Monday 17 October 2011

Redpolls and a distant Shrike

Around The Lighthouse, The Desert and The Moat this morning 3 Goldcrest, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Wheatears, 2 Black Redstarts, 3 Sparrowhawks, 35 Swallows moving through, overhead Pied Wagtails, Meadow Pipits, Siskins and Redpolls in small numbers. In the trapping area Redpolls were being caught including some more Meally's probably of Scandinavian origin rather than the cold grey eastern european birds.
Meally Redpoll
With birding at Dunge being slow and news that the Daurian Shrike at Cliffe was showing well I cracked and went to see it. The Shrike was more or less constantly on show for the 4 hours I was there, giving good scope views providing you zoomed it up to 40x and did not mind the heat haze. Also seen there 1 Green Sandpiper, 3 Little egrets, 5 Swallows and a few finches over.
Daurian Shrike (The brown speck in the middle)

2 comments:

  1. Good to chat to you again today Martin, at least you got a presentable image of the Shrike.Well done,

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  2. those are mealies??

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