With the Brown Booby dominating recent birding activity, along with a busy schedule in my new life, I wasn't overly pleased to hear of a presumed 'Eastern' Black-eared Wheatear by Fluke Hall on the southern edge of Morecambe Bay in the Fylde. The bird was found by my old pals Paul Ellis and Paul Slade on 1st September, whilst I was dipping the booby in Cornwall. It is one hell of a find so credit to them, and it is an unusually early date for a rare wheatear. Autumn female wheatear species are notoriously tricky to identify and taxonomy is complicated, so it did seem odd than an ID was offered so quickly.
Eastern and Western Black-eareds are currently treated as conspecific, but recently published research indicates they are different species and has led to an IOC split recommendation. I've seen a single Western, way back in 1993, and several Pieds, but EBEW is a difficult bird to connect with for us northerners; most tend to be one day males in the SW. If it was a confirmed EBEW then it was a useful piece of armchair insurance for listing purposes. However female Pied Wheatears can be inseparable from EBEW, and a large hybrid zone apparently exists too. Sure enough, doubts were raised and the status of the Fylde bird was downgraded to Pied or EBEW, with most people leaning towards the former. Given my time restrictions I left it at that and assumed a definitive ID was not possible in this case, although it continued to gnaw away at me. It was only an hour away, surely worth seeing for insurance purposes, as well as being an interesting bird. Luckily for me the bird lingered, so I finally cracked on Monday 9th September, but amazingly dipped this supposedly nailed-on individual. It was seen again after I left, so must have disappeared further along the seawall. Never mind, it was surely a Pied....
Eastern and Western Black-eareds are currently treated as conspecific, but recently published research indicates they are different species and has led to an IOC split recommendation. I've seen a single Western, way back in 1993, and several Pieds, but EBEW is a difficult bird to connect with for us northerners; most tend to be one day males in the SW. If it was a confirmed EBEW then it was a useful piece of armchair insurance for listing purposes. However female Pied Wheatears can be inseparable from EBEW, and a large hybrid zone apparently exists too. Sure enough, doubts were raised and the status of the Fylde bird was downgraded to Pied or EBEW, with most people leaning towards the former. Given my time restrictions I left it at that and assumed a definitive ID was not possible in this case, although it continued to gnaw away at me. It was only an hour away, surely worth seeing for insurance purposes, as well as being an interesting bird. Luckily for me the bird lingered, so I finally cracked on Monday 9th September, but amazingly dipped this supposedly nailed-on individual. It was seen again after I left, so must have disappeared further along the seawall. Never mind, it was surely a Pied....
Scroll forward just over 24 hours to late evening on Tuesday 10th. Finder Paul Ellis sent me a simple and clear message - it's an EBEW. It later transpired that the ever impressive Chris Batty had persisted with images and identified a pale spot at the base of mantle feathers that is apparently diagnostic of EBEW, and only visible on a few magnified photos. This level of forensic ID is way beyond my capabilities and hats-off to Chris for even attempting. Whether this is sufficient to persuade the BBRC is to be established, but I would expect so. Seeing the bird became more pressing and so I awaited news the next morning. Traditionally birds which are very rare and identified late almost always disappear as soon as confirmation is broadcast, so I was fully expecting negative news. Thankfully I was wrong, so made a second trip to Fluke Hall late in the day and this time success was immediate. I spent an hour or so with the bird and catching up with Paul Ellis, and very pleasant it all was too.
So, an apparent EASTERN BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR is in the insurance bag, although awaiting official IOC split and also BBRC acceptance.
Update January 2020: IOC has now announced the split, so pending acceptance of identity for this individual EBEW makes the grade and I'm glad I went (twice!). DNA results from this bird have also just been made public, but can only confirm the bird is not a Western BEW (perhaps as expected given genetic similarity with Pied wheatear). Seems like a case of watch this space for wheatears, I doubt this is the end of the splitting and lumping merry go round.
Update January 2020: IOC has now announced the split, so pending acceptance of identity for this individual EBEW makes the grade and I'm glad I went (twice!). DNA results from this bird have also just been made public, but can only confirm the bird is not a Western BEW (perhaps as expected given genetic similarity with Pied wheatear). Seems like a case of watch this space for wheatears, I doubt this is the end of the splitting and lumping merry go round.
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