Grey-headed Woodpecker records

finding woodpeckers was not easy particularly when you have limited time available but getting any shots of them was almost impossible due to the height of the nests and the distortion caused by the cold wind and strong sun something that seems to have plagued this spring

Barnacle Geese

the spring appeared to be late in Estonia and we saw lots of geese - up to 30,000 Barnacles in different areas with most around Matsalu Bay --

quick week in Estonia

often cool and windy with a couple of days up to 20C but a late spring with lots of absent migrants and hard going -- the real bonus was not a single mossy bite -- not great for ad hoc bird photography but some very nice biotopes -- a Ural in its biotope for starters

Green-winged Teal, more or less?

question when is a Green-winged Teal 100% ? This drake turned up at Alkborough last year on April 25th and stayed to May 4th, it returned this spring on April 24th and was still there today; between years its white vertical stripe has become broader and better defined and the fore breast looks more intense in colour; It was observed for long periods in 2014 and although never as close this spring it has been watched well with scopes; up until today no-one has mentioned anything untoward about its appearance in deed I was able to get some record shots of it this morning and never saw anything unusual in its plumage; the head has a faint buff line only below the eye and ear coverts, the white vertical stripe looks clear and obvious, the breast is a lovely rich pink tinged colour and there is no horizontal white scapular line  -- or is there?? When it was swimming this morning and feeding I never saw anything on its scapulars there than the usual thin black horizontal line but later on it went to sleep on a mud bank out of the water and above the black line was a clear white line; not as broad or obvious at Eurasian Teal but a white line -- looking at other images of Green-winged Teal from the states on tinternet though seems to reveal that a thin white line above the black scapular line is not all that rare although it clearly does not show up very often? So the obvious question is, can this bird be a pure Green-winged Teal or is it a hybrid? when seen 95% of the time it looks like a Green-winged Teal but is that good enough? When it was sat out of the water it was about 800m away so no images but these are of it earlier in the day and the two bird theory has been rebuked. It also has good rust coloured inner greater coverts a feature sometimes mentioned for non drake Green-winged Teal

Distinguishing Green-winged and Common Teal - Sibley ...

The thorny problem of GREEN-WINGED TEAL identification

Garganey

I was looking through the lens at the drake Pochard when a duck splash landed right in front of it --expecting another drake Pochard it was something of a surprise to see a drake Garganey sat there; it them swam into the reeds and emerged with a female! not seen them since though

Pochard

local male Marsh Harrier again

a few hangers on

been hanging around in the camera since the bout of flu -- nothing of note