OK I know it's a corny old post title and rather gives the game away that I am older than I look, but you try thinking of new post headers several times a week.
It’s been a week or two since more than ones and twos of Wheatears hung about in the usual Pilling location but this afternoon there were eight of them. Torn between photography or ringing I decided to have a shot at both, results below of catching an adult male and photographs of a bird I took to be an adult female. The immaculate, just moulted male had a wing length of 102mm, top of the range for the nominate race.
In total I spent an hour or two with the Wheatears in between sunny-day grockles chasing the birds back and forth along the sea wall, until eventually the birds came back to where I waited at their favoured spot. It was late afternoon and the sun was strong from the wrong direction making “noise” in the background of the images.
Birding wise I totted up 70 Teal, 1 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel, 1 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and 1 Peregrine. The warm day had brought in numbers of Swallows and I estimated 300+ over the fields and the shore. After a quiet couple of weeks for the finches their numbers had built up today with at least 70 Goldfinch and 45 Linnet.
Let's hope for more news, a longer post and a better title from tomorrow's Another Bird Blog
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