Roxy Red Crests

New for my SFYL this evening.

Well thank you July...

My first SFYT since May I reckon. 

Mealy Redpoll and Peregrine

On my walk back to Potton after a productive visit to Roxton and Great Barford with Richard, (more below), I finally gained good views of a redpoll flock on the Old Bedford Road that have been giving me something of a runaround. I first saw this flock of up to 60 individuals in early January and on January 19th, thought I had a good contender for a Mealy, but could not 'tick all of the boxes.' I even remarked to Steve about the possibility! Today, the flock was settled and feeding/ preening/ resting in a silver birch. Overcast conditions didn't provide ideal viewing, but at least one bird (a first-winter/ female) showed all the diagnostic features of Mealy: overall paleness to underparts, crisp, white wingbars, greyish brown upperparts and head, contrasting nicely with the mantle, and when preening, a nice, obvious, whitish rump. Another bird could also have been a Mealy, but could not be 100%. c.45 Lessers were accompanying them, allowing excellent opportunity for comparison.

At Roxton, RIB and I enjoyed a fabulous flyby immature male (I think) Peregrine, which obligingly sat up on a pylon for R to obtain some video. Near Great Barford, six Egyptian Geese and 68 Mute Swans held our attention for a while.

A photograph of the Peregrine will follow...

That puts me on 99. What will be the landmark bird?

DOM

Goose is good.

I do like looking through plastic geese just in case...even in a really rubbish year for wild geese. As you can see from this shot at Roxton, there were no goodies among the Barnacles and Greylags. But I finally caught up with Redpoll when one flew over this flock. My only SFYT of the weekend.