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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Withymoor - Amblecote, Stourbridge..... (2 Viewers)

Cormorant footage

Excellent bit of filming Chris. The available lighting really highlighted the sheen to the plumage, particularly the dark feather edging to the wings and tail. Interesting to note that most of the time it was looking up and possibly scanning for intruders on its patch? Would be interested to know what species of fish and quantities are found in MSP to attract a Cormorant down to such a small piece of water? Are they supplemented by stocking?
Look forward to further video posts. Just out of interest, what equipment do you use?

Gavin
 
Is there anywhere that I can see the records of birds at Mary Stevens? I actually went down to Withymoor quickly this afternoon and there were two Little Grebes! I've got pictures of them both in the same shot, but they are still on my camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it for the time being.

I uploaded the video I took of the Cormorant at Mary Stevens, you can see it here. It was very cold and the camera was just in my lap, so its a little shaky. http://youtu.be/dr_DfrgLLK0

If you have a spare couple of months you could trawl through all the annual reports of the West Midland Bird Club reports (and its predecessor bodies) - a large number are kept in the archive at the Library of Birmingham.

Had a quick spin through RBA's historic messages online which go back to 2001 and couldn't see any reports of Shag at the park
 
Sorry Gav - we don't do requests;)3:)

I cannot recall where i saw the record but i definately read it somewhere, it did mention gales but if it was'nt a birder as such then it's pretty obvious what it/they were. I overhear the Goosander being thought of as Great Crested Grebes, i obviously put the observers on the correct track;)

Winter 'singing' Robins are another bone of contention, i don't know whether it's a West Midland thing but on a number of occasions i have heard people describing the 'Nightingale down the road' - even the one in Berkeley Square has now been downgraded to a Robin.The song was'nt even written over here, it might have well been a 'NatKingCole' singing....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nightingale_Sang_in_Berkeley_Square

Chris - a second Little Grebe is a nice sighting, i have had 2 birds several times over the last 3 years but only in the Spring period when they tend to hang around a couple of days before departing.

For all things statistical, Chris, Phil Andrews will chip in when required and he can be found on most of the leading BF threads at some stage each day;)

30+ BHG's, a so far record count of 11 Tufties 7m3f, a couple of adult LBB's and a number of Bullfinches on the embankment contact calling were also noted during the smoking of a self-rewarded cigar!

Talking of smoke trails.....The most pulse-racing sighting of the day were a couple of combat jets:eek!: I first heard the sound from behind whilst making my way up to the railway track. Distinct and fast-moving unlike the commercial jets descending towards Birmingham Airport which is the norm around here. At this time of year, on bright clear days, the colder air means that the distinct condensation trails behind the planes exhausts make them relatively easy to pick out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrail As soon as i picked them up with 7x42 binoculars i could see the distinct long nose and twin tail of Lakenheath-based F15 'Eagles'. These planes routinely practice their trade in and around the mountains and valleys of North Wales around Lake Vyrnwy in what is known as the 'Mach Loop'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_Loop

Indeed, these trails were known by the USAF aircrews that flew bombing missions over Europe during the Winter months as 'the trails of death' as they could be seen by the German anti-aircraft batteries for miles.

Below - F15 montage, Fox and B17s.

Laurie:t:
 

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Most of the day 11-4 spent moving my narrowboat towards Wall Heath, pleasant enough but quiet with a single calling Raven en-route.....

Cycling back i decided to take in a few bits and bobs on the periphery of my local recording area. I took a cross country return stopping @ the new Breach Pool. This has a reasonable area of open water, Typha edge and muddy margins and so 'looks' productive. In the event a solitary Snipe zipped here and there and to my surprise there was a calling Water Rail. Not unexpected but my first record for this pool, the older, original, pool looks more likely and has recorded them in the past altho i am not aware of any breeding?

For those unfamiliar the sp has a distinct 'Deliverance-stylee' piggy squeal and when a couple of squabbling males are in close proximity to each other it's loud and distinct.

