A very nice morning at Howaback and finally got Mealy Redpoll on the year list, fortunately these were nice easy ones, big, and pale, pale rumps and wing bars, no photos as they (two) were hyper active. Also in the willows and I'd pretty much given up on this for the year was a Willow Warbler, ultra late, but other folk have been recording them in the county in the last few days. I really wish I'd got some pictures as this was quite an interesting looking bird, maybe one of the northern / eastern races
http://www.fbog.co.uk/archive/plumage-variation-in-autumn-willow-warblers/
Plenty of these about still, Meadow Pipit
Later on i was back down there again, this time by bike giving the hound a run around. Something pale flicked a bit distantly in the pony field and I was quickly on it, (Expletives!!!) Pied Fly #patchgold. It flicked off into a willow in the Howaback garden, no problem I thought... and never saw it again.
During the day I was watching Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and plenty of thrushes in the garden, very nice.
2 comments:
That barbed wire looks a rather uncomfortable perch!
I hate barbed wire, it kills a lot of birds. The worst was a male Hen Harrier I saw from the house down at Bosquoy, shot down there and got it off the fence but the vet had to euthanase it. Last winter I found a Meadow Pipit with it's leg jammed in the wire, dead. Most of the casualties get cleared up pretty quickly by the Ravens and crows but Oystercatcher and Common Gull are not infrequent victims as well. It really would not be hard to make the top strand plain wire, I think that would make quite a difference to the kill / km of fence.
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