Natural Selection

Myerscough Quarry is a number of gravel pits near Bilsborrow. It was put on the birding map by my friend Stuart Piner, who covered it diligently when he lived nearby. Over the last ten years I’ve been one of the more frequent visitors, partly because I took on the monthly wildfowl count and partly because hardly anyone went otherwise until the last couple of years.

Things have picked up in coverage terms though. This winter in particular has seen an upsurge in visits. These have been rewarded by finds including Green-winged Teal and American Wigeon. The latter was slightly galling for me, as I’ve looked at the Wigeon here a lot and had an escaped Chiloe Wigeon and an American x Eurasian hybrid but never found the real deal.

On April Fools Day the good run of records at the site was added to by a first summer Bonaparte’s Gull. This was only the second ever on the Fylde, and the first at Marton Mere wasn’t twitchable. The Myerscough bird was originally put out as a Little Gull, by the time Paul Ellis visited late afternoon and ‘upgraded’ the record I was committed to work meetings until dusk.

A few days later on Easter Monday the bird was back. Unfortunately I was in Barrow visiting my parents. By the time I was back on the Fylde the gull had flown. Today I went to do the WeBS count and it crossed my mind that just possibly the bird might still be lingering, lacking a breeders urge to move on. I was still more than a little surprised when I reached Pit 2 and it was sat there.

Whilst this scarce American visitor can be confused with Little Gull as above, Black-headed Gulls particularly small ‘runt’ birds also cause occasional confusion. Below is a picture of the Bonaparte’s above, and one of the Black-headed Gulls of the same age present today below. Side by side they’re relatively easy to tell apart with good views.

The Bonaparte’s only flew extremely briefly whilst I was there. The attached is the best I got of the distinctive pattern on the underwing.

Increasing numbers of arrivals have seen this species removed from the list of national rarities. It’s a subtle and charming species though and it was a privilege to see one close to home and add to the species seen on the Wetland Bird Survey at Myerscough over the years. I predict the next one locally will be at Skippool, I also predict that I won’t be finding it!