Jack Snipe, Snipe and Woodcock

   
I didn't intend to go to East Haven on Thursday but I dropped in on my way home from collecting apples for my garden.

The hard ground, worse inland, would surely mean Snipe would be around somewhere, and before I got near the beach I saw two flying around, not flushed, just moving like the Snipe at the Lurgies on my last visit. I didn't expect to find a Jack Snipe but the one below was the first bird I mangaed to get some photos off, I think my first photos of one in flight.

Most of the photos below were taken in front of the village, only the Dunlin and the Little Egret were along the beach towards Craigmill.

No video, but I have a number of Fieldfare photos and maybe a video for the next post. Currently I have eight Fieldfares and thirteen Blackbirds in the garden squabbling over the apples I got from Lorna's garden. The cold has also brought many of the other birds back, they were absent due to Sparrowhawk which has plagued them for weeks.

Jack Snipe at East Haven

Common Snipe left, Jack Snipe right. I pasted the Jack into the photo for comparison

Common Snipe

Woodcock, recovered from a Carnoustie garden after it was killed in a collision with a window

Male Stonechat hunting from this perch

Probably the same male on the beach

Female Stonechat near the car park at East Haven

Little Egret, going north, it had been on the beach but was flushed by a dog walker. If only it had flown past me inland instead of out to sea into the sun

Greenfinch in front of the car park

Greenfinch in the ditch

Grey Wagtail

Reed Buntings in the darkest part of the ditch

Dunlin

Backlit Dunlin, photo directly into the sun

Redshank near car park

Ringed Plover also near car park

Grey Plover as above

1st winter Common Gull, (1st calendar year) A test shot for birds in flight

Great Black-backed Gull, 1st calendar year (December)

Starlings on the railway fence