Hoodie and Taigas - another look

Saturday 5th April 2014
This uncharacteristically obliging Cetti's Warbler was at South Finger

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lots of Garden Thrushes and another Hawfinch

Image
Thursday 1st - Friday 2nd March 2018 One of 18 garden Fieldfares A different male Hawfinch arrived on the garden bird table on Thursday morning at 8.20am just as I was leaving for work and as it was snowing. The line of pale markings on the shoulder distinguishes this male from Tuesday's bird Dwarfing this Chaffinch On Friday I worked at home having decided not to venture out in the thick snow. The apples I put out created a frenzy among visiting Fieldfares , no less than 18 of them. Two or three of them, and one in particular, spent an awful amount of time trying to defend the apples and very very aggressive towards not only the other Fieldfares but anything else that posed a threat including seven Redwings , two Blackbirds , and a Song Thrush which were tolerated in the main as long as they sat quietly at a safe distant. Othe birds in the garden included a male Great Spotted Woodpecker , nine Wood Pigeons , 37 Chaffinches (but no Bramblings yet!), 14 Greenfi...
Read more

Gull-fest at Didcot

Image
Saturday 31st October 2009 I spent an excellent day's 'gulling' with Richard and Andy at Appleford (near Didcot), Oxfordshire on Saturday. The target bird was the adult 'Azorean' Yellow-legged Gull, L. michahellis atlantis, which kept us waiting until mid-afternoon, long enough to become very familiar with the gulls on the pit just next to the level crossing. Gulls of particular interest noted were three Caspian Gulls , a first-winter and two third-winters (the third winters were very distinctive with their white head and, small dark eyes), seven Yellow-legged Gulls , an intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gull (much darker mantle and smaller than the usual graellsii) and a few 'Scandinavian' Herring Gulls , L. argentatus arentatus (much larger than the other Herrings) . A count of other gulls on the produced 180 Black-headed Gulls , 560 Lesser Black-backed Gulls , eight great Black-backed Gulls , 160 Herring Gulls and a Common Gull . Other birds seen wer...
Read more

Gran Canaria

Image
Saturday 1st - Saturday 8th October 2016 Hoopoe - Maspalomas A week in the hot sunshine of Gran Canaria at the start of October produced some good birds despite this island not getting much representation in the available range of published bird guides. This isn't surprising since it doesn't hold any populations of the endemic Canary pigeon species which can be found on Tenerife and La Gomera, and Blue Chaffich is much easier to find on Tenerife; next to impossible on Gran Canaria.  Based in Maspalomas at the southern tip of the island, my birding was incidental, or confined to the occasional short solo exploration on foot, in between simply being on holiday. A brackish lagoon, La Charca, stretches behind the beach at Maspalomas, cut off the sea by the beach, and with the dunes along one side. La Charca was always interesting to visit and turned up some good birds. The highlights included (no particular order): Canary Island Chiffchaff - common and vocal virtually ever...
Read more