Bird Watching

Here we have a bunch of gulls and ducks. For most people that's enough information, but for those of us infected with the bird watching addiction, that's certainly not enough. Today Mrs L and I were getting our "fix" over at Tring.

First off there's these dark green backed birds with the crest, they're neither gulls nor ducks - they're Lapwings Vanellus vanellus or as I grew up knowing them Peewits. There are six large brown ducks with a heavy looking bill, these are Shovelers Anas clypeata, then there's loads of gulls. All bar one of the gulls are Black-headed gulls Larus ridibundus, don't be confused with the ones with yellow bill and black tip and the ones with the red bill and black tip they're just young and adult birds. The odd one out is an immature Mediterranean Gull Larus melanocephalus it's obvious ain't it with its all black bill, grey hood stretching down the back of the head and darker colouring on the neck. If you've not got it then try viewing in LARGE, but be careful it can be addictive.

So having impressed you with my knowledge it's time for a confession - a couple of days ago I saw a warbler (that's another type of bird) with a conspicuous yellow stripe over its eye and a conspicuous dark stripe thru its eye and yellowish breast, delving into my bird books I came to the conclusion it must have been a Wood warbler. This caused a bit of a stir, being an unusual sighting, I hadn't actually realised this, so a revisit to the books suggested a more likely sighting being a juvenile Willow warbler.

If only they all came with name tags, but hey, that would spoil the fun - found the Mediterranean Gull yet?