UKH

Saw these beauties on Saturday, at Martin Mere. Summer plumage, and exceptionally close, views form a hide. 

Pair walking is my favourite, lovely pictures!

It feels a bitty ‘cheaty’ being in a hide, but the views are great. My understating is that they are none breeding birds, but many still moult into breeding plumage. 

Excellent pics BC.

Saw some at weekend, but they were a couple of hundred metres away!

Beautiful pics!

Some more from Saturday, a few ‘testers’.

And a another few more from Saturday. 

Very lovely pics of the godwits. Nice Little Gull and Little Ringed Plover too. And White Wagtail I think.

My treat for yesterday was a little group of twelve Whimbrels on one of the beaches on Walney Island. Two of them posed nicely to show off their main differences from Curlews - the head pattern and the bill shape.

Correct. Whimbrel stop off and hang about in SW Lancs at this time of year, but not seen any yet, often groups of up to 80 in their random but favourite fields. 
And great photo - I’ve only ever got distant photos. Flighty things. 

Edit: 3 common cranes been spotted sun a few places - heading your way…

Wouldn’t have got the gull 🙄.

I saw a white wagtail last year. I gather it is controversial with some and not recognised as separate from pied by many. Just variations of colour they reckon.

Wrens are very noisy these days; they pack a loud punch for their size. Hear them before I see them.

Whimbrel - still to see one of them. Some huge flocks of curlew flying about though. One last week, was in excess of 50 birds that I counted before they landed.

Nice, shows them off well - mini curlews! Still to see one though.

IIRC, the pied is a sub species of white. 

Last year I got good whimbrel views at Ruddons Point (with a male scoter stood amongst them!) .  

Not a place I’ve been to very often though not sure why as it is a nice area (if the wind is not blown hard). Need to try it more this year.

My re-entry to "serious" birdwatching (i.e. actually going birdwatching rather than seeing things when otherwise out and about) was BC (in a previous incarnation) posting about some Whimbrels in a field near Wigan in May 2021 - it's all his fault 😁

Got the White Wagtail but they can be tricky because Pied is the UK sub-species and you can get hybrids to make things even trickier. Males are easiest to identify when in summer plumage; winter, females and juveniles less so.

I would have guessed Little Gull because it looks small and not quite right for any of the other commoner small gulls, but it would have been a guess rather than a positive identification. Not breeding plumage, maybe not adult.

Nervous about the wren knowing BC's previous photos, wondering if it's one of the several sub-species (like St Kilda) rather than the common variety.

BC has a lot to answer for 🤣. It was his postings that got me interested in taking it seriously (and I’m grateful for that). Learning lots.

I was told the white wagtail I saw was a white by a birder that seemed to know what he was talking about. It looks like a white in the photos. Now you and BC reminded me about the pied being a sub species, he mentioned that at the time but I obviously forgot. I reckon I’ve probably seen some hybrids as there is so much variation of colours. Happy to assume most I see are pied ones though.

Sub species of Wren? Oh no 😳! (I’ll not lose sleep about sub species for Wrens! I do like to see them).

interesting.   3 cranes were reported flying in from the north sea here a week or two ago.  I wonder if they were the same three?