Neil Grubb
Well-known member
My brother and I would appreciate some help / confirmation of ID on a couple of birds we saw at Barn's Ness, East Lothian (Scotland). Knowing that the best way to learn is by making mistakes, we're going to stick our necks out and put our own IDs for the first two birds here:
(i) the finch (2 pics) - colours look strange, especially the reddish upper back / neck, but our guess is a moulting / Africana type Chaffinch.
(ii) the warbler. This was sighted when we were looking for a Reed Warbler that had been spotted at Barn's Ness. We were struck by how red it looks. (We know it's not a Reed Warbler!) Our guess is simply Whitethroat, but the colour looks much redder than in any of my books / photo guides.
(iii) Later in the day I photographed this bird of prey at Vane Farm, Fife. It looks falcon shaped, and didn't call. The photos aren't very good as I had the exposure wrong and it was silhouetted against a bright sky. My guess is that it's just a Kestrel but the tail looks a bit short to me.
So, can anyone help please ?!!
(i) the finch (2 pics) - colours look strange, especially the reddish upper back / neck, but our guess is a moulting / Africana type Chaffinch.
(ii) the warbler. This was sighted when we were looking for a Reed Warbler that had been spotted at Barn's Ness. We were struck by how red it looks. (We know it's not a Reed Warbler!) Our guess is simply Whitethroat, but the colour looks much redder than in any of my books / photo guides.
(iii) Later in the day I photographed this bird of prey at Vane Farm, Fife. It looks falcon shaped, and didn't call. The photos aren't very good as I had the exposure wrong and it was silhouetted against a bright sky. My guess is that it's just a Kestrel but the tail looks a bit short to me.
So, can anyone help please ?!!