Sunday 3 September 2017

Shag- Farmoor Reservoir

Had a quick look at Farmoor this morning with Jacob. The wind and rain was a bit much for him so we only lasted an hour before he started grizzling. Managed to see one of the 4 Shags that were around (a group of 11 arrived in late August and these are remnants of that group), two juvenile Knot were on the causeway, had 2 Black Tern flying around (17 were reported moving through today) and there were at least 1000 hirundines- a lot of them House Martins and also a few Swifts. 

 Juvenile Shag 
 Juvenile Knots 
 Bird 1: A darker individual overall and with heavier markings on the underparts and a stronger face pattern. Longer billed too.
 Bird 2: An overall paler bird, with fine streaking, shorter bill and weaker face pattern. A good example of intraspecific variation. Presumably these bird are siblings. 
 Black Tern- looks like a visible moult limit in the primaries indicating an adult bird 
House Martins sheltering from the storm 

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