Spot the difference

I was quite pleased to have these two lined up together. On the left is a redshank, and on the right its much scarcer relative, a spotted redshank.

The spotted redshank as can be seen is paler and greyer, has a longer bill that is slightly downcurved at the tip, with the red confined to the lower mandible. Although the two birds are wading deeply here, both, of course have red shanks. Here they are feeding side by side, but the 'spotshank' will often feed in deeper water. The calls of the two birds are also very different, the spotted redhank has a rapid, disyllabic 'chu-it', the redshank has a more musical 'teu' or melancholic 'teu-hu'.

Redshanks overwinter in Britain on the coast in large numbers, our resident birds being joined by those from Iceland. The spotted redshank overwinters in very small numbers, and is more numerous on spring and autumn passage as they travel to and from the arctic. The first birds back from the arctic in June may be still in their gorgeous black breeding plumage with a fine white mottling on the back.

It was a birdy day today. I thought I had better go and see the glossy ibis that has been frequenting some damp fields just outside Leighton Moss since before Christmas. It was easy to find - look for the man with the huge camera lens and you'll be sure to see it. He was complaining that it wasn't close enough despite the fact he had an 840mm lens and it was 50 metres away!

It was a chance to also pick up the commoner duck and other wetland species at the same time. At the coastal hides where these two redshanks were, I saw the biggest flock of lapwings I've ever seen, there were several thousand birds. On the main reserve there are a couple of marsh harriers wintering this year, and I saw the female. At home, we have had a female blackcap in the garden.

The year list is now up to 80. New species today were: blackcap, mute swan, shoveler, coot, tufted duck, gadwall, glassy ibis, pochard, kingfisher, spotted redshank, meadow pipit, marsh harrier, and snipe.

My apologies that my comments have been a bit thin these last few nights.