Juvenile Wheatear

6 hours at Minsmere waiting for the rarest of rare UK birds Purple Swamphen to show in better light than midweek  only yielded a sunburnt face and some shots of this juvenile wheatear. They look really scabby and scaly as juveys, but a lovely bird in adult plumage.

As for the swamphen, it's not been seen since Friday evening, so it's either gone, been eaten or is merrily munching away on reeds on a pool which can't be seen from the paths. The RSPB Minsmere which has hosted BBC Springwatch complete with Chris Packham for the last 3 years has such a huge reedbed, it could quite easily turn up again in a while.