devilbirder

Surveying for European Golden Plover and Northern Lapwing in Kent today with limited luck.

We'd have done well if it were a falcon survey, with an adult male Merlin sitting out the rough weather in a winter wheat field. I only average three sightings of this species (Europe's smallest raptor) per year, and I struggle to remember the last time I saw an adult male well. Such a smart little hunter.

This was followed by an adult Peregrine Falcon tucking into a Black-headed Gull, plucked feathers trailing through the scene.

This long-lived tubenose [unrelated to gulls] often returns to stake out its favoured ledge with its lifelong partner after an autumn moulting exodus to the high seas.

The tube nose is shared by all other members of the order Procellariiformes and reflects a mind-blowing sense of smell as well as serving as an exit for excess salt.

This week is my first time birding Shetland properly, although I've plenty of fond memories from twitches (day trips!) for Cape May Warbler, Killdeer, Pine Grosbeak and Tengmalm's Owl over the years.

The view from our accommodation is superb, with a bird-filled loch and a peaceful bay below us.

In exploring the local area, we homed in on a lush garden on a hillside. We were greeted by the resident and, after searching his name, we quickly realised that he is a highly esteemed birder and ringer, having written books on some of Britain's most fabled birding islands and travelled across the world conducting research over the course of decades.

Sadly, this lovely gentleman has had to give up ringing due to challenges with memory and thinking, but he is always wearing his binoculars when he comes to say hello. While showing us his awesome collection of books, journals, notebooks and photographs, he reminisced fondly of his past trips, and how much he'd love to visit far-flung places again.

His garden once contained many well-maintained net rides for catching, ringing and releasing migrant birds. Now, like his thoughts, it is becoming a bit of a tangle and the clearings are hard to discern.

But the birds still come, and he still watches them. We have enjoyed the likes of Hawfinch, Yellow-browed Warbler (photo) and Mealy Redpoll there; over the years it has attracted rarities I can only dream of.

Vismig redpolls

Fly-over redpolls are always good value but what to record them as? There's a strong argument that there is only one species of redpoll anyway but currently we have Lesser, Common and Arctic.

For vismig purposes in the British Isles, we can rule out Arctic Redpoll by default. It's a very rare species to encounter and you probably would notice one overhead anyway, as they do seem to call differently and might even look bright white to the naked eye given a decent view.

The only redpoll that ever struck me as sounding different overhead was in the Hemsted Forest, Kent, a few years ago, and I have a strong suspicion that it was a Coues's Arctic Redpoll but we shall never know.

Based on the fact that almost every settled redpoll I see in Britain is a Lesser, and Commons have always required thorough searches through flocks of their warm-toned cousins, on eBird I record all fly-over redpolls as Lessers. But on Trektellen I log them as redpoll sp. I know, not very consistent but that's what seems right to me for these respective platforms.

Anyway, I've been meaning to photograph fly-over redpolls at West Hill, my new patch in Hastings where we've just moved to. My first attempt was only the other day and at some rather distant birds but I figured the season is pushing on so I'd better try to get something, in order to see whether any of them look like Commons.