Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Springo Ringo

Yesterday, I twitched a Ring Ouzel with (the kind and generous lift-offering) John Saunders (who took this photo) near Ailsworth. It was found by Matt Webb on his birthday cycle marathon bird trip and reported initially as a plain female. I've never seen a Ringo with such as poorly marked breast band, and to me it looks like a second-calendar year bird (ie first-winter/summer) rather than a clear female. It is also quite blackish and has nice silvery wings which possibly point to it being a young male rather than a young female. Incidentally, in the original uncropped photo there were 3 Wheatears, and in the field where the ouzel was there were at least 17 Wheatears!

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