woodland birds

the Crossbills were not playing ball today so I ended up taking some rather more common but no less colourful (excepting the Dunnock) woodland residents

Long-eared in thorns

whenever I find a Long-eared roosting around here it is always in hawthorns and usually 90% covered in branches; I suppose this one was a little better in only being 40% covered but the light was problematic being from one side and there was no alternative view point

Redshank sundown

Snow Buntings

a report of possible Snow Bunts on the local patch during the week set me off on a long hike searching the foreshore areas this morning; drawing a blank on the east side I ended up at Chowder Ness and immediately bumped into three birds, two males and a juv / female; they were later joined by another juv / female and all four spent the rest of the day feeding on the stony sea embankment taking grass and sea aster seeds; oblivious to people the main problem was finding them in the vestigial grass cover where they could disappear just by sitting still -- 

Snow Buntings 2

patch birds

tough birds

I spent about 5 hours with these birds today standing / huddling in the teeth of the freezing northerly gale and gained a real appreciation of just how tough these little birds are ---

Steppe Grey 300mm

tried the shrike with the smaller lens today --

bizarre steppes

in line with recent events the shrike perched on my big lens while I was looking through the camera twice this afternoon but no-one had a wide angle lens on! --it is clearly enjoying the bounty of the food turned up in the ploughed stubble field  -- large earth worms are being stored in a larder maybe in preparation for the predicted snow -- in one shot it had clearly seen some threat in the sky but I could not find anything visible to the human eye

male Hen Harrier

4 Waxwings, a few Lap Bunts, a Snow Bunt and this male Hen Harrier flew past the shrike spot this afternoon

Green-winged Teal

this drake Green-winged Teal appears to be a different bird to the one I saw on Saturday; there were two in the area so it could well be the second individual being much duller with a less pronounced white stripe than the other bird -- the orange tinged base to the inner greater covert bar is clear here as is the head pattern or lack of it

Tree Sparrows

Pink-feet

Golden Plovers

numbers building quickly now on the upper Humber; 11000+ today

Rough-legged Buzzard

I caught up with the Rough-legged Buzzard on the Lincs Wolds yesterday; it was always distant hence the very small record image above (first and last images); the bird is certainly older than a juvenile ie it is either an adult or a 2cy bird; there appears to be some contrast in the secondaries but not a lot but the largish and fairly solid belly patch may also suggest that it is a 2cy bird rather than a full adult; the solid carpal patches, pale head and streaked upper breast, tail with one solid bar and a faint inner bar, fairly uniform underwing coverts all seem to point towards it being a female but in direct side by side comparison with a pair of Common Buzzards it did not seem all that big; maybe closer views and pictures may elucidate; also here a couple of adult / 2cy males from Finland / Norway