Azorean in flight

Some more shots of the Beds Azorean Gull - I hope Martin Palmer doesn't mind me using them!  They show nicely the darker bar on the underwing, as well as P10 perhaps half grown, and P9 three-quarters grown.  They also show the bar on P5 - but perhaps a little too fuzzy to see if there is anything on P4.  You can also see the legs, but getting accurate colour is a bit tricky - but they don't look startlingly yellow!

Azorean teaser

Note P10 still growing and with a small mirror.  Impossible to see P9 here but that's still growing too

The Azorean type is at around 11 o'clock from the centre of the image.  It's mantle is far darker than any Yellow-legged or Herring Gull, and yet paler than the surrounding Lesser BB's

It's big.  And dark.

After finding what I thought then was a possible candidate for an Azorean Yellow-legged Gull in the Stewartby roost in August, I then bump in to this thing this evening.  In my opinion it looks really good.  When you compare this bird to the Didcot bird Ian Lewington found in October 2009, it looks extremely similar - I would even go so far to say this could be the same individual?

So what do I need to nail it?  Better views and lots more video!  I guess I'll be back at Stewartby again tomorrow...

Pure Azure?

Very interesting bird!  Does this Azure Tit look-a-likey have some Blue Tit in it?  What's it doing in Buckinghamshire, in late August-early September?  Do people keep them as cage birds?  Lots of questions surround this bird however stunning it looks.

Edit - so it would appear, thanks to local birders investigations, this is an escaped Yellow-breasted Tit.  Close, but no Arctic cigar!

See two Grey Phals, get a Sabs free!

Big blow = wrecked seabirds inland.  The Grafham haul included two lovely Grey Phalaropes, and a spanking Sabine's Gull - all together on the dam!  What does Bedfordshire get?  A Manxie under a bush.

The Big Year

Here's the trailer for The Big Year - a film based on Mark Obmascik’s book of the same name. Will it be a hit? Will it make birding cool? I doubt it.