The juv American Golden Plover at Fishmoor Reservoir, Blackburn, Lancashire.
28th October - 11th November 1995.
By Bill Aspin.
Low water levels at
Fishmoor Reservoir, resulting in exposed mud, are indeed a rare event.
Prior to 1995, the
Fishmoor wader list was looking rather pitiful. However, during the summer of
that year, essential maintenance had to be carried out. As a result, the water
level was lowered sufficiently to provide the wader mud we had craved for so
long.
This low water level
remained throughout the autumn, enabling new additions to the wader list such as
Spotted Redshank, Knot, Little Stint, Sanderling, Turnstone and Ruff to be added
- All good East Lancs fare.
During the latter half of
the autumn, a significant flock of European Golden Plover, approaching 200 birds
had begun to build up.
Having recently arrived
back from spending a fortnight on the Isles of Scilly, I was keen to do some
local birding. So, on Saturday morning, 28th October 1995, I made
Fishmoor Res my first port of call.
Upon arrival it was clear
that a large flock of European Golden Plover were feeding in fields opposite
Queens Park Hospital, between the reservoir and the road. I had only just begun
to go through them when the entire flock was flushed by one of the numerous
dog-walkers that frequent the area.
With the entire flock in
the air overhead, I almost immediately began to hear a call that to my ears, in
my experience, was nearest to that of a Spotted Redshank. However, the call
appeared to be coming from amongst the airborne Golden Plovers.
The flock flew low
overhead and with a combination of naked eye and ear co-ordination, I quickly
latched onto the bird in question. It was indeed a ‘Golden Plover’.
Following the bird in my
binoculars at ranges down to 40yrds, I noted that it was slimmer and colder
looking than the accompanying ‘Goldies’, with clearly grey under-wings, and
even in flight, showing an obvious supercillium and was continuing to utter a
Spotted Redshank type call. I realized that it was a ‘lesser’ Golden Plover,
but which one??
For the next five
minutes, the entire flock continued to repeatedly over-fly the field from which
they had been flushed, on occasions almost skimming the ground as if about to
re-land.
I kept on the bird
throughout, noting no obvious yellow tones to the plumage, both above and below.
The bird consistently appearing ‘cold’ compared to the European Golden
Plovers with which it flew amongst.
Then, to my
horror, the entire flock gained height and flew purposefully to the south until
lost to view!!
At that point, to say
that I was absolutely gutted was a total understatement.
This feeling was to
intensify, as despite remaining on-site for the remainder of the day, the flock
never returned! The time of observation was from 08.40-08.46hrs.
That evening, I
telephoned both John Wright and Tony Disley, to inform them what I had seen and
told them that I felt the bird was an American Golden Plover, citing the lack of
any obvious warm tones to the plumage as to my tentative ID.
I also added that unless
we relocated the bird again, then there would almost certainly be no way that
the bird would be accepted to species level on flight views only. Both agreed
with my latter sentiments!
John and Tony had made
plans to go to Spurn the next day, so I spent all day Sunday at Fishmoor on a
lonely vigil with no joy whatsoever, not a single Golden Plover to be seen! My
spirits sank even more!
The same evening I rang
John and Tony again, urging them to visit Fishmoor during the week, whenever
they got the chance.
Next day, Monday 30th October
1995, whilst sat at my bench at work
pondering on the events of the weekend, my pager vibrated for the
umpteenth time (As I was meant to be working, I had to secretly read
the bird-news whilst sat at my bench).
It was a message from
John Wright. He had managed to sneak some time off work to visit Fishmoor. The Plover
flock had returned to the original field opposite the Hospital, and there
amongst them, showing well, was the bird – It WAS a juvenile American
Golden Plover!!! - My workmates looked on in amazement as I visibly re-coiled
away from my bench whilst trying to absorb the content of the message!!
Elation soon turned to
frustration, as there was no chance of leaving work early that day, so I booked
the following day off at short notice!
As it happened, quite a
few birders, including a Cumbrian twitcher had managed to connect with the bird
on the Monday afternoon.
Tuesday 31st
October dawned and some 20 birders were assembled at first light. The AGP was quickly located (as was a very early
1stw Iceland Gull) and continued to show well for the rest of the day to a
growing procession of birders.
