#desert wheatear

What's in a name? Quite a lot! Take, for example, the desert wheatear. Though this bird does live in the desert, it's common name has nothing to do with wheat or ears! Instead, it is a corruption of the 16th century name "white" and "arse", referencing the bird's white rump.

[2946/11080] Desert wheatear - Oenanthe deserti

Order: Passeriformes Suborder: Passeri Superfamily: Muscicapoidea Family: Muscicapidae (old world flycatchers) Subfamily: Saxicolinae (chats) Genus: Oenanthe (wheatears)

A new variant has been added!

Desert Wheatear (Oenanthe deserti) © John Gerrard Keulemans

It hatches from black, brief, bright, brown, colored, dark, dry, extensive, female, male, mellow, northern, open, pale, short, similar, small, soft, solid, sparse, sweet, tan, and white eggs.

River Dart

Our second day in Devon found us exploring the southern part of the county with local birder Mike Langman. Our first stop was at Waddeton where we found some Cirl Bunting feeding on a cattle feeder. From here we moved onto a stretch of the River Dart near Buckfastleigh to look for Dipper. Although we did find 3 drake Mandarin ducks, a somewhat unexpected species, the Dipper was nowhere…