Between us we have been out a fair bit these last couple of days, but generally for nothing new. There are the regular two Wigeon and one Common Sandpiper still and steady trickle of migrants through overhead. Kingfishers are being seen a lot again and there are still several Chiffchaffs around. This morning I had a nice 15 minutes watching two Willow Tits foraging in the pines on the edge of the wood, extracting the pine nuts and then flying off to eat them. Always too fast for me to get good pictures but some are below.
Last night John had another really good session with the gulls, with not as high counts but at least ten Yellow-legged Gulls. tonight there were not as many and the gulls were really skittish but we managed at least six Yellow legs. There were two 2CY birds really early on but they were flushed by a rather loud excitable child. It took quite some time for more to arrive but I saw at least four adult/near adults with two together (one huge one that didn't return) and later three together.
Are those Willow pics all the same bird, Gareth? Pic 1 looks Willowy, but the others look quite Marshy (e.g. quite obvious white mark on bill). Could be a mixed pair?
ReplyDeleteI believed they were two Willow, but we have had a Marsh recently (and I was actually searching to see if the Marsh was still present). I did see that one bird appeared to have the white mark on the bill but I only heard Willow calls in the area at the time, so assumed both Willow. I'd be happy to go on your expertise though!
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