Here is the link to xeno-canto for Rallus aquaticus http://www.xeno-canto.org/183439

and......John Boormans' 1972 thriller which still enthralls and disturbs me despite seeing it many times. I saw it at the flicks when it first came out and was still puzzled by what those 2 men were up to for months;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gLN3QoN-q8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliverance

Stopping off at the Dipper bridge, downriver were assorted Mallard and Moorhens whilst upriver, to my surprise was a Redhead Goosander preening itself in the shallows. Dipper is always hit and miss here and the river level was up so i did'nt hang around. The excavations at the new Bells Mill fishing pool complex continue apace with 3 earth-moving machines and lots of noise. A solitary 2cy-type Mute Swan was present. You cannot get into the place at present but i will be making myself known to the owners as soon as is convenient to negotiate access for the purposes of recording.

Attached - River Stour Redhead and local Foxes crossing the railway line, the latter is much enlarged but has a watercolour 'feel' to it don't you think?

Laurie:t:
 

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Hi Gavin, I have a Canon 700D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens which I do the vast majority of my photography on.

rollingthunder, here are the two Little Grebes I saw at Withymoor, they are quite poor quality pictures as I was the other side of the lake and the lighting was bad. The one has slightly different plumage, any reason why? http://imgur.com/a/O7Suq When did you photograph those foxes? I'm impressed there are so many! Do you know of anywhere locally where they can reliably be found? I've never had the chance to properly photograph Red Foxes :(

I went down to Mary Stevens Park on Thursday afternoon, no Cormorant but I decided to practice some more filming, which I've never really done before. Mostly just panning when something swims by, although I did get a very friendly Dunnock come close to me, so I filmed him for a while too, which you can see here. http://youtu.be/OcQjisote2s I had a small gorillapod with me, so it's steadier than the Cormorant footage, but I am still learning how to focus correctly and trying my best to keep things in shot, etc.

The same afternoon a lady who had spoken to me on Tuesday about the Cormorant saw me again and talked to me again for a few minutes about it, she suggested I send a couple of pictures off to the newspaper, so I did...and apparently I'm going to feature in tomorrows Express and Star!

I had a pretty good day of birding in Iverley where I work, the highlight was a Redwing suddenly bursting out of the bushes in front of me and then pose nicely for a photograph, which you can see here. http://i.imgur.com/g3BUopo.jpg
 
Fox and Magpie.....

Further to the foxes, Chris, i regularly see them from the footbridge crossing the Brierley Hill goods railway line above the Penfields (Poundfields) estate. Like everybody else i see foxes here and there but they startle easily especially if you have a dog with you. The cutting offers sanctuary, a sun trap and a haven of sorts.

Note i did not use the adjective 'safe' as in safe-haven which seems to be the norm these days. This phrase was coined, allegedly, by John Major in the aftermath of the first Gulf War in the declaration of a non-invasive zone for the Iraq Kurds whose genocide was being arranged by Sadaam after the US and us agreed to let him still keep and use his helicopters - big mistake.

Up until then 'havens' were 'safe' by definition, i think the etymology is from 'harbour', the word safe is still not needed. There is not much else to remember John Major for really apart from the fact that he sh@gged Edwina Currie:eek!: I think you would still struggle to stop that woman talking, even in the bedroom, suggestions on a postcard pls;) I thought him relatively 'normal' for a Tory, working-class roots, father worked in a circus/music hall, liked full-English and Bacon sarnies. His convoy would stop at greasy-spoons and decant for brekkers, he also used to speak at rallies on a wooden box following the original soap-box evangalist types and he also eschewed a seat in the House of Lords the same as Gordon (who) Brown so he can't be all that bad.....apart from being a cricket enthusiast!

Where was i?.....birds.

Did a bit of a round-trip ystda. Withymoor held a couple of LBB's, still 2 Little Grebes, ca50 BHG's and Tufties upto 12 birds - 7m5f. Mary Stevens Park was a no-show for either Carbo or Goosander:C Instead about 300 BHG's which makes looking for a Winter Bonapartes challenging! The nuptial-plumed individual in Warwickshire was a great find but if you want back-slapping, beer-bought and minstrels writing songs about you in years to come then it's a Winter job that has to be found. Finished off at the West Hagley Fields with a few Thrushes and Buntings and several hundred corvids which i will analyse with the counting software as a test for its reliability and my patience.

