Soil Hill

Not a site for the faint-hearted which had been excavated in fairly recent times. Lots of rough stoney ground with emergent weeds and shallow pools along with areas of rank vegetation. A site to be negotiated with care but I gave it a go on the summit yesterday. The drizzle was coming sideways from the west with a gusty wind so zig-zagged across from the west side with the wind behind me. I might as well not have bothered...1 Red-legged Partridge was the only bird i could find on the top.

Undeterred I gave it a go this morning with JJL of a same mind - two eyes and ears are better than one!  

We trawled the summit with several worthwhile rewards. See JJL's list on his blog.

bradshawbirds.blogspot.com

Never know what might turn up here though DJB has excelled on this site as others have done over the years.

Ogden Water

An interesting mid afternoon circuit of the reservoir favouring the west bank for starters in the shelter from the gusting wind. The water levels slightly up from our walk around there last week.

Around 25 B H Gulls were on a spit along with 2 Common Gulls when a 'white winged' gull dropped out of the sky landing alongside them. An adult Mediterranean Gull, always a pleasure to see. It stayed with the group for several minutes bathing and preening so we were afforded reasonably close views with not a sign of any black feathers on the wing tip, a black smudgy mask just above and behind the eye and blood red legs and bill. A classic winter adult. No camera !!! After a while it flew off towards another group of gulls on the east side but we failed to locate again.

Also present - 3 Lapwings, 3 Teal, 5 Tufted Duck and c60 Mallard along with 2 Herring Gulls and 2 L B -b Gulls. A limited number of passerines - 1 Goldcrest, 4 Blue Tits, 1 Great Tit, 2 Chaffinch and a small flock of Redwings dropped into the plantation.

Beacon Hill

Common Gull. The white-tipped primaries age it as adult. The outer primary, P10, and possibly also P9, have not yet fully regrown after moult. When moult is complete, 4 or 5 white tipped primaries are visible beyond the tertials.

1cy Carrion Crow. Very tame: photo was taken only about 7 metres from the bird.

Canada Goose 24 feeding

Beacon Hill

Continental Blackbird

Also:  Jay 1 west

Cold Edge

Stonechat pair

Herring Gull adult. The bird has 3 white-tipped primaries beyond the tertials: a fully grown wing has 4. The head and neck have moulted into winter plumage: there are dark streaks on the neck, and dark markings on the head - especially around the eye - making the eye stand out.

Cold Edge

Marsh Harrier immature

Common Gull 9. The top photo shows the streaked shawl of winter plumage. The middle one shows the plain greater coverts of a 1cy bird, contrasting with the dark centres and pale margins of the median and lesser coverts

Reed Buntings

Cold Edge

Jack Snipe 1. In dull conditions with rain expected it was flushed from the side of a track, about 7 metres from me. It gave a brief, quiet, quite harsh call. It flew low and dropped down into heather about 25m away. In the 1-2 seconds it was visible, the only plumage feature I noted was a white line on the wing. I walked over to about where it landed (the heather was quite tall and the ground very uneven), but the bird did not fly again.

Cold Edge

Goosander. The white markings above and below the eye age this bird as 1st calendar year (1cy)

1 of 4 Goldfinch

Some of about 270 Starlings. The top left 3 birds are adults, but most of the rest are 1cy, with pale head and neck. The pale underwing can be seen on some birds

1cy Lesser Black-backed Gull. It has the typical dark outer greater coverts, but the tertials are unusual. Normally LBB tertials have a dark centre surrounded by a pale fringe, with a straight (mostly) line separating them, and sometimes the fringe is thicker at the tip: here the proximal two thirds are typical, but the distal third is white with a dark transverse bar

Cold Edge

Reed Bunting 2. They were together, and I think are a pair, with the top photo being the male and the other 2 the female. The male shows signs of feathers beginning to wear away to reveal a black bib. The female has a pale throat and a thick black malar (or whatever we're supposed to call it now) stripe.

The bird with no tail

This tree is similar to the one in Newcastle, County Down, that has just been named Tree of the Year