UKH

Phone photos via telescope. Ace views of a barn owl, until past 9.00am (rained last night so they often hunt in daylight when it’s rained at night).  Peregrine as well, greenshank and goosander. Warm though, feels weird.  

A tester…

Grey phalarope?

Yup. Cracking little bird, none stop feeding. 

Phone scoped photo of some of the 22 cattle egrets that I’m watching now. 

Wonder if it's the same one that was at Elton Reservoir (Bury) a week or so ago that I didn't get a chance to go and see. No idea what a Grey Phalarope's normal migration route and destination are but going west (+ a bit of north) from Bury to Martin Mere doesn't strike me as normal for the autumnal southern migration.

I think Collins says their normal route is south by sea to somewhere off the coast of South Africa -  they just get blown in here from time to time. I saw one in Devon last Autumn - great little bird, always on the move but hung about for a few days and easy to spot. 

My guess is that it’s a different bird - doubt it would have hung around for a few weeks given it needs to migrate south. Great article here: 

https://www.birdguides.com/articles/species-profiles/grey-phalarope/

Another American Golden Plover has been spotted - that’s at least 3 separate birds. Recent winds etc have blown lots of stuff in. The guy whose spotted two of these is super mega keen - he is looking through flocks of hundreds, at distance as well.  But the differences can be subtle and lots must get missed.

Yesterday, I (and others) saw the biggest group of skeins of pink feet ever. Hard to estimate, some bloke reckoned ‘well over 10,000’ !!  Quite distant but impressive. And weird: I’m not used to watching winter geese in such hot weather (shorts and t shirt job).  

How much did you have tonpay that kingfisher to keep still for you? Amazing shot.

You either get a 100mph flash of blue, or they stand still long enough for a quick snap. You may have missed this photo I posted a while back. Someone else on here has a better kingfisher photo, possibly of the exact same bird !

Saw my first redwings of the year this morning - 1000s have arrived on the east coast in the last few days. They migrate at night - you can hear their high pitched flight call even in big cities. And I saw two swallows as well - possibly my last of this year?