Local

Quick look in at the north east corner of Holes Bay

Poole Park once again. This Coot was ringed near the Ghurka, Radipole in 07.

No bread for the Ring-billed so chucked it a few stones which it fell for every time, even picking up the stone and wandering around with it for a while before going for the next one.

One more of the tail

Light going quickly at Parkstone Bay

In and not about

Male Reed Bunt still visiting garden, gradually getting all the black.

Shots taken through window

A few more ticks

First stop Cliffe. These birds were feeding in the estuary and flying past my VP as the tide pushed them off. Note the male shows a green speculum on one wing and blue on the other. Which is reality?

Next stop a place called Shorne which is between Cliffe and Gravesend. A very unproductive looking site so was surprised to see this Little Gull feeding close offshore.

A mad dash to Oxford now to try and get the Turtle Dove before dark.

Despite being in a hurry, just had to stop and look at all the Kites that were hanging around the M40. I counted 48 birds in a 17 mile stretch along here including a group of 7.

Here is another group of 5

This one was very close but frutstratingly kept behind the trees

Jammed in on the Oriental Turtle Dove straight away. Saw two blokes with scopes at the entrance to the small industrial estate so went over and they were looking at it.

Apparently they had only just located it after 4 hours of searching!

The deep coloured breast and in particular the greyish underparts ruling out meena

The tips of the tail feathers grey as opposed to white in meena

Sheppy

Local Brent flock just south of Leysdown-on-sea today. There were 3 Pale-bellied Brents this time including this first year

This Lapwing was on the approach road to the Elmley reserve. They all seem pretty much used to the cars, it hardly batted an eyelid when I stopped within 6 feet of it

Sheppy bridge, wonder when they are going to finish it!

Possible heinei at Shell Ness

Bit of a movement of Gulls this morning in the strong winds. Most interesting was this Common Gull with a virtual hood. Although light levels were low making all the birds look darker the upperpart colour compared to other birds did seem genuinely a bit darker. One could also say it looks quite long winged.

Took a few more photos. This is the best shot of the wing pattern. A few things of note here particularly the smaller than usual mirrors particularly on P9.

Looking at the literature it appears there is another interesting feature on this bird and that is the presence of a black mark near the end of P4 a real pro heinei feature apparently. This can clearly be seen on the below photo. (can also be seen on the other wing)

Other things I noticed although couldnt find any reference to was the dark areas on the underwing. ie more lesser black backed than Herring sort of thing.

More surprises

Really didnt think this would be here. These few Brents and the Brant were hanging around the shoreline of a favourite dog walking area in Gillingham this morning. As with the birds at Baiter they were not overly fussed by the proximity of dogs and walkers

Bird pretty close but light levels terrible so slow shutter speeds today

From other side

Darker undercarriage than Db. Also in this shot looks about half the size.

Blackwits at some other grey and dingy place further along from Gillingham

Pom de terre

A grounded Pom certainly brightened up a dull Shell Ness this morning.

And very confiding it was too.

Probably got a bit too close but it didnt fly very far. Wasnt sure at the time the age of this bird but looking at literature later confirmed it to be a non breeding adult due to the dark uniform underwing coverts

Large Brent flock still just north of Shell Ness but couldnt see anything interesting in there this time. Despite numbers looking similar to last time the odd hybrid goose wasnt with them

Brambling year tick at Harty

Pintail at Oare Marshes