That Petrel Emotion

Spent a sublime 30 seconds in the company of the above ocean waif on Stewartby Lake, Bedfordshire this morning thanks to the kind man on the rescue boat at the Stewartby sailing club. Leach's Petrel - a great find by Pete Smith.

Red for danger

With the winds being in the East for the past ten days or so expectations have been high for some good migrant action but the lack of any precipitation has prevented any sort of widespread fall taking place, instead birds have trickled in and then filtered down the coast or off inland. Buckton has been quiet despite some good coverage on the better looking days.

I thought the situation had changed on Saturday evening when arriving on site rather jaded after losing to our city neighbours 3-2, I put up a single net in the cliff top dell and the first two birds caught were a Redstart and a Pied Flycatcher. Sadly except for a calling only Yellow-browed Warbler in the sycamores near the village pond early on Sunday morning the situation deteriorated with few other migrants. This is contrast to Spurn which appeared to host a good number of scarce birds and no doubt a few more birders !

I will take my chances - it only takes one good bird !

Pied Fly

A slightly long winged 1st year male Pied Flycatcher caught at Buckton this weekend (wing of 84mm, normal range ending at 83mm).


When dealing with black and white flycatchers ageing is vital, this bird shows an obvious step in the white border on the bottom edge of its tertial feathers - this ages the bird as a first winter, this is also supported by the pointy tail tips. The black tail and longest upper tail covert is strongly indicative of this bird being a male.


Identification for a 1st winter bird is then based on the extent and of the white primary base patch, on this bird it begins on the 6th primary. It appears much closer to the edge of the wing in Collared Flyctacher from the 2nd-3rd primary base, giving the bird a large and extensive white wing spot on the folded wing.

Eclipsed

The grotty eclipse drake from a few weeks ago has now turned into a handsome prince !

Domesticity

Peppa Pig dreams, chilling out in the field and cat napping on the sofa !