Ben Green Tufted Puffin in : new to Britain Murray Wright

Abstract An adult Tufted Puffin Fratercula cirrhata in breeding plumage was found on near , Kent, on 16th September 2009. This sighting represents the first record of this species for Britain and only the second documented occurrence in Europe. The circumstances surrounding its discovery are described and other extralimital sightings discussed. Possible routes from the species’ North Pacific breeding grounds to the North Atlantic, based on the extent of ice cover in the Arctic Ocean, are examined.

n 16th September 2009 I arrived at Ficedula hypoleuca (a decent bird for the my local patch, the reserve) was showing well in the copse and OKent Wildlife Trust reserve near hedge west of Ferry cottages. As I Faversham, at approximately 06.40 hrs. It was walked past the cottages, I heard Sandwich mostly cloudy with a strengthening NNE Terns Sterna sandvicensis calling and watched wind, but the visibility was generally good. eight circling high overhead, while six Arctic The wind had been blowing between north Skuas Stercorarius parasiticus flew back east and northeast since the previous Wednesday and out along the Swale – an encouraging and had pushed a few interesting seabirds start and a good omen for the seawatch to into the Swale, sufficiently close for some come. good views from the Sea Wall hide, including I reached the Sea Wall hide, which is situ- two juvenile Sabine’s Gulls Xema sabini on ated on the sea wall on the west side of the 14th September. mouth of Faversham Creek and faces east The day began quietly, with little of note along the Swale, at about 08.50 hrs. Here I on the East Flood, but a Pied Flycatcher was joined by Eddie Denson and Francis

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Tusa (who was down from London via train (even my cable release wasn’t a lot of help!). I and bicycle), both hoping to see some skuas, phoned Geoff Burton at Swalecliffe, Chris and later we were joined by John Boyd, Tony Gibbard who I knew had the day off work Sayers, Martin Hadleigh and Stephen Gatley. and might be nearby, and Rare Bird Alert to Francis, John and I were watching from get the news out to the wider birding world. outside the hide on its sheltered southern The bird looked settled and drifted in to side while the others were inside. The wind within about 50 m range. After giving such continued to increase and several skuas were good views for about 15 minutes, at around moving into the Swale. By 10.50 hrs we had 11.05 hrs it took flight and headed west along recorded four adult Pomarine S. pomarinus, the Swale. Its powerful flight suggested that it three Great S. skua and 17 Arctic Skuas, plus was in good physical shape, and it was at this three Little Gulls Hydrocoloeus minutus and a point that I noticed its red feet. It landed few terns. A probable Leach’s Storm-petrel beyond the slipway about 500 m from where Oceanodroma leucorhoa flying out of the we were watching, but after only a few Swale would have been a year tick but, frus- minutes, it took off again and flew strongly tratingly, was just too far out to clinch. west, hugging the southern shore, and disap- At around 10.50 hrs, as we were watching peared around the bend in the Swale towards three Arctic Skuas circling close to the mouth Uplees Copse. of Faversham Creek, Eddie (in the hide) saw Oh my God, what had we just witnessed! a bird with a large beak flying directly A truly fantastic bird and what a privilege for towards us and called ‘Puffin!’. The bird was it to stop off at my local patch! I gathered the immediately lost to view but, as I followed names and telephone numbers of the other the skuas through my bins, a bird flew in the six lucky observers present (they had to write opposite direction, apparently coming out of them down for me as I was unable to!). Feel- Faversham Creek. From behind it appeared ings of euphoria and elation turned to entirely black and quite chunky. At first I further panic as we realised that we’d better thought it was going to be a scoter Melanitta try and relocate the bird for the soon-to-be- but a glimpse of orange-red on the bill put arriving masses. Together with Francis, I thoughts of a summer-plumaged Puffin headed back towards the car park, where we Fratercula arctica into my mind. That would were joined by Geoff and Andy Taylor from be a really good bird at Oare – I’ve seen only Swalecliffe. We walked west along the Swale two there, both in winter plumage, in over 12 being joined by other birders on the way, years watching the site. Luckily, the bird carefully watching for anything flying along dropped onto the water no more than 75 m the channel and stopping every 100 m or so away and then it became all too obvious what to scan the water. We eventually got close to it was (if almost too incredible to believe!): it Fowley Island near Conyer Creek, about 3 km was indeed a puffin, but an adult Tufted to the west, but sadly there was no sign. Puffin F. cirrhata, still more or less in Gradually we made our way back to the car breeding plumage, an alcid from the north park, where many of the gathered birders had Pacific and a potential first for Britain! I’d a look at my record shots on the camera, and seen this species previously on a Birdquest I was able to recount the events. tour to arctic Siberia in June and July 1994 With the adrenalin still pumping, I even- and it is unmistakable. By this time, those in tually left for home at around 15.00 hrs, and the hide had already relocated the bird on the at last I had a chance to try and take it all in water. The all-black body and wings, the and calm down a bit. What a day – surely extensive white face mask meeting narrowly what every keen birder dreams of, but ‘living over the bill and tapering to yellowy-blond the dream’ is something else. Just incredible tufts trailing down behind the eye, and the luck plus a dash of perseverance on one’s massive orange-red bill with greyer base were local patch. I know that I’ll never repeat the all obvious and diagnostic. mind-blowing excitement of those 20 Panic ensued. Realising the magnitude of minutes of birding again. I still feel a bit the sighting, I managed to digiscope a few numb from the shock even now! A truly record shots, despite shaking uncontrollably ‘Oaresome’ experience!

