Back In Black

A gorgeous morning on Fenn’s and Whixall Mosses failed to produce either the Great Grey Shrike of Hen Harrier reported yesterday, but the Halloween sunshine did bring out a few dragonflies including a spooky Black Darter.

Birding can be hard going here and today was no exception - the best I had turned up after the first hour was a Green Woodpecker flying at a fair distance and a handful of Stonechats.

Infact, there were probably more birders than birds today, including one lucky punter who said he had seen the butcher bird perched on the weather station a little earlier. Perhaps this species has a curious fetish for wind meters and rain gauges as the birds that over winter at Cloclaenog similarly haunt the weather station atop of Bron Banog.

The Phylloscopus warbler identification challenge has entered a new stage with the discovery of a Green/Greenish Warbler at Cornwall today, following on from the Eastern Crowned Warbler in South Shields.

I must confess that during my many hours birding in India, I have tended not to concentrate too hard on phylloscopus warblers due to the huge problems in identifying these birds given that there are so many similar species. Credit to the birders then, who not only managed to find theses birds but correctly identified them too.

Still, I am yet to be convinced on the wisdom of diving hundreds if miles just to catch a glimpse of what in the general scheme of things are, let’s face it, fairly bland and unremarkable birds: life is just too short Mr Tickell, Mr Brooks and Mr Tytler.

Until later.