WHAT'S BUZZING OR FLYING NEAR YOU TODAY - 2017

Martin is right, there aren't any other raptors about this time of year Buzzard size with a white chest, Harriers and Kites are mainly brown, Peregrines are smaller. I would say it was a pale Buzzard, I often see them here. They have the most variable plumage of any birds of prey and often confuse folk.This one is the only Buzzard I saw this morning and is a fairly pale one.


Holes Bay Poole Harbour, thousands of waders and ducks this morning on the low tide and in the sun.
Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck, Mallard, Goldeneye, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Curlew, Dunlin, Avocet and Godwits.
Curlew.




Black Tailed (and muddy beaked) Godwit.




Teal.


Wigeon.


Dunlin.

 

Ta Clive

 

Starling Murmuration at Studland beach, Poole Harbour, this evening.
Not one of the biggest but spectacular enough to draw 200 or so folk out on a cold night.
Started with a Mur!!


Murm?


Murmur.


Hedgehog murmuration?


Going to roost.

 

Amazing Strongy!

 

A few from a bitterly cold day on Portland yesterday.
Raven.


Rock Pipit.


Distant female Eider Duck, very few around here.


Red Breasted Meganser.


I finally managed to see some Purple Sandpipers at the Bill. Not exactly purple in winter but only seen here ocassionally.
Feeding with the bigger Turnstones.

 

Apart from Seagulls just the one lonely Cormorant today on the Cromarty Firth.

 

A couple from Blashford Lakes near Ringwood yesterday, were were not lucky enough to see the Bittern.
Male Goosander.




Male Brambling, continental cousin of the Chaffinch (left), here for the winter but in very small numbers.

 

Same here I've never seen one, just watching winter watch and a few in Sheffield only a 10 minute drive away, I will have to pop down and see if I can spot them.

 

Not easy with an electronic viewfinder but I managed to catch these geese today and they're still flying south!

 

Probably White Fronted or Pink Footed but I can't tell from here!!!

Swans in the mist.

 

Popped to see if I could see the waxwings today, nothing about nearly all the berries had gone,

Spotted this Gull on a neighbours roof a rare sight in my little village, can only presume it was resting, unsure what Gull it is ?, not very good with sea and water birds

 

Difficult too tell from the back @martin-f but it looks like a second year Herring or Lesser Black Back Gull but not certain unless the wings were actually black then it would be a Greater Black Backed Gull. It is not a Common, Little or Black Headed Gull.
I'm sure that's clear (as mud)!!!!!

 

No I couldn't tell either from where I was standing, so difficult when they're silhouetted against the sky.

Love the Swans!