Wednesday, August 31, 2011

variation in juvenile icelandic Black-tailed Godwits










although the basic pattern is the same variation in colour tones is marked; the poor season in Iceland is shown by a total of 23 juveniles in a flock of 4300 birds today

Curlew Sandpipers








in 8 hours today managed to count 24 juveniles on many occasions at Killingholme -- light this morning was appalling but always cracking birds

Monday, August 29, 2011

juvenile Marsh Harrier exploring


landed on this elder and was picking something from the branches and eating it -- there were no berries on the bush so I assume it was small insects or maybe lichen?

juvenile islandica Black-tail




Whinchat


a brief visitation

small waders

Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Knot and Little Stint

Peregrine one colour ringed






cursed my luck as I arrived at the godwit hide just as they all got up due to a Peregrine attack; a juvenile Peregrine was being mobbed by a juvenile Marsh Harrier and I was struggling to get the gear out of the car! got a few grab shots soon after when I realised there were in fact two juvenile Peregrines a male and female -- much to my surprise when looking at them on the computer the female is colour ringed with orange left and metal right but unfortunately none of the shots are close enough to allow the inscription on the colour ring to be seen --

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Osprey Black Bank










having been in the Laughton area called in to have a look at this bird which seems to have stopped off at this location for the last 4 years in late August -- thanks to the 3 C Crows that forced it to flee and fly past me and across the Trent into the Isle with its fish

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Black-tailed Godwits












the poor breeding season in Iceland certainly seems to be reflected in the very low number of juveniles on the Humber so far with just 6 in this flock of 2700 birds