An Arctic 'plunge' is what's on offer and todays Tweet of the Day is a reminder of warmer times and climes and is the Atlantic Canary, the familiar cagebird for those of you that have them which should be none of you and those that dissaprove of captive birds which should be all of you. Presented by the cheery Chris Packham and not the other self-promoting @rse that is sometimes featured on here;)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04svjxg

Some pics below - another of the local foxes on the railway line with an attendant Magpie, you think that a combination of two 'wily' characters would have leant itself to a pub name would'nt you? Well, if you win the Lottery and buy a boozer change the name to The Fox and Magpie because you will be unique as there isn't a single Public House with that name in the British Isles according to my research.....Also attached is both Private Eyes' and the Grauniads Steve Bells' angle on JM.

Good Birding -

Laurie:t:
 

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Pic taken this morning in my garden Laurie! The Fox was hungry so left the Magpies in peace! The Fox, which is a fairly regular visitor, has an injury to it's hind left leg but appears to be coping well with it.


I am off out now to buy a Lottery ticket!;)
 

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Hi Laurie, bit thin on ground around stourbridge arm of cut. No dipper. However given your penchant for other masters of the sky at 12.20 a pair of Sikorskies flew over in tandem. Great sound. Given their trajectory I wondered if they might have been going to Shrawardine.? Regards Dennis
 
Definate Wokkas and putative Issy.....

Nice one Chris, must have been a 'Dead Donkey' day;) - have a cigar.

The adult bird was down there again Sunday afternoon feeding well, i left it with a distended throat and drying its wings. In addition a couple of hundred BHG's to sift thru, an adult LBB but no Sawbills.

Hi Pam - there's too much crap in our garden for a fox but plenty of habitat for warblers i.e. Bramble for cover and food.

I heard the distinctive 'Wokkas' Dennis. They came relatively low over the house, pity, a kick on the rudder and they could have been over Lye and given them something to really pray for;) Probably heading towards Shawbury that's where they usually end up.

The CH47 (Cargo Helicopter) is the workhorse of the US military... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CH-47_Chinook... It is also a wind phenomena http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind and in common with most of the US helicopters it is named after a native American Indian tribe... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinookan_peoples.

Here is a YouTube of a pair of the beasts over a lake somewhere... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0yBcj1_vQg

I am currently trying to brighten up a dull day by endeavouring to get a Shrike specifically identified. A friend of mine came back from a couple of weeks birding during mid-Oct on the Peleponnese. He had a number of prints to show me (he's a bit old-skool in that and many other respects). Despite being the owner of a state-of-the-art tablet on which he could show me his mighty 15mb images he insists on getting stuff printed with tiny passerines in the centre of the photo:C I had just finished looking at a jewel of a Yellow-Browed Warbler which in itself is a good record when i spotted a Shrike. He said it was just a Red-Backed that had been feeding in the scrub - it did'nt look right to me and considering it was mid-Oct had he considered juvenile Isabelline? Turns out that not only had he not but he had only heard of the Wheatear! He sent me a couple of shots by email, these are more washed out than the print but i have put them on BF for an opinion - i have'nt seen either spp so what do i know but it did'nt feel right?

Isabelline, despite being Spanish in origin, actually refers to a colour. More precisely a hue to a colour. Legend had it that, during a siege, Isabella stated that she would'nt change her under(wear)garments until the siege was over:C..........It lasted for 3 years, just the sort of girl to take home to Mother! This meant the clothes acquiring a 'sandy' look - we'll skirt (no pun intended) around the aroma issues. Hence the colour of the birds. There is also a link to the Arabic for 'Lion-coloured'.

Laurie:t:

Attached - Chinooks over StourHole and 'Iffy' Shrike.....
 

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Probably get more shrike experts on the ID forum than bimbling around a Black Country thread ;) FWIW I would fall in favour of a first winter Turkestan Shrike but its a bit difficult not having a clear view of the tail (is it red?) or the upper parts (barred or not?)
 
