19/01/2025 Marazion, Cornwall

Booted Eagle: Well, I finally made it down for the beagle, with a 1am alarm, a 13 hour round drive and a 2 hour wait in the freezing cold we thought we were going to be unlucky and be adding to our dip lists but managed to move over to the A394 railway bridge where the bird soared above our heads giving some brilliant views.

This magnificent bird is thought to have come from southern or eastern Europe and is also thought 

to be the same bird that was seen at Kenidjack Valley in west Cornwall back in October.

Seen from below the booted eagle has striking looking wings with a distinctive black edge and white body.

 

Unfortunately the bird didn't hang around long before soaring over a hill and out of view. But we didn't care, we both dipped the dark phased booted in Oxfordshire so to connect with this beaut was a thrill. 

18/01/2025 Victoria Park, St Helens

Ringed-necked Duck: The long staying RND has finally moved off its wintering grounds of Eccleston Mere. A private site with no access the bird has relocated (if only temporarily) to Victoria Park on a small boating lake.

This dabbling duck, a cousin of our tufted ducks and named for the brown collar across its black neck. Both sexes carry a pale ring around the bill, close to the bean, and females have pale feathering around the base of the bill and a browny-grey body.

This North American native nests across much of Canada, Alaska, and the Arctic, with a population also breeding year-round in the northwestern portion of the continental United States.  

Each year, vagrants appear in Britain, though escaped captive birds are considered with these reports. 

12/01/2025 Ross Back Sands, Northumberland

American Buff-bellied Pipit: Over the last few days the North East has been on fire, with a showy Ross's gull, white-billed diver and the returning grey-headed lapwing and although I only need the gull we made plans to head over for Sunday. Unfortunately all these birds did a bunk before we arrived, but a very nice consolation prise was the ABBP.

I've not seen one since the Wirral bird in 2014,  and after being relocated by Wayne Glossip I saw the bird lurking behind the saltmasrh vegetation. The head pattern shouted at me with it's completely pale cream coloured lores which reached a level well above the upper mandible and indeed bridged it completely. 

A prominent cream supercilium reached back above the eye, which was itself surrounded by a broad, unbroken cream eye ring.

Despite the Ross's gull not doing the right thing and making another appearance, we had a cracking day our with some cracking company.