EURASIAN HOBBY

This blog was going to be about migratory shorebirds and in particular Birdlife Australia's Shorebirds 2020 Project. The summer S2020 counts were undertaken the past weekend (6/7 February 2016), and I took part in completing counts at Bibra Lake and then South Lake. However, whilst walking down to South Lake to complete the counts, I ran in to what turned out to be a Eurasian Hobby, an absolute mega bird for Australia, so this blog is dedicated to that.

Whenever I'm out birding, I'm always on the lookout for rarities. You search through every bird you can see, identifying it, with the anticipation that one day, you might stumble on to something extraordinary. But there is always a huge element of luck involved as well, and I never really thought I would find a real mega, but on the weekend my time had come!

The full description of events is in detail below, this will form part of my BARC (Birds Australia Rarities Committee) submission for the sighting. Basically I parked up the car at the access point for South Lake, after having completed shorebird counts at Bibra Lake with Dan Mantle and Plaxy Barratt. To get to South Lake, you need to walk down a short track through remnant bushland for a couple hundred meters. About 30 meters from the car, a raptor flew from my left, crossing in front of me and landing at the top of a tree about 40 meters away. It's flight was typical Hobby, and as I was taking photos for my shorebirds blog, I thought this would be a nice addition, so I put down my scope that I was carrying, and had a look at the bird.

Instantly the striated breast and underbelly and rufous undertail and vent struck my as highly unusual. It did not resemble what a typical Australian Hobby looks like. Because it instantly looked odd, I only looked at it for about one second in the scope, before ripping my iphone out of my pocket and taking two photos through the scope, just as the bird flew off. The encounter was less then five seconds, and due to the brevity of sighting, left me a bit gobsmacked. I knew it was weird, but you often see odd looking colours and patterns on common birds, that make them look unusual. 

My initial iphone picture taken through my scope. The striations on the breast and underbelly and rufous undertail and vent are what instantly struck me as odd when I saw the bird.

The same pic as above, cropped and zoomed

I started walking down to the lake for the shorebird counts, and sent the photo to Plaxy and Dan, for their thoughts. I deliberately left off the source of the photo. The response came back, "looks good for Eurasian Hobby, where was this taken?". At which point I got on to google on my phone and looked up images of Eurasian Hobby, which seemed to fit perfectly, displaying the same key characteristics that I had noticed. I replied to Dan and Plaxy that the pic was mine and from South Lake! That was enough for them, they abandoned Yangebup and 10 minutes later we had met up at the spot were I had seen the bird.

It didn't look like it had flown far, so I was confident it could be re-found. I had to leave them to it at this stage, as I had Marley's first birthday party on today so needed to get home to help set up. Now we were satisfied of the ID as European Hobby, I put the word out to local Perth birders, and on the the Australian Twitchers Facebook page. Within a couple of hours, birders from all over Perth made their way to the site, and successfully re-found the bird. It appears to do regular fly bys at the site every couple of hours or so, it has been seen roosting in a number of nearby locations to my initial sighting. Some much better photos have been taken now, really showing the true beauty of this spectacular bird!

An excellent photo of the Eurasian Hobby perched, photo courtesy of Steve Reynolds

Flight shot of the Eurasian Hobby, photo courtesy of Steve Reynolds

This record represents the first mainland Australian record for the species. One previous record accepted by BARC exists, from Cocos Island. Therefore, a pretty significant sighting. The Eurasian Hobby is a migratory species, utilising the northern and southern hemisphere summers. It is found across Europe where it breeds April-September, the rest of its time they are making their way to and from Asia and continental Africa, and make it all the way down to South Africa. Long distance migrants are usually the species that turn up a long way away from where they are supposed to be, but if you look at the previous records map for the species courtesy of ebird, you can see our Perth record is approximately equivalent to the southern edge if its range in Africa. So it's not a totally unsurprising record, its just got its bearings wrong, by one continent. 

Previous Eurasian Hobby records from ebird. Note our Perth record is of a similar latitude to the southern Africa records, so therefore not too surprising, just one continent out.

Map of South Lake showing parking and sighting locations

Reflecting on the sighting, there was a long list of random lucky events leading to that moment. I took on the Bibra, South and Yangebup Lake counts as other people pulled out of them. Dan and Plaxy helped me out at relatively short notice, and after finishing Bibra, we split up to do South and Yangebup Lake separately. I'd never been to South Lake before so chose the north-west access point randomly. But it's impossible to make sense of these random events leading to a significant moment. And I'm pleased I performed well under pressure when it counted. 

