Back from two days staying with friends on the
Wirral. Managed to take a few images of interest.
Day one started with a cutting East wind, a temperature of 2.0°C and horizontal sleet. It was a day for using the car as a hide and parking where birds were likely to look for handouts. Here is a passing first year Herring Gull showing the paler inner primaries.
This adult Herring Gull has seen something of interest.
I am not sure this looks edible.
A classic adult breeding condition Herring Gull. The legs are always described as "pink", though they look more grey here...
...with the feet obviously pink. [This is a different bird – check the bill pattern]
I wonder what is going on behind the eye of this bird? "Where are my chips?" perhaps.
This is a Common Gull - "common" around the Wirral if not in out part of Shropshire. The best clue to its identity is the larger area of white near the wing tip than seen on most of our other gulls. It also has a smaller yellow-green bill. This bird has some remnant winter-plumages streaking on the head.
A different Common Gull with more streaking on its head. Note that the white at the tip of the under wing is very similar to that on the upper wing and this enables the species to be easily picked out.
A Carrion Crow concentrating hard to...
...successfully land on the rock in the strong wind.
Day two was very different. Sunny with a temperature of 14.0°C, still with a very strong wind, this time from the West. A small group of Brent Geese. These are of the species / sub-species (depending upon your preferred taxonomy) Pale-belled Brent Goose and visit us in Winter from their breeding grounds in Arctic Canada. In the foreground is a small wader – a Turnstone.
A trio in more detail.
Little and large: Turnstone and Brent Goose.
And a Brent Goose grabbing for wrack (seaweed) to eat.
A trio of Turnstones. This species is well-named as it does indeed turn (usually "flick") stones on the shore to look for morsels underneath. Here they are pushing in to the wrack for food.
An Oystercatcher formations team.
Guess who has been digging for worms! The houses in the background can put Oystercatcher on their house list.
An adult Black-headed Gull with extensive black breeding condition head markings.
Peering at the ground, checking for food items?
Is this Black-headed Gull really an Angel? It appears to have an extra set of wings.
The upper bird is a Black-headed Gull: the other a Common Gull – the white on the wing-tips and the yellow-green bill. In winter the bill has a dark band which this bird has yet to lose.
And a different Common Gull, still with head streaking but no band on the bill.
Well here's a colourful if scruffy-looking fellow. This Starling has had a wash and is now shaking off excess moisture and getting his feathers in order. They are iridescent in the low Winter sun. It is a male because the base of the bill is blue: it is pink for a girl.
They really are astounding when they catch the light.
A different male doing its Mr. Grumpy pose.
I am not sure you would call it "singing".
(Ed Wilson)
