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Long-tailed Skuas (5), Eccles-on-Sea, Aug 30th, T.E. Allwood

 

With several Long-tailed Skuas being seen in the North Sea off the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coasts in the last couple of days, we were hoping for some here too. A few had made it into Suffolk the previous day, so would hopefully be reorienting north this morning. The weather was blustery from the north, but it wasn't raining. Despite this, due to social distancing, I was watching from the seawatching hide, rather than at Andy's, just a few hundred metres to the north.

 

The seawatch started well with a few Sooty Shearwaters coming north and a few Arctic Skuas and Great Skuas heading south. Every skua was being closely studied. At around 08:05, I picked up a skua coming north close in, and it immediately screamed Long-tailed at me. I straightaway noticed that there were 3 or 4 others in close proximity to it, and at a quick glance, they too, all looked as if they were going to be Long-taileds. The flight was fairly erratic, low over the water, athletic and with glides and buoyant wingbeats, often interacting with each other. As they came through – as close as the reefs at 320m – I went through each one in turn to check structural and plumage features.

 

Birds 1,2,3 and 4 occurred together

 

Birds 1 and 2:

These looked essentially the same in the short viewing time I had. Both were probably best categorised as pale birds. Structurally, both birds were clearly attenuated, with long drawn-out rear ends, diamond-shaped tails and also narrow arms and hands. At one point, an adult Arctic skua had a go at one of these birds, and the difference in wing thickness, size and bulk became pronounced. Plumage-wise, both had pale heads and clear white belly patches, combined with extensive dark/white barring on the flanks, undertail coverts and, very noticeably, on the uppertail coverts. Both had a clear blunt tail projection, barred underwings with obvious white flashes, and cold grey upperparts with pale fringing visible.

 

Bird 3:

This was a typical intermediate bird. Structurally similar to the others, giving a drawn out and thinner, lighter impression than an Arctic. It had clear, cold-grey tones to the upperparts, and a dirty greyish chest and belly with a small pale area between them. The head had a slight capped effect. The uppertail coverts were clearly barred, standing out against the diamond-shaped “stuck on” black tail. I don't recall seeing the tail extension on this bird. Again, this individual showed a prominent underwing flash.

 

Bird 4: 

This was a proper dark phase juvenile. A very dark individual indeed, with almost blackish/sooty tones to the plumage. It had a huge, deep upper chest giving it a very athletic and powerful feel, tapering upwards into a long tail with a prominent blunt tail extension. The wings were noticeably narrow in both hand and arm. There was no warmth at all to this bird, no sign of any white in the upperwing, and even the uppertail/undertail covert barring was very muted. 

 

Bird 5:

This bird passed by further out, probably around 1km, at 09:35 or thereabouts. I first picked it up on flight pattern, thinking it was going to be another Sooty or Manx, as it was shearing in shallow arcs and gliding effortlessly. However, as soon as I focussed on it, I could see it was another intermediate-type Long-tailed. The grey-toned upperparts stood out surprisingly well and the square patch of barred pale/dark uppertail coverts was similarly clear above the dark tail. This bird also had a small paler area on the chest but not much further detail was seen. 

 

These five birds were passed on to Mick Fiszer at Mundesley and all except bird 4 were recorded by him 15-20 minutes or so later.