Monday, 23 May 2016

Tresinwen & Strumble Head (21 & 22 May 16)

A Jay feeding in the fields behind the house on Sunday was a scarce sighting.  Cuckoo calling somewhere towards Good Hope.  Lots of hirundine movement over weekend.

On Saturday had a lovely, distinctive Stonechat (Euro) on the headland.  Not seen on Sunday.  Pictures below give it some justice but in flight it was black and white.  I thought at first that I had found a migrant male Pied Fly when it first appeared.

Thanks to RBA for some pointers this is defo a Euro Stonechat.  The clincher is some dark markings on the centres of the upper tail coverts.  Everything else was superficially like Siberian Stonechat, including dark auxiliaries as shown in the (very) dodgy pics.