Thursday, March 31, 2011
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Yellowhammer
'One of a flock of around 20 near the start of the path to the dam, flitting between the long grass and surrounding trees' IT
Cetti's Warbler
Often heard but seldom seen and rarely photographed as well as this.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Colour-ringed Waxwing
This young Waxwing has quite a back story. It was initially ringed as a first winter male in Aberdeen on 27th November 2010 by the Grampian Ringing Group. It was then refound and photographed by Chris Beach in Welwyn Garden City, 667 KM south south-east of Aberdeen on 10th January 2011. Relocated again in Cambridge by Christoph Zockler on March 20th, it was with a flock of forty birds in Eachard Road, CB3 and had moved back 50 km north north-east of Welwyn. No doubt it is part of the movement of Waxwings now rapidly moving north spurred on by the recent warm weather. J.L.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Cambridgeshire's first 'Greenland' Redpoll?
A putative 'Greenland' Redpoll (left) with Lesser (middle) and 'Mealy' (right) Redpolls for comparison, Gamlingay, 12th March 2011 © Jim Lawrence.
Note Greenland (rostrata) and Mealy (flammea) Redpolls are lumped as forms of Common Redpoll -following current BOU Taxonomy - along with a further 'Icelandic' race islandica. Icelandic Redpoll closely resembles the Greenland race rostrata though it is usually much paler. Together, Greenland and Icelandic Redpolls are also often known as 'North Western' Redpoll.
Mark Thomas first trapped this putative 'Greenland' Redpoll on March 5th when he was struck by its 'enormity' in the hand, dark tones and heavily streaked underparts. He re-trapped this same bird on Saturday morning when I took these pictures.
In addition to the distinct morphological characters of this bird and the supporting biometrics Mark recorded, we also heard it give a very different call to the more highly pitched tones of other birds present, on release. J.L.
Here the 'Greenland' Redpoll with a 'Lesser' Redpoll (right) for comparison.
You can read more about this bird here.
Common Redpolls
Two different 'Mealy type' Common Redpolls, Gamlingay, 5th March 2011 © Mark Thomas.
Mark is currently ringing a mixed flock of more than 100 Redpolls visiting his Gamlingay garden. This migrant flock predominantly contains Lesser Redpolls Carduellis cabaret which occur in Britain, Central Europe and South West Scandinavia. Some 'Mealy' Redpolls like the ones above are also present - these typically greyer-toned birds emanate from Fenno-Scandinavia.
You can see more of Mark's Redpolls and follow his blog here.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Wigeon (possible hybrid)
'This is (probably) the same bird that has been in the Ouse Fen / Berry Lagoon area for the past couple of winters. As you can see, it has extensive green sides to the head, paler areas on the cheeks, and a rather pale forehead flash. However, I can't see any other pro-American features. An odd Eurasian Wigeon or a second generation hybrid?' RT
