Wells

Day off today so managed to escape to the North Coast, I spent the morning at Wells Wood. I managed to get a subspecies tick in the form of Northern Bullfinch, I saw 2 females and a single male briefly. The females were as big as Waxwings and just sat there when all other bullies flew away, I didnt realise the females didnt have the trumpet call so spent too long trying to clionch the call, unsuccessfully of course. I did manage to hear a clear trumpeting from a male as I was leaving, he flew in and out quite quickly but perched calling for long enough to realise some subtle differences. All in all they were all far larger than our Bullfinches with stronger wing bars, more bull necked, male had saw edge to wing bar and a more pink tinge than red, wheras the females were a different hue being a slightly duller colour. They are just the sort of birds I love seeing, they are subtle but obvious when seen well, especially if heard!

While out and about I also managed to find 17 Shore Larks, 11 Waxwings (in off) and at least 3 Meally Redpolls in amongst a very flighty flock of lessers.

After Wells I headed to the Burnham overy car park where I picked up a Rough legged Buzzard hunting, it was distant but showed well enough to be sure of ID, there were also 3 Common Buzzards viewable from here at the same time.

Unfortunately my day was cut short by having to pick Ruth up from work and then go shopping, still I had a successful morning with 3 year ticks and a subspecies tick in 3 hrs!