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Barrie/Paul - ID help needed

is this an immature Blackbird or Thrush - ring around the neck???

saw it in the garden today UK - movements and size were Blackbird like, (maybe a little smaller)

straight out of camera - reddish colouring is true

sorry about quality ISO 5000 + and far away plus thru the window glass

imm_B.jpg




imm_B_1.jpg
 
Bill, juvenile Blackbird, however I feel it's still a little early in it's plumage development to reliably sex it, a view echoed in Birds of the Western Palearctic and by my association with ringers who generally wouldn't sex a juvenile until mid autumn. BWP illustrates a plumage variation for a juvenile similar to this, calling it a "stockamsel" variety, but I can find no mention of it in the 15 pages of A4 close typed text.

Barrie

PS, apparently "stockamsel" birds are Polish or German in origin, so wouldn't be seen until the autumn.
 
Bill, juvenile Blackbird, however I feel it's still a little early in it's plumage development to reliably sex it, a view echoed in Birds of the Western Palearctic and by my association with ringers who generally wouldn't sex a juvenile until mid autumn. BWP illustrates a plumage variation for a juvenile similar to this, calling it a "stockamsel" variety, but I can find no mention of it in the 15 pages of A4 close typed text.

Barrie

PS, apparently "stockamsel" birds are Polish or German in origin, so wouldn't be seen until the autumn.

Thanks Barrie

There is a sub species that looks a little like this bird, (maybe), v the Euro version, (T.m merula) but it would never be here - T. m. mandarinus

when I saw it it said blackbird but I have never really seen one with those markings …. but bill colour would indicate that it is a juvenile

another image

imm_B_2.jpg


Just managed to get a low clicks D700 - high ISO images are very good as is the normal IQ and colours - these images are some distance away at ISO 5000 - great for ID shots
 
Now I thought that this was a female Gadwall, but I am having my doubts versus a female Mallard
The smaller size and dark "rear end" says Gadwall, but the buffish neck rather than white and the small white tail feathers say Mallard??
and that's a big beak, looks too little large for either ……. almost Shoveler ………..

Some "hanky pankie" back down the line or am I going bird quackers?

seen Hampshire, UK, a few days ago

Barrie/Paul ???
Gad copy.jpg


Gad_2.jpg
 
Now I thought that this was a female Gadwall, but I am having my doubts versus a female Mallard
The smaller size and dark "rear end" says Gadwall, but the buffish neck rather than white and the small white tail feathers say Mallard??
and that's a big beak, looks too little large for either ……. almost Shoveler

Some "hanky pankie" back down the line or am I going bird quackers?

seen Hampshire, UK, a few days ago

Barrie/Paul ???
Gad copy.jpg


Gad_2.jpg

Female Mallard, heavily in moult, the youngsters look classic Mallard

Barrie
 
Wheatears

I'm very busy surveying breeding Wheatears, so very little photograohy, however I stopped my car near a wall only to find I was about 30 feet from a Wheatears nest. Imagine my surprise when a bird emerged carrying a faecal sac, then both birds were visiting with food. This is the female taken with a G6 and a Sigma 105mm, the longest lens I had with me, and even that was luck. Today has been an excellent day with the first fledged young seen at 3 territories, only about another 57 to go :eek:

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Barrie
 
They are such sweeties.

Paul, you're in danger of showing yourself to be all soft and sentimental, and that will never do :D


What wonderful luck, Barrie - and you were at the ready!

I am not familiar with this bird Wheatears...they look a bit like a cross between our Mockingbirds and some kind of shorebird.

BB, I wasn't as ready as I would have liked, a longer lens would have been very useful. I'm not really sure what to compare a Wheatear to in North American terms, think of a ground loving, restless bird flitting from rock to rock, hole or crevice nesting and inhabiting rather barren, open areas and wintering in arid or semi arid zones. Despite being rather showy in plumage, particularly the male, they are surprising cryptic in amongst the granite boulders.

Barrie
 
The Northern breeds in Alaska and they are trickling into Canada …… so one day like most others they will find someway past the border guards

and of course they have a few small Thrushes, although apparently now Oenanthe is considered family Muscicapidae by some but my list still says it is still of the family Turdidae
 
Hi Barrie/Paul and of course others who are interested

I was down at Bashford Lakes the other days and spent an hour or two watching the usual squabbles between gulls

Shots were some distance away so are a little blurred, anyway

First is a smaller Black Headed Gull chasing off a much larger Black Backed Gull, (Greater or Lessor??)

Second is a Common Tern chasing both

The Common Terns were nesting in the middle of the Lake on there rafts - two had been partly taken over by the Black Headed and were about 50/50 and one was 100% Tern

Presumably the Black Backed Gulls were after the chicks or eggs of the other two, (swoop in, grab, fly out) ……. it was a noisy, continuous and constant battle

Chase_1.jpg


Chase_2.jpg
 
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