Thereafter, until the 11th
November, the bird continued to show well for much of the period, in fields adjacent
to and on the exposed mud of the reservoir.
Occasionally however, the
flock would go missing for a considerable period of time, and on one such
occasion the bird was relocated by John Metcalfe at Parsonage Reservoir on the
afternoon of November 1st.
The bird was successfully
twitched by many birders during it’s two-week stay.
Description.
Head:
The head was a contrasty combination of features. The crown was rich
brown, streaked black. The nape was a rather cold grey ground colour, streaked
brown. The supercillium was very prominent, joined at the forehead, extending
narrowly over the eye, before flaring out and extending to the sides of the
nape. It appeared whitest above and behind the eye, becoming slightly dirtier as
it neared the nape. The colour of the nape and the prominence of the
supercillium and the pale forehead combined to isolate the dark crown, giving
the bird an obvious ‘capped’ appearance.
The cheeks, chin and
throat were pale with a greyish cast. The ear coverts appeared as a dark
‘splodge’ of feathering which joined a dark area of feathering that bordered
the eyes. The ear covert ‘splodge’ appeared reather isolated by the obvious
supercillium, the pale grey of the nape and the pale grey of the cheeks. The
loral area was the same colour as the cheeks.
Neck and breast: The sides of the neck were
rather strongly streaked brown over a greyish ground colour. This area
contrasted quite markedly with the cleaner, whiter throat and the cheeks,
forming an obvious defined border between these features. The breast showed a
grey ground colour with grey tips to the breast feathers, forming a mottled
effect.
Underparts:
From the lower breast, the underpart ground colour was grey, the
mottling of the breast extended down the flanks and across the belly. This
mottling became slightly less obvious towards the vent area.
Upperparts:
The mantle consisted of dark grey/brown feathering, which contrasted
with the paleness of the nape and with the obviously pale notched scapulars and
wings. The darkness of the mantle extended down the back, becoming lighter
through the rump, towards the tail. The upper scapulars were largely dark
centred, with pale notching to the fringes. The notching lacked the
yellow/golden tones showed by the accompanying European Golden Plovers, though
there was ‘warmer’ notches to the feathering of the upper scapulars
bordering the mantle. The lower scapulars were equally well notched, but
appeared ‘colder’ in colour to the upper scapulars.
The tertials were well and evenly notched along their lengths. These tertial notches were more yellow in colour than the notches to the covert feathers.
Wings:
The lesser, median and greater covert feathers were dark grey/brown
centred with notches to the feather fringes. These notches were off-white in
colour and lacked the yellow tones showed by the European Golden Plovers
present.
Whenever seen close
enough to scrutinize whilst observed feeding and at rest, four primary tips
could be seen extending beyond the tertials. There was also an obvious primary
projection extending beyond the tail. The primaries were darker than the other
wing feathers tracts.
The pale grey under-wings
and slightly darker grey axillaries were obvious when seen well in flight and
when alighting. The upper-wing bars were distinctly grey in tone and less
obvious than the white wingbars shown by the European Golden Plovers.
Bare
parts: The
eye appeared dark and rather large in relation to the size of the head. This
however could have been exaggerated by the
fine area of dark
feathering that bordered the eyes. The Bill was all
dark and proportionately
long and slimmer compared to the European Golden Plovers. The legs were a very
dark grey, appearing daintier and longer than shown by the European Golden
Plovers present.
Call:
The bird uttered a ‘chewit’ call, mainly when alarmed and/or in
flight. In my experience, the call was most reminiscent of Spotted Redshank. I
heard the bird call on several occasions during it’s stay, but the most
sustained period of calling was during the initial 5 minute flight-only
sighting.
Jizz:
When feeding, the bird always appeared more dainty and elegant than the
European Golden Plover feeding around it, on account of it’s smaller head,
longer neck, slimmer body and more attenuated rear-end and longer-slimmer legs.
Although not always easy
to latch onto when amongst the flying flock, the narrower and longer wing-shape,
coupled with a slimmer body and slightly smaller size enabled me on several
occasions to be confident that I was following the bird, even when in
silhouette.
The following images were taken using the technology of the day, VHS. Consequently, the image at the top of the article represents the truer colour tones of the bird.
