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There are still a dozen or so Lesser Scaup still hanging out at Mill Lake. Someone has been feeding them as they come very close.
It's been a poor year for photography so far, in fact I still haven't opened a "2021" folder on my PC, still filing this years under "2020"!
So it was a present surprise, as I was putting the rubbish out, to find a pair of Redpolls in the garden.
This picture of a lesser kestrel in flight was the culmination of an eventful couple of days.
It was taken on our second, and unplanned visit to Alora during our recent birding tour around Southern Spain.
Alora is a typical pueblo blanco, a whitewashed village nestled in a majestic landscape surrounded by three rocky spurs, and overlooked by the impressive rock face of mount Hacho on the right bank of the Guadalhorce river.
We had visited the day before as part or a trip around the mountains and gorges of El Chorro. It was a successful day. Our photographic haul included images of black wheatear, dartford warbler, crested tit, rock bunting, griffon vulture and we also had one opportunity at a very close golden eagle fly-by, which alas none of us managed to capture. This small frustration developed into total despair for me by the end of the day. Due in small part to ageing hardware and, in larger part, to an ageing photographer, I managed to lose all my images for the day during the download process.
To my rescue, both Richard and Dave my travelling companions, agreed to shoehorn in a second visit to Alora the next day. Dave even gave up the chance to photograph bee-eater, one of his targeted species, which we found courting along the banks of Rio Guadalhorce on our way to Alora. For which I was very grateful.
At the top of one of Alora's rocky spurs is the castle of Alora; this monument has stood there since the Phoenician occupied the region. The castle was then redeveloped and extended by the Romans, until its almost complete destruction by the hands of the Visigoths who became the dominant power on the Iberian Peninsula.
The castle was rebuilt once again by the Moors and remnants of this time are still intact, most notably the decorative steel door and traditional Arabic balcony.
Making our way to the castle was quite a challenge. As the history suggests, the narrow, cobbled streets of Alora are not designed for the passage of a 4x4 Defender. Intrepidly we made our way to the castle and we were well rewarded for our efforts. Although, I have made this trip many times in the last ten years, this was the first time the impressive gates to the castle were open. We ventured in and found the caretaker tending to his castle. I used my best Wiltshire Spanish (lots of hand gestures and English words spoken with a Spanish accent) to pursued him to let us into one of the castle towers, which provided us with our first eye-level views of the lesser kestrel in flight. All’s well that ends well!
Lesser Adjutant (Leptotilos javanicus) is a scarce resident of Sri Lanka. Vulnerable. An adult. Belongs to Ciconidae family. Captured at Minneriya National Park, Sri Lanka
A Lesser Sand Plover Punggol Barat Island.
*Note: More pics of Birds in my Wild Avian Friends Album.
This early morning outing in Cape May was quiet overall, but this lone Lesser Yellowlegs made it worthwhile. I found him foraging in a large puddle up the beach. A few other sandpipers came and went, but this bird was the most cooperative of all. After a few minutes of shooting, I noticed a distance beach houses outdoor light in the frame. While not natural, it is now part of the environment, so I decided to include it as a little pop of color. I tried a few different compositions, but ultimately waited for the bird to step directly below the light before capturing what I though was THE shot.
Don't be led astray by it's name! The Lesser Marsh Grasshopper (Chorthippus albomarginatus) is found in both wet and dry areas. Although most abundant on coastal levels and saltmarsh edge, it can use a variety of grassland, especially where it is damper and rush-dominated with seasonal flooding.
C.albomarginatus is always fully winged and capable of flight, and females have a distinct white line along the edge of the wing, distinguishing it from the Meadow Grasshopper! Male and female Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers have a characteristic courtship call of two to six chirps per second, which apparently sounds like the winding of a mechanical clock.
C.albomarginatus is common around Britain, having spread from the south and south-east into Wales, much of the West Midlands and as far north as Yorkshire on the east coast. However, it is rare in the south-west.
I am pretty sure this is a Female Lesser Redpoll but Im not 100% sure.
If It is then Iv'e never seen one of these birds before which is strange because on this day there was tons of them all at a place I regularly go to !!
Lesser Yellowlegs are medium-sized sandpipers with long, yellow legs and long, graceful necks. Males and females are similar in plumage and size, although females have longer wingspans on average. In the breeding season lesser Yellowlegs have grey, black, and white mottled plumage dorsally, white belly, and brown streaks on a white background on the neck and breast. Their primary feathers are black. Outside of the breeding season their colors are more muted and uniformly gray on the upperparts, with some spotting, and white with small gray spots on their underparts. They are easily recognized by their long legs, necks, and bills and bright yellow legs, being only confused with Greater Yellowlegs.