13th-16th May 2015
Knocking about again!
Wednesday 13/5 took me to Wykeham for a Balearic woodchat shrike. The splitters are at it again! Certainly some birders count it for their 500 list [as I was told] and Lee Evans seems to accept it. Anyway 'twas a pretty thing...
Balearic Woodchat Shrike
Like all shrikes, it loved to perch up high looking for its next victim coming off the dung heap.
Balearic Woodchat Shrike
Balearic Woodchat Shrike
Balearic Woodchat Shrike
It went down onto the road too.
Balearic Woodchat Shrike
I'll finish with a bit of a puzzle. Ok, shrike, blue tit, chaffinch and what else?
Balearic Woodchat Shrike
Thursday14th May
I kept thinking about going to see this nasal saddled lesser scaup but it didn't really appeal much. However I had a spare afternoon so I went to where it had been reported. No sign but found eventually on sailing club slipway [club closed].
Lesser Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Also this week, but not photographed: curlew sandpipers at Newington Flash near Bawtry; stunning male golden oriole, same day, at Gibraltar Point - but a bit too distant for a photo; spoonbill lurking inside the cormorant colony on the Moat at Fairburn Ings.