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Description Distribution Jizz The Tufted Puffin breeds widely throughout An obvious puffin – the massive, brightly the northern Pacific Ocean, where its large coloured bill, largish head and shortish colonies make it one of the most numerous (shorter than Common Guillemot Uria of the alcids. The population is estimated at aalge) but stocky body were all diagnostic. 3.5 million individuals by BirdLife Interna- The entirely black body and wings ruled out tional (www.birdlife.org.uk). both Atlantic Puffin F. arctica and Horned In Asia, it breeds from northern Hokkaido, Puffin F. corniculata. On the water it Japan (where it is rare), north through the appeared buoy ant (floating high), alert and Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, many of the smaller healthy, but did not dive or preen. It looked islands in the Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka and heavy in flight, although this was strong and direct, mostly about 3–6 m above the sea surface – it didn’t skim the waves. Although this species is described by Harrison (1983) as having ‘a heavy, rotund body and short, rounded wings’, the wings didn’t appear particularly short in flight.

Plumage Body and wings: Upperparts, Wright Murray underparts and wings entirely black, with no wing-bars or other discernible field marks. Head: Black apart from a large white triangle on each side of the head that joined the other across the top of the bill to form a mask and came to a point behind the eye, which was set towards the centre of the triangle. Long, drooping yellow-blond tufts began behind the eye and extended down the nape. These tufts appeared fairly worn, but Wright Murray were still quite distinct in the field.

Bare parts Bill: Massive compared with the size of the head. Shape reminis- cent of a prehistoric flint spear- head; bright orange-red on the distal two-thirds and duller, greyish, on the proximal third. Feet: Red, seen as the bird was flying away. Eye: Not noted in the field, but Murray Wright Murray on some of the photos the iris 132–134. Adult Tufted Puffin Fratercula cirrhata, Swale Estuary, appears to be pale. Kent, September 2009.

British Birds 104 • May 2011 • 261–265 263 Wright the Commander Islands. In North America, it 1995). In addition, Konyukhov (2002) cited a breeds abundantly in Alaska, from the record from Novaya Zemlya, although this is Diomede Islands and Cape Thompson south based only on an oral communication not a through the Bering Sea, including many formal record. However, Novaya Zemlya lies islands in the Aleutian archipelago and the within European Russia and thus within the Alaskan peninsula, south through coastal Western Palearctic. If valid, it suggests that Alaska and British Columbia to San Migel some birds may be following a shorter, more Island in Santa Barbara County, California. direct route from the North Pacific to the Its distribution outside the breeding North Atlantic. season remains largely unknown. It winters There are also two reports from Green- at sea in the northern Pacific, although it is land. The first, mentioned by Möschler not known whether particular areas are (1856), refers to ‘Alca cirrhata’ collected in favoured. Small numbers winter off the 1846; the skin was sent to him, but its present coasts of northern Honshu, Japan, and whereabouts are unknown. The second, a southern California. more credible claim but not yet published, concerns a bird photographed in flight by Vagrancy Henrik Knudsen west of Disko Bay in There is one previous, well-documented western Greenland, on 19th August 2009, just record from Europe, concerning an adult in a month before the Kent bird was found. For breeding plumage on 1st and 8th June 1994, a videograb of this bird, see www.netfugl.dk/ offshore in Laholmsbukten (Bay) at Lagaoset, pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id= Halland, in southwest Sweden (Haraldsson 30705 Also from the North Atlantic, Piatt & Kitaysky (2002) documented a bird collected off the Kennebec River in Sagadahoc County, Maine, USA. This specimen was obtained and illustrated by J. J. Audubon, who said it was ‘shot by a fisherman gunner, while standing on some floating ice, in the winter of 1831–32’. This specimen is illustrated on plate 249 in Audubon’s Birds of America, and the specimen is held at Vassar College. Elsewhere, there is an exceptional record from Hawaii in the tropical Pacific, where a corpse was discov- ered at Laysan on 13th April 1977 and preserved as a skin (Clapp 1986).

