Friday, September 25, 2015

Two baby Adders

These little critters, which look just like adults, are the size of worms, not more than four inches in total length!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Large Thorn, new for garden

Easily the highlight of yesterday's catch (from night of 12th) was this splendid, fresh Large Thorn, a scarce and localised species.

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Juvenile Bullfinches on Rowan berries

Black Terns, Ferry Meadows CP

Matt Webb found a couple of juvenile Black Terns on Gunwade Lake, Ferry Meadows, Peterborough, last week. They were strikingly different in shade (one much darker) and occasionally 'bickered' and 'played' together.

Common Terns, Ferry Meadows CP

Spotted Flycatcher, Ferry Meadows CP

Pied Flycatchers, Broadway Cemetery, Peterborough

Brian Stone finally saw his first Pied Flycatcher on 27 August 2015. He also found this bird and I went to twitch it. Over the next week, I visited the cemetery several times and spent tens of hours there. In that time, I once heard a calling Pied Fly while watching another one and suspected based on plumage differences that I was looking at at least two different birds. I believe my photos confirm that there were at least two during the first week of September. This was only the second time I have encountered the species in 15 years in the Peterborough area. The last I saw was a few years ago in Marie Barton's amazing garden in Murrow. Both the birds shown here appear to be first-winters and both have well developed 'second' (median covert tips) wing bars, which are not universal on Pied Flycatchers, but can and do occur...
Side-by-side comparison. I think the difference in tertial fringes and fringes on the rump shows these are different birds. But I may be wrong...