Leaf peeping

Going back for second helpings of the Daurian Shrike at Beeston the other day was a good move. Hidden in the treetops around the green was a Long eared Owl. Always good value.

Fantastic Phalaropes

The other week a windblown waif was occupying one of the sea pools up on the coast.

I adore these specialised waders. A popular little chap this Grey Phalarope swam and bobbed ‘cork like’ around brackish water just on the landward side of the shingle ridge. I guess the pool was not dissimilar to the one he was born on earlier this year, perhaps in Iceland or more likely further into the Arctic Circle; Greenland or Svalbard maybe. As I watched him he fed on tiny fish fry, insects and small crustaceans. For such a tiny bird they are surprisingly pelagic for most of the year only coming ashore to breed, if sick or when pushed ashore by storms.

This is a bird that has probably never seen a human before and was as a consequence quite tame.