More Brown Hare action

Brown Hare

Here hare here

Barn Owl, Baston, Lincs

Grey Partridge pair, near Deeping Lakes LWT

Caspian Tern, BLGP, South Lincs

This was one of the digiscoped record shots I took as a convincer before anyone else had arrived on the scene...

Arguably one of the best finds of my birding career, and certainly one of the rarest birds I have found near Peterborough. It was also a UK tick for me. Good numbers of birders from Lincolnshire and beyond came to see it during the day (Josh Jones even made it up from London!). The red ring and a mark on the underwing confirm that this was the same bird that had been a while in south Wales and had previously wandered up to Northants. Later, it was seen in West Yorkshire, then Norfolk. This was at what we now call the 'wader pit' of the Baston and Langtoft gravel pits complex. Its shallow pools and setting have since proved irresisitble to many scarce passage birds [I am writing in 2019], with at least three Temminck's Stints, multiple Knots, Little Stints, Turnstones and Sanderlings, plus good numbers of Black Tern, Little Gull and Sandwich Terns.

Colour-ringed juv Med Gull at BLGP

Juvenile Mediterranean Gull with a black on yellow ring on its left tarsus.

Marbled Whites

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Raven on Rabbit road-kill, Baston

As I was leaving the corner pits of Baston and Langtoft pits yesterday, a couple of Ravens flew low over, heading north. They were a Lincs tick for me. before they had gone far, they circled round and landed in one of the oaks on the Baston Outgang Road. It turns out they had seen a freshly splatted Rabbit and fancied a snack. The only problem as the quantity of traffic, which meant they kept having to go for quick circuits around the fields (hence flight shots). They looked a tad brown at the head end and a bit worn in the wing and tail feathers, both suggesting (at least to me) these were a pair of worn adults.

SIlver-washed Fritillary, Bedford Purlieus

Dark Green Fritillaries, Bedford Purlieus