Blue in Green
The larger wings of the great herons and egrets enable them to glide with uncommon elegance and silence, quite lacking with the smaller ducks and birds who raise a racket trying to gain altitude.
The new camera has a much better AF and the extra resolution as well as the deeper hand-grip are also appreciated.
The orange eyes…
…gave him away as being a Night Heron. Further investigation narrowed it down to a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron. Rarely seen in daytime while feeding nocturnally, specializing on crabs.
‘Our’ sparrow hawk - unless someone knows better.
A slightly better shot than the last.
Usually glimpsed as a flurry of sparrows and a hawkish blur.
I’ve been using Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab on iPad & Android.
Impressed.
Any others tried it and comments
I tried to trick it with an abnormal pose of a bird from outside my ‘Merlin’ assigned area.
It ID’d it no problems
Yes, it’s great, we use it a lot.
My new skirt
That’s what the intense heat does to you, wishing you could do without these heavy wings…
One gets dizzy…
…so much food around. A female American Gold Finch insisting on trying all the Hors d’oeuvres.
It looks like he’s got something on his head.
Down at the scrapes at Minsmere earlier this week
Identification help wanted.
Could have sworn I had a Pintail fly by today at Farmoor Reservoir. Except that the time of year is all wrong. Long neck, long tail, elegant, fast flight with rapid wingbeat, very distinctive white border on inboard rear of wings. Absolutely no chance to grab a picture.
Thoughts as to what it could be?
Hi @PW42 , Pintail begin to arrive in late August and I’ve seen Pintail at Farmoor, so it’s a maybe at least for now.
Thank you. Maybe I’m not going mad! 
Not even sure what it was, I was walking with my daughter this week (Southend area) and before our eyes this: hawk, falcon, kestrel attacked a pigeon in the air. Both dropped to the floor, where the pigeon remained and the ‘hawk’ flew off. Probably disturbed by us.
Photo on my iPhone.
Probably a Sparrow hawk, definitely not a Kestrel.
