Been busy at work this week so little time to do much else. Managed to get to the farmlands on Thursday Ebird list here. Highlights were the Garganey, 4 Stonechat, 12 Green Sandpiper and 12 Snipe. There were a couple of Ruff about but we failed to connect with them.
The nights have been cool with only 50 or so moths of 20 or so species.
All feels a bit like that autumn lull between the summer migrants leaving and the winter migrants arriving.
This partially leucistic Carrion Crow is the closest I've got to a Wood-hoopoe since restrictions. Very much looking forward to getting back out to the African rainforests at the first opportunity.
Close view of a Teal (above and two below) from the Wet Grassland hide showing the outer most tertial pattern (black thick edge with broadening white on edge), a variably straw coloured speculum bar and quite a strong head pattern which on balance is fairly typical of Eurasian Teal but these features are the key features with any attempt to find a suspect juv/female Green-winged Teal. The outer most tertial pattern is a good fit for adult female Eurasian and there is limited yellow at the base of the bill (juveniles tend to have prominent yellow at base of bill and along cutting edge). Juveniles tend to have plainer scapulars and mantle feathers too (well marked in this bird). The wing bar on the greater coverts is also broad (apparently broader than secondary trailing edge) another indication of an adult female bird (a bronze thinner greater covert bar is also another feature of adult Green-winged Teal). So I'm going for an adult female Eurasian Teal on this.
The juvenile Garganey
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