Wintering Chiffchaff

This Chiffchaff is wintering in Seaham.


It's a rubbish photo!
It was hovering around after insects like I've never seen one do before.

Tufted Ducks

So, are male Tufted Ducks' heads blue ?



... or green ?

Cormorants - gular angles !

So, looking more closely at the gular patch angles of these three birds, perhaps I was right that C1 is the best candidate. And when comparing C3 with the Coot next to it, perhaps it doesn't look quite so big. Although its bill is still very deep. I would now say that C1 and C3 are possibly sinensis and C2 is possibly carbo


C1


C1


C2


C2


C3


C3


C3

Cormorants

An interesting visit to Herrington Country Park today. I looked hard at these three cormorants and thought maybe #1 was a sinensis. Then I looked at the photos and they all seem to have pretty perpendicular gular patches.


sinensis? #1


#2
Is the angle of the bare skin too wide for sinensis?



#3
Surely this one is too big, with a particularly sturdy bill. But look at the perpendicular skin patch - in the field I thought I saw a much wider angle. Perhaps the pose in this photo is misleading?

Here are #1 and #2 together - from this picture number 2 looks like it has an angled gular patch more like carbo


sinensis #1 and #2


... and then there was this beauty !

No Firecrest .. yet !

Visited Mount Pleasant to look for the Firecrest, but no joy.
This wren sat up briefly for a half-decent photo.

... and insects

This is an old picture but it was the first decent wild-life photo with my new camera and lens.



A fabulous female Banded Demoiselle.
Taken near Oundle, Northamptonshire.