Possible origins When the Swale bird was first reported, it was inevitable that some would suggest it was a likely escape from captivity. Although Tufted Puffins are kept in captivity in Britain, the only known collection is Fig. 1. Extent of permanent sea ice in the Arctic on 12th at the Living Coasts Zoo in Torquay, September 2009. The orange line shows the 1979–2000 Devon. Checks revealed that none of mean extent of Arctic sea-ice cover for this date, and the black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. their 22 birds had escaped, enabling Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center this source to be eliminated. No other http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2009/091709.html birds could be traced in collections in

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Europe. During their evaluation of this breeding Long-billed Murrelet Brachyram- record, BBRC and BOURC were unable to phus perdix, including the bird at Dawlish, locate any (other) likely sources of an escape. Devon, in November 2006 (Brit. Birds 101: It was duly accepted as a genuine vagrant and 131–136), suggest that we may not have too added to Category A of the British List (BOU long to wait for further reports of North 2011). Pacific alcids. From the North Pacific, the most direct sea route to Europe is along the arctic coast- Acknowledgments line of either Siberia or North America. In My thanks go to Eddie Denson and Francis Tusa for their help on the day, and for their comments and input recent years, both the northwestern route, into an earlier draft of this article. I also thank the other which follows the coast of northern Siberia, four observers, John Boyd, Stephen Gatley, Martin and the northeastern route, along the arctic Hadleigh and Tony Sayers, for sharing this once-in-a- coast of North America, have been largely lifetime experience with me and for confirming that I really wasn’t halucinating. ice-free in late summer. In 2009, the Arctic sea-ice cover reached its minimum extent for References the year on 12th September, at 5.10 million km2, British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2011. Records which is 1.61 million km2 below the average Committee: 39th Report. Ibis 153: 227–232. minimum extent from 1979 to 2000. In fact, Clapp, R. B. 1986. A summary of alcid records from Hawaii. Colonial Waterbirds 9(1): 104–107. only 2007 and 2008 had less ice cover. By mid Haraldsson, M. 1995. Tofslunnefågel Lagans mynning 1 September, both the northwest and the north- & 8 juni 1994. SOF. Fågelåret 1994: 152–153. east passages were largely free of ice (fig. 1). Harrison, P. 1983. Seabirds: an identification guide. Croom Helm Ltd, Beckingham. With ice-free seas, a dispersing or Konyukhov, N. B. 2002. Possible ways of spreading and migrating seabird would be able to rest and evolution of Alcids. Biol. Bull. 29(5): 447–454. feed in the Arctic Ocean and make a more Möschler, H. F. 1856. Notiz zur Ornithologie leisurely passage to Europe. With reports of Grönlands. J. Ornithol. 22: 335. Piatt, J. F., & Kitaysky, A. S. 2002. Tufted Puffin (Fratercula Tufted Puffins coming from Greenland and cirrhata). In: Poole, A., & Gill, F. (eds.). The Birds of Novaya Zemlya, either route is possible. The North America (No. 708, pp. 1–32). The Birds of three recent European records of the Pacific- North America, Inc. Philadelphia, PA.

Murray Wright, 36 Chestfield Road, Chestfield, , Kent CT5 3LD; e-mail [email protected]

Editorial comment Adam Rowlands, Chairman of BBRC, commented: ‘A truly amazing record for which significant credit must rest with Murray Wright for securing the all-important images that enabled a straightforward assessment of the identification for BBRC. Records of vagrant seabirds are often among the most challenging for the Committee to consider, as the birds are frequently flying past the observers, providing little opportunity to recheck features or obtain a photographic record. In this instance, not only did the bird settle on the water, but Murray somehow managed to maintain sufficient composure to obtain a number of convincing images. Following Murray’s submission, the record was circulated during May and early June in 2010 and was unanimously accepted on first circulation and came a close second for the Carl Zeiss Award 2010 (Brit. Birds 103: 460–463).’ Martin Collinson, Chairman of BOURC, commented: ‘Those who have visited Central Park Zoo in New York, USA, will be aware that Tufted Puffins are an established cagebird but, nevertheless, it came as a shock to many in late 2009 to realise that there is also a captive collection in Britain. The “Living Coasts” facility in Torquay advertises its colony of this species, which is held in an open-air, netted exhibit by the sea, and can be visited by anyone. BOURC ascertained that, in September 2009, the zoo had 22 birds in captivity and none had escaped. There appear to be no other collections in Europe, and hence both the wild provenance and the identification, supported by photographs, were judged to be established for the bird. BOURC added the species to Category A. Following the recent addition of Glaucous-winged Gull Larus glaucescens and Pacific Diver Gavia pacifica to the British List, and with a recent claim of a bird showing features of Slaty-backed Gull L. schistisagus, we appear to be experi- encing a sustained, if low-level, episode of vagrancy from the North Pacific via the polar route.’

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