On Writing Long-tailed Skua Descriptions

A superb pale phase bird from 2010 that flew behind us and inland over Andy's garden one morning.

One of the more disappointing aspects of county birding in recent years has been the relegation from the county description list of Long-tailed Skua. The species has long had a chequered history in the county with occasional large counts and lots of muttering about numbers seen and identification of certain birds. In fact, in some out-of-county quarters, Norfolk seawatching was developing a bit of a reputation. In an attempt to introduce some rigour and to level the playing field (as was happening across the Norfolk Records Committee’s business), the Committee at the time (2009) added the species to the description list for submissions in 2010 – my first year on the Committee. “And about time too” said many people.

I was very much in favour of the decision as it took any possible accusations of favouritism out of the record submission process and set a bar that descriptions would have to meet before acceptance. We were in the process of democratising the workings of the Committee and it had been decided that everyone would have to submit descriptions for all description species, no exemptions. Of course, not everyone was happy but I’m sure the approach of treating all observers and observations on an equal footing was, and is, the way forward.

Records came in and were assessed and most were accepted. Indeed, there was nothing untoward about the number of birds found to be Not Proven. Most LTs were reported by seasoned birders with track records and were largely described well – with a notable exception or two. I have always enjoyed looking for the species in late summer and early autumn and its one of my annual highlights. It’s not so regular on the east coast and we even have the occasional blank year, so it’s always a treat to find one and then write up the description. In fact, writing up a record is almost as enjoyable as seeing one. I never found it a chore, or particularly tricky to write them up. If you've seen one reasonably well, you ought to be able to describe the salient features you observed to the satisfaction of a records committee. If you're happy with it, and can explain how you identified it, why wouldn't an independent observer be happy with it too?

Anyway, I could go into more detail but I don’t think it would be particularly edifying. The Committee have done a very good job assessing reports of the species in the past, often in the face of some difficult politics and unhelpful behaviour at times. I’m sure the current Committee will do their best to come up with a reasonable estimate of numbers.

Anyway, here are descriptions of five birds seen off Eccles one morning in 2020. The most I’ve seen here in a day – if not quite the 100+ at Flamborough one day in the 90s back when I used to sleep in the car somewhere or other when there was good birding weather at the weekends. A superb experience; the light was great, there were light, dark and intermediate birds involved; most were close but one was more distant. Everything you could want. It was possible to watch all five birds and get enough detail on them to write good descriptions. All were accepted by the Committee. I don’t understand why people wouldn’t want to write their birds up but that’s where we are.

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.