was delighted to notice a larger bodied, billed and legged bird, a Continental limosa Black-tailed Godwit (as apposed to Icelandic islandica race which are the norm for the Axe).....

Limosa Black-tailed Godwit (front bird)

I have got several more pics of this beast, but am going to save them for another post within the next couple of days which will be about all things Blackwit.

Since my last post, the only other sightings I have to add are of a drake Gadwall that I've seen on the Borrow Pit twice, and good numbers of migrants around the Wetlands on Thursday morning which included singles of Wheatear, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warbler, six Yellow Wagtail, 15 Blackcap and 20 Chiffchaff.

Colyford Common Wheatear

I have missed a few birds since my last post, mostly thanks to work. Tim White reported two Knot from the Tower Hide on Friday, and I was annoyed to miss a juvenile Little Stint found by Phil on Thursday evening which sadly didn't stay the night.  The most annoying thing about missing the Stint was that I really wanted to give it a good grilling as Phil reported that night, that it was a particularly long-billed individual. Hope Phil doesn't mind me sticking one of his record shots of it up here...

Little Stint (c) Phil Abbott

As you can see, quite a long-billed bird. But nothing else suggested it was anything other than a Little Stint.

Be sure to check back here soon for that Black-tailed Godwit post, which who knows may even prove educational!?