Photogenic Spotted Crakes & Vagrant Emperors

Following on from last weeks excitement, the weekend was just the same. The highlight for me was seeing and photographing a Spotted Crake at close range. There were several birds reported around the county including a Bailon's Crake not too far away. However, as I haven't been brave enough to embrace driving on the opposite side of the road yet I had to think local. As I had seen a Spotted Crake (badly) at Remolar Filipines a week back, and there was one reported on and off on Sunday, I decided to go there and stake it out, in the hopes of a close pass to finally get a photo of this elusive species.

Lovely crake habitat at Remolar Filipines, Delta Llobregat

I picked the most likely spot where this would happen within the marsh, a lovely semi-exposed area of mud with shallow water and some vegetation (see above). I waited with no real actual expectations; a female mallard appeared in front of me with some ducklings and provided a brief distraction from the boredom. They all posed really nicely and I enjoyed the moment. 

This was taken moments before the Spotted Crake appeared and made my week!

 

They eventually disappeared behind some sedges and I quickly reviewed the pictures on the back of the camera, only to be distracted by some movement in front of me. Thinking it was one of the ducks again, I looked up and there was a Spotted Crake... right in front of me! I immediately lifted the camera and started shooting. To be honest my hands were shaking a little and I wasn't exactly composed. It passed in front of me for about 30 seconds but it seemed so quick! I couldn't believe it. My daydream had come true - to photograph a crake at close range.

Spotted Crake, in habitat - Delta Llobregat

Apart from the crake, both the Marsh Sandpiper and the Arctic Skua continued through the weekend. A nice delta tick came in the form of 3 Caspian Terns, which gave themselves away as they called passing over my head. 

Caspian Tern, Delta tick #187

A Spotless Starling showed well among a small group of Common Starlings and gave me my first chance to see one well in the delta.

The next highlight for me was finally photographing a Vagrant Emperor at rest. I've grown to like dragonflies since moving to Catalunya, and Vagrant Emperor is a scarce vagrant from North Africa to the region, and it is commoner in the reserve in March than I had previously realised, having had high counts of more than 7 in a day. 

Because it is one of the only dragonflies on the wing, it is pretty easy to find them in March, but they are in fact quite similar to the local Lesser Emperor. Whilst these haven't emerged yet, I'm sure there comes a period where both species overlap, and as both species have and do occur as vagrants back home in Ireland, I have taken the opportunity to summarise the primary ID features of both. I only recently became acquainted with these myself and they are well published, but perhaps someone will find it of interest.

Image 1: Male Lesser Emperor, Cal Tet, Delta Llobregat

Image 2: Male Vagrant Emperor, Cal Tet, Delta Llobregat

The first picture above is of a male Lesser Emperor, and below that is a male Vagrant Emperor. At first glance they look very alike, but when you take a closer look they are readily separable. Both are annotated with four red arrows pointing at key features, and these will be assessed from the top arrow down. 

1.   The first arrow on both images points to the eyes, with the eyes of the Lesser Emperor (image 1) being green, and those of the Vagrant Emperor (image 2) being brown, with the lower halves yellow-green.

2.   Moving down, the blue saddle is marked on both images. In the top (Lesser Emperor), the blue can be seen to leak from S2 down into S3, whereas on the Vagrant Emperor below it is restricted to S2. Looking from the side (not visible in these photos) the blue wraps around the segments in Lesser Emperor but only covers half the segment in Vagrant Emperor.

3.   Working down to the third arrows, segments 8-10 are marked with paired spots in Vagrant Emperor (bottom, image 2), but not in Lesser Emperor (image 1).

4.   The final arrow, highlights the upper appendages of both species. Lesser Emperor (image 1) can be seen to have blunt appendages in comparison to the rather pointed ones seen in Vagrant Emperor (image 2).

Other highlights/interesting sightings from the weekend are shown below, and include Sawfly Orchids, a showy Swallowtail, a Western Dappled White (butterfly - my first for the delta, and a dead (unfortunately) Hedgehog.

As I write the winds are coming straight in off Africa and it is raining (for the first time in a long time). I'm going to visit the reserve first thing in the morning, and with the above combination there will surely be migrants!