... in recent years the flocks that often frequent the areas between here and Cardurnock have included three or more leucistic birds ... very often feeding close together ... and sometimes a little distance apart ...
... it makes me wonder how closely these individuals associate in the breeding season ...
Black-tailed Godwits are thinly spread in the environs of the Solway unlike the the large numbers frequenting the Morcambe Bay area ... but all the more pleasing to see here ... and it tempts closer scrutiny of these small groups ...
... these four birds roosting on the Folly Pond at Caerlaverock remained resolutely inactive but the two first-winter birds showed off their retained juvenile tertials with more markings than the adults' plain grey tertials.
The Border Forests that were once the Bewcastle Fells and Gilsland Moors so evocatively described by Ritson Graham in the middle decades of the twentieth century, still hold the promise of something special ... a promise that often remains undelivered ...
... Crossbills have been a bit scarce lately but some good looking cones are now visible ... and so more Crossbills ...
... the bill shape looking typical of Common Crossbill .... not particularly broad based neither being overly long ...
... and mobile as ever ...
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