UKH

The Sparrowhawk was a good distance away, but closer than the Merlin and peregrine. The buzzard was having a good ‘mew’, and kestrels are always great to see. Marsh harrier, either a female or this years juvenile male. All taken this weekend. 

Sparrowhawk on a neighbours dish. Kinda cool photo, straight into the sun. Luckily I had the camera to hand, they don’t perch for long  

Question: which is the better photo?  I prefer the more silhouetted photo. 

Couple more. Four (of the 22) cattle egrets, and a reed bunting. 

I prefer the other one.  I like being able to see something of the texture of the feathers, and the sort of halo around the tail (I guess where the tail feathers are translucent around the edges) looks very artificial in the more silhouetted pic.

Where are the photos of the Merlin & Peregrine? Am I missing something or did you 😁 - too far away?

Were those all taken in the same place - if so - where?

The silhouette photo would be useful in a "what's this bird" quiz but we've all seen it now.

The top 3 egrets look like they're practising for the formation flying comp - no idea what the 4th bird thinks it's doing.

Female Sparrowhawk flying very close to 2 Buzzards, plus Kestrels nearby were my recent raptor sightings. Didn’t expect the two species to be flying so close to each other though.

Besides raptors a sighting of a Little Egret was of interest to four other bird watchers as one said they have never seen one at Kilminning before. Think I may have got a nice photo as the sun was highlighting it.

The peregrine photo wasn’t that good. And the merlins have been way out. Seen a couple perched up though. Mars hide and Hesketh Outmarsh, apart from Marsh Harrier at Martin Mere and the buzzard on my dog walk.  
Egret numbers are bonkers  seen 4 or 5 great white egrets every time I’ve been out, and the 22 was a record for Martin Mere. Some good waders as well - 5 spotredshanks and 11 greenshank highlights. 

Recent sightings for me are:

Several red kites including one being harassed by a crow.

A couple of buzzards.

The local kestrels including one being harassed by a single magpie

I think a sparrowhawk chasing a group of starlings. Saw them burst across the path couple of hundred metres in front with most of the starlings going one way and one unlucky one heading the other followed by the hawk. Disappeared from view quickly before i could see much though.

Good stuff. I had a Merlin and peregrine in the same scope view - distant, but brilliant .  Next time I’m up Fife way, some bloke ‘in charge’ offered to join me up to their WhatsApp group. I’m no twitcher, but knowing what’s about does help plan a good day out. 

The grey phalarope from Saturday. A beautiful and interesting wader, constant swimming and feeding. 

I’d put a big wager that you are right. As a rule of thumb, when someone says ‘saw what I think was a bird of prey but it was too quick, flying over our garden/down our street etc …. then it’s a Sparrowhawk. Especially if they say ‘it looked almost blue or grey.’  

Few others from That Down South.  

It's funny, Godwits never seem to get boring even though you see them loads of times. And Stonechats are so obliging sitting on top of posts and at the top of bushes - if only all the small song birds did that.

Not been out for a week or two - was in the Lakes last week where the most uncommon sighting was a Sparrowhawk (prob female) that flew across the road as I was driving round the west side of the Lakes. And regardless of the number of Meadow Pipits that are recorded migrating, there's still plenty in them thar hills, and some Wheatears. And then on Thursday & Friday it rained - properly - the difference in water levels on rivers (where you could still see them in the middle of new lakes) and small (existing) lakes was phenomenal.

Oh yes, forgot, did see a Badger running across the road in Coniston on Wednesday evening.

And since then I've not been out because getting Covid again seemed like a good way to avoid making a decision about whether to have this winter's vaccine booster - luckily the effects have been as previously - couple of days paracetamol to suppress high temperature, felt ok today - work from home this week; trying to avoid passing it on to the Mrs.

Interesting, the Peregrine tolerating the Merlin being around. Maybe a juvenile that hasn't yet learnt that "we don't talk to their kind".