Probably get more shrike experts on the ID forum than bimbling around a Black Country thread ;) FWIW I would fall in favour of a first winter Turkestan Shrike but its a bit difficult not having a clear view of the tail (is it red?) or the upper parts (barred or not?)

Apologises Mr Allen - I see that you have already started such a thread http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=295871
 
24 Millibars in 24 Hours - be afraid.....

"but i have put them on BF for an opinion"

Sorry Phil, maybe i should have made it clearer that it had been posted elsewhere.....with all due respect to anybody that reads this thread i mentioned the bird just as an FYI - i did'nt expect a diagnosis here. I'm not getting much response really, unfortunately my mate did'nt realise the significance of the time of year and the 'feel' of the bird - that's down to ignorance and inexperience and he has been suitably admonished;)

I have never seen one but i have sent Martin Garner an image to see what he thinks. Ironically i have recently taken delivery of (signed copy) the first in his 'Challenge' series of ID books.....'Autumn' and coincidentally the front cover is a Red-Tailed/Isabelline Shrike. Maybe he or one of his mates can chip in.

My pal has a couple more images he is going to send to me, probably not from behind, somebody somewhere will provide some clinching info i am confident.

It's Allan with an a for future reference, Phil, - i am not in the least nationalistic in fact i don't use the phrase Great Britain anymore, i prefer English with all the usual caveats of White/UK passport holder etc etc. It's shortened from the Scottish clan Macallan as in the Malt Whisky related on my paternal grandfathers side (who i never met). There's a bit of Braveheart in there somewhere so watch out;)

We are about to experience a 'Weather Bomb' - no it's not a media-hyped expression straight from a Direly Mail copywriter it is a formal description.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb_(meteorology)

Could be some displaced birds over the next week....or wrecks of dead ones:C

Laurie:t:

Below - Weather bombs awaaay!
 

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50 Shades of Gull.....

Ho hum - it's that time of year, local news grinds to a halt and national updates are few and far between. Not much change down at MSPark or the Golden Puddle, 2 Little Grebes still present and Tufties comprising 7m and 4f. The only thing that offers a glimmer of hope at either location are the fluctuating numbers of Gulls. Birds come in to MSP each day and most depart at dusk, weekends seem to be busier but there are more families with that alluring combination of kids and bread! The sight of a large gull carrying off a kid would make my day that's for sure.....:eek!:

Situated in a land-locked and coastline-deprived area is no fun. OK we have Englands 2nd biggest river locally but we have the less interesting 'upper' rather than the more productive 'lower' Severn. For me the intrigue does'nt start until it reaches Slimbridge/Sharpness but i do have a narrowboat that will be down there next Spring at some stage so a new, albeit seasonal, local patch beckons.

This preamble brings me to.....Gulls. To most people they generally look the same and can be divided into small ones and big ones. To a % of birders the scenario is not much more advanced - people seem to have a blind-spot or an unwillingness to engage in aging the things! I am not saying that it is initially easy or that it can be both confusing and frustrating but time spent learning the moult sequences can pay dividends and set one apart from the non-Larophile.....the dreaded Larophobe. I don't have access to large gatherings of gulls, Wildmoor Tip notwithstanding, and my days of visiting concrete bowls such as Belvide, Blithers and Chasewater are well and truly over. Fair play to those that do and it yields results but i will let others carry the baton. My Gulling is limited to 2 local pools, a couple of tips, nearby fields and whatever flies over to roost at the larger regional reservoirs such as Bittel and Edgbaston. Make the most of these gatherings, particularly the larger spp, as EU legislation regarding organic landfill will mean that numbers will inevitably drop as food becomes scarcer and our own watered-down version of the vulture-drenched Serengeti will become a distant memory.

