ML498428061

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - 1

Media notes

FCF

Observation details

Much more enjoyable this evening with only 30 people around and numbers reducing as time passed. This also helped with getting outstanding views! I parked just north of the martello tower and walked down to the metal gate. The accentor was on the sea defence rocks just this side of the gate and only a few metres below twitchers on the sea wall. I positioned myself on the north end of the group and in less than a minute the accentor was giving crunching views just 3m away from me! An unexpected fantastic opportunity for photos! The bird methodically worked its way past me hopping along the ground like a Dunnock then a bit more robustly from rock to rock. It then worked its way back continuing to give incredible views! I've seen Alpine Accentors well abroad but these were still my best views ever! After working its way past me it flew 70 m south past the gate. The accentor briefly landed in view before disappearing amongst the grass. I didn't go beyond the gate so over the next 45 minutes I only got a few briefly glimpses as it occasionally hopped out onto or in front of a rock. However, around 17.15 the bird began working its way towards the gate where I had excellent scope views down to 7m. The bird then flew back to the rocks where I originally saw it when I arrived before a longer flight (or perhaps flutter) to the martello tower. Here it foraged below me in the longer vegetation for 10 minutes before hopping up the wall, clinging to the side, before sitting on its roosting pipe. Quite a few droppings here so may have been around for a couple of days at least. I think it's a FCF (first winter). The remiges and rectrices should we very fresh if definitive. Instead they are reasonably worn. There's also a moult limit in the tertials with the inner two replaced on the right wing. Although this is asymmetric, juvenile Alpine Accentor should replace a variable number of tertials. The replaced tertials also appear to have a slightly different pattern suggesting a different age. If an adult, all the tertials should be fresh although it is possible that the moult is suspended. Literature suggests that Alpine Accentor has an unusually protracted prebasic moult.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

1600

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/800 sec

Dimensions

4494 pixels x 2809 pixels

Original file size

6.05 MB