WHAT'S BUZZING OR FLYING NEAR YOU TODAY - 2017

I meant none in Dorset except the River Lym!!!!

Comma @wiseowl, I know, you were just testing!

 

Well you should have defined your parameters

Get yellow/grey/ultraviolet wagtails there too

 

I haven't seen my parameters for a long time, must be putting on weight!!!

We have just had the pair of 'Monochrome' wagtails in the garden, first time we've seen them together.

Peregrine Falcon, top of a pylon at Morden Bog, Wareham Forest.

 

Popped over to the RSPB reserve at Sandy yesterday and had a really good day round the reserve and got some good photos of a pair of Red Legged Partridge,Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Sparrowhawk that dropped in for a quick perch near the feeders before dropping down to bathe in the small pond/scrape.All feeding birds took off as soon as the Sparrowhawk arrived and didn't come back until it had gone...

 

The Sparrowhawk shots are superb, I presume there is an endless food supply.

 

@strongylodon the reserve is 180 Hectares and is full of birds,foxes,deer,rabbit etc so in the bird department there is plenty of food for the Sparrowhawk.In all the years we have been going to this reserve this is the first time we have ever seen one so we were glad to arrive at just the right time.

Mr Kandy had left his big lens in the car as we had intended walking round the whole reserve and it can get a tad heavy to carry.Anyway,he decided to walk the few hundred yards back to the car and get it but within five minutes the bird had finished bathing and was gone.I got a few shots of it bathing but there was a bramble stem obscuring my view so the bathing shots are not that brilliant

Is this one a male or female do you know? as I always get them, mixed up especially if the the light conditions are not that good

This is the first time we have seen Red Legged Partridge here as well.If we lived closer we could get here every day but it is quiet a trek from where we live...

 

Thanks @wiseowl,they are not brilliant as I only have a small camera so lose some of the quality to camera shake and that fact that the birds won't keep still long enough but they will do

 

Looks like a female @Kandy.
I have been to Sandy once, when I was about 13 or 14 in the mid 60's, my Dad took me for the day but I think we only had no more than a couple of hours there as it was quite a way from North London. There were no feeders then.

 

Oystercatcher


Brent Geese




I'm not sure of this one, is it a Curlew?

 

I've nicked Sheal's Duck

Don't tell her though. Doh ....

 

@Sheal One of the Brent Geese appears to be a sub species from Russia or around that area as it has a double white collar (the one at the back in the third pic) and the last one is a Godwit and the tail appears barred, not very clear, in which case it is a Bar Tailed Godwit!
Curlew are bigger and have a very distinct downward curving bill.

 

The Siskins (just one pair) are back and coming more regularly to the feeders, occasionally with the Goldfinches.

 

Thank you @wiseowl, I would have liked the birds to have been clearer but the day was creeping on and the light was strange. Yes, the Oystercatcher is my favourite sea bird.

It won't be the first time @Zigs! You can use it for your avatar if you like.