There are around half a dozen accepted British records of 'Eastern' Black Redstart up to 2015. However, in 2016 there were an amazing nine records (approximately), this influx no doubt as a result of the near constant flow of easterlies during the autumn period. There are currently two wintering Eastern Black Redstart in the UK, the Mousehole bird and another at Skinningrove, Cleveland. This latter bird having been present since 27th October 2016. While there are some that advocate Eastern Black Redstart as a full species the recently published Volume 2 of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (Lynx Editions) treat this as a race of Black Redstart and although typical males are distinctive integrates between the various races occur. Maintaining one species with five races would seem the most sensible approach - unless one simply wants to bump up ones list!
1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall
1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall
1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall
1st winter male Eastern Black Redstart - Mousehole, Cornwall
Distribution of Black Redstart races, phoenicuroides is the dull red area in central Asia (breeding range) and bright red (winter range) - From Steijn (2005), see here
Rock Pipit - Mousehole, Cornwall
Grey Wagtail - Mousehole, Cornwall
Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance
Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance
Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance
Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance
Purple Sandpiper - Jubilee Pool, Penzance
Hudsonian Whimbrel - Perranuthnoe, Cornwall
Hudsonian Whimbrel - Perranuthnoe, Cornwall
Hudsonian Whimbrel - Perranuthnoe, Cornwall
On the morning of the 15th I managed a short visit to the Hayle Estuary where a Green-winged Teal has been present since 10th November hanging out with the Eurasian Teal from the B3301 causeway. On arrival I located the bird fairly quickly but during my 45 minutes there it slept for much of the time. t was not until I returned home that I noticed the bird was ringed, unfortunately, the bird was too distant to read the combination but it includes the numbers 08 and an address. Again, Volume 1 of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (Lynx Editions) treat this as a subspecies of Eurasian Teal but identify it as a potential split. Also here was a Spoonbill, four Mediterranean Gull, 12 Bar-tailed Godwit 45 Wigeon, large numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gull and a possible 1st winter Caspian Gull which looked pretty good but took my eye off the bird to check some characters on my Collins app and the bird had flown by the time I looked back.
Green-winged Teal - Hayle Estuary
Green-winged Teal (lower right) amongst Eurasian Teal- Hayle Estuary
Ring on the Green-winged Teal - Hayle Estuary
Eurasian Teal- Hayle Estuary
Bar-tailed Godwit - Hayle Estuary
Bar-tailed Godwit - Hayle Estuary
Oystercatcher - Hayle Estuary
Finally, on the 16th I managed to persuade Sarah to drop into Marazion for a short while to scan for the Pacific Diver. It was calm and the bird had been reported off the beach for the last couple of days. I picked up eight Great-northern Diver, five Velvet Scoter and finally, very distantly, was the Pacific Diver - even at this great distance the lack of the flank patch and the dark chin-strap could be seen. I rattled off a couple of shots, not even able to see the bird in the view finder and I ended up with one shite image of the bird.
This is the Pacific Diver or 'Pacific Thing' as Nigel called it - you have to trust me on this!! I think the throat strap is just discernible but it was far more visible in the field
