Nothing much going on of late apart from some new visitors. Gulls now making themselves known and they put the Geese to shame when it comes to shrieking!
Lesser Black-backed Gulls the noisiest and it's lock up your eggs time already!
Nothing much going on of late apart from some new visitors. Gulls now making themselves known and they put the Geese to shame when it comes to shrieking!
Lesser Black-backed Gulls the noisiest and it's lock up your eggs time already!
Another year tick wader at VP and this time a visitor which will hang around and find a partner! A fairly early Little Ringed Plover...
I missed a Dunlin by minutes this morning but the consolation prize was a Curlew! These are occasional birds of late and this one was showing well despite the dire light...
I've had several long distance records of Great White Egret since the New Year but none produced any decent images. That was about to change...
The Venus Pool 'regular' had slipped out of the far reed bed and took me by surprise, flying down the middle of the pool!
An un-ringed Barnacle Goose today at Venus Pool, a smart Goose whatever it's origin...
Distant at first, it paddled over the pool to the shingle island...
My second Redshank of the year and a much closer bird than the distant Wood Lane one. Here it comes...
I was hoping for better images of the mysterious aberrant 'Teal' after a no show the previous day. My luck was certainly in with the Teal showing really well early afternoon...
A touch Leucistic on the breast (that was the first assumption)! The overall 'brown wash' to most of the underparts is the most dramatic aberration.
I'm indebted to the birder behind @BirdHybrids for all his help for finally putting the mystery to rest.
He asked another hybrid expert Jorn Lehmhus for advice... This is a 'sarcelle a bavette' literally translated as 'Teal with a bib'. A breed that started with crossing male Eurasian, Green-winged or Yellow-billed Teal with female black Call ducks - the offspring seemingly then crossed among themselves!
Many of these crosses have little evidence of of Teal ancestry but here is an example of domestic Mallard crossed with Teal...
If this duck was crossed again with a Teal, he considers you would end up with a duck very similar to the Venus Pool bird!
Huge thanks to Jorn Lehmhus, @BirdHybrids and @ed_keeble who also contributed to solving the puzzle...
View Shropshire Birders Birdmap in a larger map