Not having either large numbers to sift through or, potentially, a great variety makes the job much simpler. Cutting your teeth on the common stuff that occurs around here is ideal practice for any scarcer or rarer species that are likely to occur. Generally speaking the smaller Black-Headed types mature in 2 years/3cy and the larger Herring Type in about 4 years/5cy. As a rule of thumb the more a gull resembles the adult in the field guide the older and thus nearer to plumage maturity it is? Transitional periods encompassing 2 different plumage types i still find confusing but maybe that's just me.

They go from Brown / to Brown with a bit of Grey / to Grey with a bit of Brown / then several shades of Grey.....Easy is'nt it? All the stuff i see is close enough to identify, age and photograph and only consists of Black-Headed, Lesser Black-Backed and Herring. Common and Great Black-Backed (apart from Wildmoor) are 2/3 times annually and Yellow-Legged about the same with 4 records at Withymoor. Not far away are the 'hotspots' of Fens Pools, Netherton and Sheepwash. All these locations attract more larger gulls, 25-50 birds on average. Gulls attract gulls generally of the same type. If you visit a large reservoir check any lone gull that is loafing adjacent often a different species can be found choosing its own company.

Scarcer species include, perhaps the smartest member (imho), the Mediterranean Gull - i have only ever found one locally and that was from the top of a bus, thankfully stuck in traffic, in a park near Bearwood. This is a good candidate to be found lurking amongst the local BHG's. Yellow-Legged are more frequent, Juveniles are distinct and the sub-ads just require scrutiny and confidence. You could start by paying more attention when abroad where they are usually the commonest large Gull, certainly in a European context. How many of us just pass them off without looking that closely? I know i have. Caspian Gull is becoming more frequent now that the features are better known but it still takes experience to identify one with confidence particularly the non adult birds. I think it is a description species for Staffordshire and possibly other Midland counties.

The much-vaunted 'weather-bomb' proved rather benign around these parts but the residual effect could bring in some 'White-Wingers' such as Iceland or Glaucous, which would be nice, don't hold yr breath the last 'invasion' of several hundred individuals brought less than a handful to the region. If you wish to see what conditions were like a few days ago on Iceland then watch this.....http://www.mbl.is/frettir/sjonvarp/141073/

One site that, for some reason, yields excellent results is Stubbers Green. The birds are relatively close, viewed with a scope, it is possible to see Iceland, Yellow-Legged and Caspian there because.....i have.

Some links before everybody races off 'scope in hand.....

A link to the Mersey Birders, a comprehensive site with plenty of stuff for beginners.....http://www.freewebs.com/merseybirders/gullidentificationpage.htm

The North Thames Gull Group ring hundreds and have some exellent in-hand photos of those dirty Essex Gulls.....http://www.ntgg.org.uk/index.shtml

Our very own Alan Dean, whom i had the pleasure of meeting a number of times on the 'Magic Isles', and former 'Rare Man' has assembled his thoughts here.....http://deanar.org.uk/wmgulls/gullshome.htm

This bloke's got some good stuff, i've linked it to the Caspian Gull bit.....http://birdingthedayaway.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/caspian-gulls-getlini-dump-latvia.html

Travelling further afield, Israel and the range of rarer species and races - a link to a two-part presentation.....http://pt.slideshare.net/warbler/large-gulls-of-israel-id.....and part 2.....http://pt.slideshare.net/warbler/israel-large-gulls-fast-identification-guide-part-2-5909-4958736

Get Gulling.....

Laurie:t:

Attached - A beginners image of first-Winter type Caspo, the first 50 are the worst and another Chinook, 1 of 2 on the weeks' second overflying of Stourhole.....
 

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Christmas Crecca.....

An excellent day for putting one foot in front of the other!. Only the usual haunts were visited but produced a couple of welcome surprises.....

