Saturday, 9 August 2008

arctica?



Small, cold toned, short-billed, stint-like - is this an arctica Dunlin? Broom GP, 9th August 2008.

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Posted by Steve Blain at 18:04

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8 comments:

  1. Peter Alfrey9 August 2008 at 22:18

    I tried to do one of these once- if I recall correctly- very difficult to rule out an unusual variant of the other races and then once you throw in the hybrid problem- you are quite buggered. Would be interested to see if you have more success in nailing this one- it has got a lot going for it.

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  2. Steve Blain14 August 2008 at 20:10

    Pete, thanks. Interested where the hybrid theory comes from - is there anywhere the races overlap in range? (says he who's done abdolutely no research whatsoever!)

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  3. Peter Alfrey15 August 2008 at 21:28

    I am not sure about overlap zones but I assume the boundaries are gradational- not sure. However must be a chance of an abmigrant getting caught up and hybridizing like that..i suppose.

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  4. Peter Alfrey15 August 2008 at 21:30

    Btw what is your email- I was looking for some shots of vagrants which have birders in them or vagrants in unusual surroundings e.g. snowy owl on a nudist beach or lancy on your foot, something like that. Cheers. Hope all is well.

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  5. CBC19 August 2008 at 22:01

    Steve,

    From my understanding, the only reliable method for ID'ing artica is the colour of fringes to the wing coverts (see Hayman 1986, Taylor 2005 for descriptions). However, the fringes of schinzii are very similar, and I'm not sure if they would be seperable in the field. People quote "cold-toned, small billed" as being typical for artica, however, the bill lengths of schinzii and artica overlap even at the shortest end of the range. Several have been claimed in Cambs recently, but there was no real substance to support this. No doubt they occur (rarely?) in eastern England, but proving it in the field may be impossible. Also, artica and schinzii may overlap on breeding grounds in Greenland.

    Cheers,
    Mark Hawkes

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  6. CBC20 August 2008 at 12:47

    For artica (above) read arctica.... need to proof read before hitting 'post' in the future!!

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  7. Steve Blain21 August 2008 at 21:26

    Thanks, Mark. I'll have to do some more reading. They surely have to occur in the UK, but as you suggest, probably rarely.

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  8. CBC22 August 2008 at 11:03

    Hi Steve,

    Yes, they occur in the UK in good numbers, but from what I understand they move up the west coast of the UK en-route to Greenland.

    Cheers,
    Mark

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