Margaret the Novice
Chough dealing with annual moult Wales 14.7.2014 (1)
We had travelled to north Wales from Ipswich for a couple of days in the hope of both seeing and photographing choughs a bird that had eluded us on previous trips.
After we had rested in our self-catering cottage for a couple of hours after our long journey we set off to try and find the choughs
We found a pair that were clearly in the midst of their annual moult and as we watched it became abundantly clear that the emerging feathers were driving them mad presumably by itching as they were stopping regularly to preen and ease the itch as the new feathers grew.
You can see the pin feathers still encased in their sheath in some of the images.
Chough dealing with annual moult Wales 14.7.2014 (1)
We had travelled to north Wales from Ipswich for a couple of days in the hope of both seeing and photographing choughs a bird that had eluded us on previous trips.
After we had rested in our self-catering cottage for a couple of hours after our long journey we set off to try and find the choughs
We found a pair that were clearly in the midst of their annual moult and as we watched it became abundantly clear that the emerging feathers were driving them mad presumably by itching as they were stopping regularly to preen and ease the itch as the new feathers grew.
You can see the pin feathers still encased in their sheath in some of the images.