Warnham LNR

We spent a couple of hours at Warnham LNR on Monday morning. The crested grebes didn't feel like courting (still haven't got any photos of them dancing, boo-hoo) but the common redpoll decided to pose for me this time. So I managed to get a couple of nice shots, yay!

A lovely bird!
Also, a nice surprise when I was trying to get a shot of a dunnock on the ground: a little bank vole (I think that's what it is anyway!) said hello! :)

Mealy it is!

I have had confirmation from several bird experts that my photos do indeed show a mealy redpoll plus, this morning, someone else who apparently saw the bird at Warnham Nature Reserve yesterday reported it to birdguides.com. So a 'life tick' for me (not that I keep an actual list but I do love to add new birds to the 'list in my head' and to my bird photo gallery)!

I also saw a merlin yesterday afternoon but will blog about our visit to Pagham later.

Female merlin

Mealy Redpoll?

In glorious sunshine, we popped down to Warnham LNR this morning. The flock of redpolls has grown quite a bit - there were at least 10 birds on and around the Woodpecker Hide nyger seed feeder. I always watch the redpolls as I'm really fond of them - and of course I always hope I might spot a mealy among the lessers. And today I think this might have happened!
One bird stood out. A female, much larger than the other redpolls, very pale with no brown on her chest/sides/upperparts and a bright white wingbar. Having studied quite a few photos and having read several articles on how to tell the two species apart, I am fairly certain that this bird is a mealy. I only managed a couple of poor shots before the bird flew off but you can clearly see how different it looks from the lesser redpoll.

It's the bird on the right - large and very pale.

Here it is the bird on the left.

If anyone thinks I'm completely wrong, please do get in touch. I do hope it is a mealy...a lifer for me! :)