British Birds August 2017 • Vol.110 • 425– 492 Great bird reserves: RSPB Minsmere Guillemot eggs • Iberian Chiffchaffs The Carl Zeiss Award 2017 Volume 110 Volume British Birds British Birds Established 1907, incorporating The Zoologist, established 1843 Published by BB 2000 Limited, trading as ‘British Birds’ Registered Office: c/o McPhersons CFG Limited, 23 St Leonards Road ISSN 0007-0335 Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex TN40 1HH www.britishbirds.co.uk Editorial Subscriptions & administration Roger Riddington Hazel Jenner Spindrift, Eastshore, 4 Harlequin Gardens, St Leonards on Sea, Virkie, Shetland ZE3 9JS East Sussex TN37 7PF Tel: 01950 460080 Tel & fax: 01424 755155 [email protected] [email protected] Editorial staff Roger Riddington (Editor), Design & production Caroline Dudley, Peter Kennerley Mark Corliss Editorial Panel Dawn Balmer, Ian Carter, [email protected] Richard Chandler, Martin Collinson, Mark Holling, Chris Kehoe, Stephen Advertising Menzie, Robin Prytherch, Nigel Redman, Hazel Jenner Roger Riddington, Brian Small, Steve Votier Tel: 01424 755155 [email protected] ‘News & comment’ material to Adrian Pitches Annual subscription rates [email protected] Individual subscriptions: UK – £60.00 Overseas (airmail) – £70.00 Rarities Committee Libraries and agencies – £110.00 Paul French (Chairman), Chris Batty, Subscribe by Direct Debit and David Fairhurst, Nic Hallam, Nigel Jones, save £5.00 off the above rates Micky Maher, Richard Millington, Mike Digital subscriptions £60.00 per year. 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Front-cover photograph: Male Bearded Tit Panurus biarmicus, Minsmere RSPB reserve, Suffolk, April 2006. David Tipling British Birds Volume 110 • Number 8 • August 2017 426 BB eye Paul Jepson 430 News and comment Adrian Pitches 435 Great bird reserves: RSPB Minsmere Adam Rowlands 456 Vulgar errors – the point of a guillemot’s egg Tim Birkhead 468 The Carl Zeiss Award 2017 Paul French 476 Short papers 484 Notes 485 Reviews 487 Obituaries 489 Recent reports 491 My patch This issue opens with a thought-provoking editorial on the rapidly changing position of photography in the British (and indeed worldwide) birding scene. We’ve been talking about the ‘digital revolution’ for more than a decade now, but Paul Jepson has produced a categorisation of the different forms of ‘photo-birder’ that reminds me of the iconic definitions of twitcher, birder and dude from Bill Oddie’s Little Black Bird Book in 1980. It’s not entirely coincidental that I’ve saved Paul’s article for an issue when regular readers might have been expecting to see another round of BB’s Bird Photograph of the Year competition. In fact, in the wake of last year’s 40th instalment, we decided that BPY had run its course. The award has covered perhaps the most remarkable 40-year period of bird photography, from a time when it was the province of a privileged minority, to a point where virtually everyone has some sort of camera, and the results each year are amazing. Nowadays, picking a single winner from a sea of excellence is almost impossible. More importantly, in order to continue to compete at the top table of photography competitions the necessary investment in sponsorship and administration is such that we felt our production resources were better focused on the core aspects of birding and ornithology that remain at the heart of BB. A cross-section of these – conservation, ecology and identification – are well represented in this issue. And there is still one competition – the excellent Carl Zeiss Award. As promised last month, the issue is brought to a close with ‘My patch’, written this time by a young birder. The unbounded optimism and enthusiasm of devoted patchworker Amy Robjohns shines through the pages. I was slightly alarmed to look back through my notebooks and find that my only previous visit to Titchfield Haven was around ten years before she was born – so it’s probably time I went back… Roger Riddington British Birds aims to: v provide an up-to-date magazine for everyone interested in the birds of the Western Palearctic; v publish a range of material on behaviour, conservation, distribution, ecology, identification, movements, status and taxonomy as well as the latest ornithological news and book reviews; v maintain its position as the journal of record; and v interpret scientific research on birds in an easily accessible way. © British Birds 2017 BB eye Photography is transforming British birdwatching One Sunday last July I strolled down to the counter-culture (and later punk) and the hide at RSPB Otmoor, one of my local appearance of a better-educated, more confi- birding patches in Oxfordshire. Five years ago dent youth with an interest in freedom, I might have entered an empty hide. Not justice, personal fulfilment and a willingness anymore. The place was packed with bird to embrace unconventional lifestyles. photographers, happily chatting as they As a cultural force, birding was at its peak waited patiently for the shot. in the 1970s and 80s. An eclectic mix of The make-up of British birdwatching is birders from around the country convened at undergoing a transformation. Scope-carrying ‘meccas’ such as Cley and Scilly, where they birders have been joined by big-lens bird discussed reputations, shared stories, planned photographers. Over the last three years I trips and developed a sense of fraternity and have been engaging bird photographers in common purpose, all given identity with an conversations to learn more about their ‘insider’ birder jargon. Birders created the motivations and birdwatching practices. bird-tour industry, founded bird information These conversations have helped me to posi- services and magazines, played a key role in tion my ‘birder’ mode of birdwatching and the development of international bird con- caused me to reflect on the history and future servation and introduced the term ‘twitcher’ of birdwatching as a hobby and vocation. into popular culture. Birding is a mode of birdwatching charac- Over the decades the practices, discourses terised by a focus on bird finding, rarities and and norms of birding – and by extension listing. It emerged during the 1960s and birdwatching – have become more for- 1970s from interactions between trends in malised. We observe birds at distance and ornithology and wider society. The rise of have collectively agreed to put bird welfare field ornithology in the 1950s led to the first and suppress conversations about rare establishment of a network of bird observa- breeding birds. Birders travel to see birds tories and recorders and the idea that bird- reported by bird information services, keep watching could contribute to the study of to designated trails and respect landowner bird migration and population trends. This wishes. Our birdwatching media publishes was an era when teenagers had time to fill material on a relatively narrow set of topics and purposeful hobbies were encouraged. (sightings, identification, birding sites, popu- There was a good chance that a teenager lation trends and conservation status) and showing an interest in birds would be gifted carries editorials framed by the views and an affordable pair of Zeiss binoculars (from agendas of establishment figures and conser- the DDR) along with a field guide and told to vation organisations. get out of the house! Roaming around Birding had youthful origins but it has searching for the species in the books and become institutionalised and settled. The ticking them off was the obvious thing to do. language of dipping, gripping, stringers, crip- It developed bird-finding skills, a sense of plers, value and phasing is fading. The birder avian scarcity and a desire to visit destina- start-ups of the 1980s – the information serv- tions where new species could be added to ices, bird-tour companies, clubs (e.g. OBC, one’s list. ABC and NBC) and conservation pro- At the same time, broadcasters were grammes – are ageing. increasing the amount of nature program- Mingling with, and now sometimes out- ming and aligning it with aspirational numbering, birders is a new type of bird- lifestyles and exotic travel in a bid to watcher – the bird photographer.