A few photos from my visit to Belvide today.
More than 500 geese here today: here are just three of the many Canada Geese coming and going.
The geese flocks need to be searched to find any ‘strays’. This hybrid does not count! The bill suggests Greylag Goose: the white face and chin suggests Canada Goose as does the body tone.
And another. The Greylag influence seems less obvious here. I am sure this bird has been seen around the Priorslee area – not yet this year where goose numbers have been below ‘normal’.
A pair of Gadwall feeding. On the drake note the all-black bill, the small white speculum and the black and chestnut in the wing, most easily seen in flight.
Here we see the bill of the duck more clearly and the brown scapulars on the drake. At a distance the sleeping drake behind looked more like a stone.
I wonder why they are called Goldeneyes? A drake here.
An immature Grey Heron – an adult would be showing a white crown and an all (or mostly) pink/orange bill.
This Great Crested Grebe seems to have caught a good size fish – a Mirror Carp.
Now to eat it ...
Well that didn’t work. Have to rearrange it.
Perhaps this is the way
To my eye this is not going to work at all. The bird did indeed seem to give up.
A quartet of waders: three (Common) Snipe on the left and a lone Golden Plover on the right.
Looking rather more alert here we get some perspective on the size of Golden Plover against the drake Mallard.
There were >1000 Lapwing present – great to see flocks of this size. Here are a few of them in flight.
One coming in to land, undercarriage down.
And an interloper – an Oystercatcher showing its long orange bill.
Blue Tits look rather fierce from this angle.
Looks like Spring is on the way with all the Hazel catkins.
This was the best I could do for a very mobile Marsh Tit. Separation from Willow Tit is not easy. This bird was calling and thus I am sure of its identity. Here the wing appears to show the ‘pale panel’ (caused by the pale edges to the primaries) that is supposed to be diagnostic of Willow Tit! What we can see is that the black ‘bib’ is neat – on a Willow Tit it would spread out somewhat at the bottom. Similarly the black nape does not spread down the side of the neck. Call / song are much the easiest and most reliable way to separate these species.
Always cute – a Long-tailed Tit. Bird-ringing is done here – and this bird is showing its ring.
Are they related to Badgers?
This species also amongst the Hazel catkins.
Another set of views of Tree Sparrow. As previously noted the plumage of males and female of this species are identical – in scientific terms their plumage is monomorphic. There probably is some size / weight difference but this is not detectable with the human eye.
They are quite cute.
The back-pattern showing well.
Two birds.
And my best ‘portrait’.
A rather washed-out female Chaffinch.
A male Reed Bunting. the remaining white specks in the crown will soon be lost to show the jet-black crown and bib of the breeding plumage.
And here is a female showing the same basic pattern in brown.
(Ed Wilson)