The Golden Puddle held about 75 BHG's, 2 adult LBB's a total of 10 Tufties (7m3f) and the 2 Little Grebes. A scan around the edge usually only produces Grey Wagtail of which there were 2 but one day will provide the first record of a wandering Rock Pipit i'm sure. A large 1w Gull with a prominent White head passed in the middle distance to join a 'kettle' of a dozen or so LBB's but was then too far to make the progression to YL and off they flew

Cycled over to Mary Stevens Park and was shocked to see 2 other birders on the far side:eek!: Hardly a 'twitch' but as near as dammit. The first such occurence to my knowledge. It was nice to make the acquaintance of Chris Mills and Bob (surname escapes me), i look forward to meeting you both again - the more the merrier. Had i not stopped i would have missed the female Teal that was curled up on the bank, still with beady eye and Green speculum on show. This bird represents the first Teal i have recorded at MSP during the 3 years of regular watching so a double-whammy. In addition ca300 BHG's to sift thru a pair of Herring Gulls, ad+2w, which makes a change from the usual LBB's. The adult sported a paler, to my eyes, mantle but maybe that was just the light? A solitary 'Redhead' Goosander was actively fishing up at the far end.

I didn't realise that Teal is actually a colour.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teal

A quick trawl of the 'net revealed a handful of national rarities but the bird that caught my eye was the 'reported' (how a bird so distinctive could be confused) Hoopoe in Leicestershire. In December i usually see them in Morocco with the sun on my back and maybe even a beer in hand. One in the middle of England would be my bird of the month that's for sure. The species still holds a special place for me as the first one i saw flew in off the sea whilst i was sat against the lighthouse one murky April morning in 1980 whilst birding at Portland - never to be forgotton. Sometimes these exceptionally late records can refer to another race or closely-related species such as the Lesser Whitethroats of various forms that seem to be annual now. The Hoopoe altho the only member of its group does have 9 recognised races, the only contender is 'saturata' but is found the other side of the Urals and is unlikely but a late bird brings out the Martin Garner in some of us. I haven't seen a photo but a Greyer-mantled and duller Pink bird would set the pulse racing.....

There is a Madagascan Hoopoe.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascan_hoopoe..... which is accepted as a seperate species by some.....and an extinct St Helena Hoopoe.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena_hoopoe identified from an incomplete skeleton - don't ask me how they know that, they just do! Maybe an exiled Napoleon ate them all? After all the French have a recipe for most passerines etc.

Bitterns appear to be booming.....http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=4761..... All this scarce stuff doing well is great but i have complete empathy with the one commenter at the bottom of the page. I find the RSPB too cosy with big business and their corporate image. Maybe now that all the old grannies are dying off they need to source new income? The EU via the Common Agricultural Policy are responsible, by and large, for the widespread destruction and modification of habitat in Europe and beyond. Not just species decline but huge numbers. Where are my Lapwings, Snipe, Curlew and Redshank? A few set-aside strips does not replace fallow fields. Yes farmers produce food but from an increasingly restricted list of approved species - not good. The EU offered this country millions in support for food banks - this government does'nt want to acknowledge the dire plight of a certain % and socio-economic class of its citizens and does'nt give a toss whether they vote or not. The EU has'nt shown its accounts for nearly 20 years - would a private company be allowed to do that? Try not paying your Council Tax, they will soon find room in the over-crowded prisons for you.

How much money does the RSPB get from the EU and yes, why do they need a £6million ad vertising scheme? - that's an awful lot of habitat.....Oh and while i'm at it, get the bridge @ Muddleton sorted;)

The Post Offfice say that we each send an average of 17 Xmas cards. Somebody somewhere is sending 34;)

Laurie:t:

Attached - Sunbathing cats ystda, Little Grebes x2, Xmas Crecca and Upupa epops as the Pharoahs saw them.
 

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Re - Hoopoe

Painting in the style of Richard 'large eyes sell better' Millington, and 'hair style' by celebrity stylist Raymond 'teasy-weasy' Bessone, creator of the original 'Bouffant'3:).
 

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Yes, i remember commenting to him (Porthcressa) that i thought the eyes on the Scops Owl that graced the cover of his 'Twitchers Diary' were a tad large to which he replied..........

I dare say that it's the eyes of his customers that widen these days.....'Ow much':eek!:

Laurie:t:
 
Adult Peregrine around Brierley Hill this morning. I watched from St Michaels churchyard as it chased the pigeons above the Chapel Street flats complex, went out over the Hawbush estate having a go at them over there, then flew back towards the flats.
 

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