Hi All
Link below is to a distant shot of the Golden Plover that was on the Moors today.
The other link is to a shot of the Bittern also taken today at the Moors (there are several more images on my website).
May see some of you tomorrow at the Moors work party?
Cheers
Stuart
http://stuartandrews183.fotopic.net/p68280422.html
http://stuartandrews183.fotopic.net/p68281991.html
Re the Bitterns the two birds are quite distinctively marked. The 'pale' bird that has been present for a few years is strikingly larger than the bird in your photo.
On the Sailing pool were 26 Greylags
As we approach the end of the year I wondered if anyone else has a favourite bird seen at UW this year.
I would nominate the juvenile Ruff seen on the Flashes in September. As someone who has only recently returned to bird-watching after some decades I had never seen a ruff before except for the illustrations in the handbooks. I was therefore expecting a rather butch figure with a flamboyant collar so I was rather disappointed by a distant view of a non-descript wader. However, when it came much closer to the hide I was impressed by its elegant form and movement and by the striking double patterns on its back. A cracking bird.
As we approach the end of the year I wondered if anyone else has a favourite bird seen at UW this year.
I would nominate the juvenile Ruff seen on the Flashes in September. As someone who has only recently returned to bird-watching after some decades I had never seen a ruff before except for the illustrations in the handbooks. I was therefore expecting a rather butch figure with a flamboyant collar so I was rather disappointed by a distant view of a non-descript wader. However, when it came much closer to the hide I was impressed by its elegant form and movement and by the striking double patterns on its back. A cracking bird.
Well mine are much more common than any species mentioned thus far. My Marsh Harrier from 3rd May (a lifer for me) and one from the last all-dayer, having told John that I'd get us a Skylark and then did, from the field behind the sailing pool.
As we approach the end of the year I wondered if anyone else has a favourite bird seen at UW this year.
I would nominate the juvenile Ruff seen on the Flashes in September. As someone who has only recently returned to bird-watching after some decades I had never seen a ruff before except for the illustrations in the handbooks. I was therefore expecting a rather butch figure with a flamboyant collar so I was rather disappointed by a distant view of a non-descript wader. However, when it came much closer to the hide I was impressed by its elegant form and movement and by the striking double patterns on its back. A cracking bird.
Birds of the year for me were the three young LRP fledged on the reserve, marking a successful return for the symbol of Upton Warren as a breeding species