Sunday 14 August 2011

Defecting


White-winged Black Tern, Grafham Water

White-winged Black Tern, Grafham Water

White-winged Black Tern, Grafham Water

Not a bad evening's birding over the border in Cambridgeshire - juvenile White-winged Black Tern, female Garganey, three Yellow-legged Gulls, Ruddy Shelduck, 4 Ruff, Greenshank, and a Green Sand.

In Beds this morning, a long walk round Pegsdon Hills produced an elusive male Redstart and a good flock of c.150 Goldfinches.  Later in Rookery 4 Ruff, and two Tundra Ringed Plovers were the highlights from the fast-disappearing muddy edged pool.

Friday 12 August 2011

Turtle Dove, Devon Drive

I've heard Turtle Dove purring twice in the four months we've lived in our new house, but hadn't seen it - that was until this evening when one landed on the fence! Stunning birds, becoming rare locally, and a wonderful garden bird to boot.

Thursday 11 August 2011

South African photos


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


I've been playing with Flickr recently and added a load of old photos to it.  Here is the first in a series of sets I've added - South Africa, September 2005

Monday 8 August 2011

Larid


A thing of beauty.  At least, I think so.  This is the summer gull roost at Broom gravel pits.  The roost generally starts to happen in mid-July and goes through to late October before dispersing.  It's mainly a Lesser Black-back roost, but along with up to 2500 of these, are smaller numbers of Black-headed, Yellow-legged, and Common Gulls.  Med Gulls are regular, Caspian Gulls are rare, and Herring and Greater Black-backed Gulls are virtually unheard of until late September.

Never found anything super-rare amongst them, but I live in hope.  Maybe one day a Franklin's Gull will grace Broom with its presence?  Just a juvvy Med Gull, 11 Yellow-legged, 1200 LBB, 400 BhG's, 2 Herring Gulls, and a Common Gull tonight.  There's always tomorrow evening.

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