It was another visit to the SOS site of
Venus Pool today, with all the photos taken from the public hide.
A splendid drake Shelduck in full breeding condition.
A pair of Shoveler duck.
A passing drake Common Teal.
Very smart.
And a pair.
Here coming in to land. Note some pale feathers where the ears might be. This indicates it is a first year bird moulting out the juvenile white chin band.
Here the pale feathers show the full extent of that white band.
Yummy: a nice worm. Leaves the bill a bit muddy.
Here is its mate showing no pale. I cannot sex these birds.
Many Lapwing were around: a great place to see this declining species in Winter.
Subtly coloured in breeding condition.
As usual the Lapwings were very jumpy. regularly taking flight.
Almost bat-like!
There were some 20 Snipe around. I tried for some different perspectives today. The barring on the underwing is visible here.
And here.
Not very polite.
When they came close they tried to say hidden.
This one was chased off by the Lapwing.
Note the long toes of this species.
Not as sharp as I would have liked. As it comes in to land the alula feathers at the front middle of the wing are extended. The chestnut marking on the tail are seen as it is spread. Also the rarely seen white points on the secondaries.
You might think Magpies are black and white. Not so.
One of the local Carrion Crows takes time out from harassing the Lapwings to chase one of the local Common Buzzards.
Not getting its own way!
This Common Buzzard is one of the paler individuals.
Very distant: my first Red Kite of the year.
The local friendly Robin visited inside the bird hide, too close to photo. It then perched on a post just outside.
A visiting Pied Wagtail strutting out...
...and back.
With dusky flanks there is no question of this being a migrant White Wagtail. The other important distinction, never easy to see, is the black upper tail. It is pale grey on White Wagtail.
A Goldfinch on its favourite food – Teasels. I suspect all the seeds are long-gone.