Despite never seeing a Eurasian Hobby before, I instantly recognised the features on this bird as unusual. I had my scope already fully set up with legs on the tripod extended at proper viewing height. My iphone was in my top left shirt pocket, where I keep it religiously. The iphone is awesome, you can record calls on it, take photos and video, access electronic field guides and the internet. My mate Nigel (the Warden) first started taking digiscoping photos through scopes using iphones a few years ago. Since he showed me this I've refined my technique enormously. I have the scope eye piece set at the right distance to allow the iphone camera to focus, zoom in my camera at the right distance to give a clear photo, and know where to position the lens of the camera on to the scope to focus straight away. All this practice came through to fruition when it counted.

Finding a mega is something I've been hopeful of for ages, so it was very exciting, and a great feeling. it has been twitched by many over the following days, which is great that others get to enjoy such an awesome bird, but bad for me as I don't have this special bird as a blocker on my list haha. Here's looking forward to me next Aus first, it might take me a while!

Circumstances and Description of Sighting

On Saturday 6^th February 2016 I was conducting shorebird counts for Bridlife Australia’s Shorebirds 2020 Project. After completing a shorebird count at Bibra Lake I proceeded to the next count location, South Lake. At approximately 8:50 am I parked my car at the north-west access point to the lake. I crossed over the fence and whilst walking south along the access track, a bird of prey flew at relatively short distance from me (approximately 40 meters) from my left, crossed in front of me and perched at the top of a dead tree to my right. I assume I flushed it from its roost position, due to the close distance and the fact that the bird perched again. The time was 8:53 am.

The time period of this flight observation I estimate was between 3-5 seconds. I immediately thought the bird exhibited typical Australian Hobby jizz, with pointed wings with relatively quick wing flap speed. There was an impression that the bird seemed a little bulky for Australian Hobby. When the bird perched again, it was approximately 40 meters from me. The sun was at my back so I had excellent viewing conditions. I was carrying my scope (Vortex Razor 20-60x85) attached to my tripod already at full leg extension and viewing height. As soon as the bird perched I put my scope down and got on to the bird immediately through the scope.

I instantly observed the white throat, breast and underbelly with strong black striations on the breast and underbelly, with a noticeable rufous undertail, vent area and trousers. These two characteristics immediately struck me as unusual. The size of the bird resembled the size of a typical Australian Hobby. I believe I looked at the bird for about one second through the scope, recognising the striations and rufous colouring as very unusual. Consequently I pulled my iphone from my shirt pocket and managed to take two photos digiscoping through the scope, before the bird flew off.

The bird flew away from me, then circled back to the left and disappeared behind trees. At this stage, the dark black cap contrasting with the white throat and black and white contrasts on the breast and belly led me to consider a Peregrine Falcon. However, as the bird flew away, I didn’t feel the flight was powerful enough for a Peregrine. Once the bird had disappeared, I checked my Morcombe field guide on my phone. As I suspected, the breast and belly pattern and incomplete black hood did not fit, plus small size and less powerful flight, led me to rule out Peregrine Falcon.

At this stage I was uncertain as to the ID of the bird, I felt an oddly patterned and coloured Australian Hobby was possible, except the bird did not look like a juvenile, which would be most likely to have atypical colour patterns. I was not familiar with what a Eurasian Hobby looks like. I had just completed the Bibra Lake shorebird counts with Daniel Mantle and Plaxy Barratt, who continued on to nearby Yangebup Lake whilst I went to South Lake. I know Dan as a very experienced birder, well travelled around the world and knowledgeable of birds outside Australia. I immediately sent a text message with the photo of the Hobby, asking Dan and Plaxy’s opinion, not stating the source of the photo. Dan’s response was that it looked good for Eurasian Hobby, and asked the obvious question where the photo was from. In which case I responded the photo was mine, and I had just seen the bird.

Dan and Plaxy then immediately left Yangebup Lake and joined me within 10 minutes. I met them at the location and ran through the sighting details. Dan was very confident on the ID as Eurasian Hobby. I had by then searched images on the internet from my phone of Eurasian Hobby, with the clear striated breast and rufous undertail showing clearly and matching the characters of the bird I had observed. I had to leave the site at this stage as I had to return home and prepare for my daughter’s one year old birthday party. At this stage I had sent a text message to a number of local Perth birders, and posted the sighting on the Australian Twitchers Facebook page.

At approximately 11:30 am, I received news that Dan and Plaxy had resighted the bird, and viewed it perched for some time in a large tree. Over the following afternoon and days, the bird was viewed on numerous occasions by many people, generally from the same areas as my initial sighting. It appeared to complete regular fly overs and perching in large trees, with sightings spaced between one or more hours. On the Saturday afternoon, Stewart Ford and others observed an active interaction between an Australian Hobby and the Eurasian Hobby, with the Australian Hobby actively pursuing and chasing the Eurasian Hobby.