Lapwing at Grummit's Scrape

© Phil Ackerman

Blackcap at Eldernell

© Katie Fuller

Wheatear at Ferry Meadows CP

© Katie Fuller

Passage has been a bit slow this year, so this male Wheatear was a nice find on the edge of Coney Meadow and Lynch Lake.

Shelduck at Welland Bank Pits

© Phil Ackerman

Grey Partridge at Baston & Langtoft GP

© Will Bowell

The male Grey Partridge has a brighter face than the female. Nationally, the species has declined massively in recent years. Sympathetic farming methods, like those practiced nearby by Nicholas Watts, can help.

Blue-headed Wagtail at Prior's Fen GP

© Kevin Du Rose

This bird is a bit different to our usual Yellow Wagtails that breed in the area (subspecies flavissima). Its very pale head looks like the eastern European Blue-headed race, beema (known as Sykes's Wagtail), though it could perhaps be a flavissima/flava hybrid.

Yellow Wagtail races merge into each other so there may be no definitive answer!

Meadow Pipit at Nene Washes

© Katie Fuller

Red-breasted Merganser on River Welland

© Steve Dudley

Pied Wagtail at Baston & Langtoft GP

© Phil Ackerman

Egyptian Goose at Welland Bank Pits

© Phil Ackerman

Avocet at Baston & Langtoft GP

© Phil Ackerman

Goldcrest at Baston & Langtoft GP

© Phil Ackerman

Lesser Redpoll at Baston & Langtoft GP

© Phil Ackerman

Brambling at Baston & Langtoft GP

© Josh Jones

Winter 2003/2004 has seen up to three Bramblings feeding around Park Farm in the company of Greenfinches and Chaffinches. Note the contrast in rump colour: white for Brambling, green for Chaffinch.

Wheatear at Welland Bank Pits

© Will Bowell

Little Ringed Plover at Baston & Langtoft GP

© Josh Jones

Little Ringed Plover is one of the earliest spring migrants to arrive in the PBC area.

Features which tell this species from the similar Ringed Plover include the yellow eye-ring (especially distinct on males like this bird), the flesh-coloured legs (orange on Ringed Plover), the smaller size, the all-dark bill (orange and black on Ringed) and the lack of white wing-bar in flight.

Brambling at Crowtree, Farcet Fen

© Steve Dudley

The buff tips on this male bird's black head feathers have nearly all worn off, revealing his smart breeding plumage.

Black-headed Gulls at Grummit's Scrape

© Phil Ackerman

Starling at Langtoft

© Phil Ackerman

Mediterranean Gull at Dogsthorpe Star Pit NR

summer-plumaged adult


first-winter
© Kevin Du Rose