Serin over the Garrison

There were 2 male Siberian Chiffchaff singing at Lower Moors this morning. Despite this one singing, note the pale edging on the bill. Apparently according to the books, it should not show this feature.

  Mid-afternoon and I was walking through the campsite when I heard a Serin. I picked it up coming, what looked like, in off the sea from a SSW direction. It flew overhead and headed towards town. I immediately called Ren, and while I was talking to him, he heard and then saw it over his garden and he told me that it seemed to come down in the gardens in the police station area. Despite searching, it was never seen again. Before all this happened, I had a few hours off this morning and in the SSE breeze, I thought Porth Hellick would be a good place to look. A Great Spotted Woodpecker flew overhead and I heard a Reed Bunting in the reeds. The 6 Greenland White-fronted Geese were still on the pool and 2 Siberian Chiffchaff were calling near the path with singles also at Higher Moors and Holy Vale, (both heard calling).

 

The 6 Greenland White-fronted Geese stretched their wings very briefly before returning to Porth Hellick Pool

 While listening to a Siberian Chiffchaff calling at Porth Hellick. 2 pale chiffchaff, (pics above)looking very similar to the Siberian, were also feeding in the same Sallows and looked good candidates for Siberian 'type' However, the call was very similar to that of collybita Chiffchaff. So, is it possible that Siberian Chiffchaff can give a call similar to collybita and show pale edgings on the bill or are these just very pale Chiffchaffs that look identical to the Siberians?

  In the warm bright sunshine, 2 singing male Siberian Chiffchaff could be heard at Lower Moors. Except for 2 Brambling and 2 male Sparrowhawk, there was not much else of note. At Porthloo, 2 Black Redstart were on the beach and two days ago I had a Wheatear here

Male Brambling at Lower Moors

 

 

Siberian 'type' Chiffchaff

The one on the left is one of the singing male Siberian Chiffchaff. The chiffchaff to the right, looked identical to the male, but instead of the Dunnock type call, it sounded very similar to that of a collybita Chiffchff. Also, both these birds spent a lot of time interacting with one another. For over 2 minutes, I observed the right hand bird, flittering it's wings, like a kind of courtship display, and that what it doing in above pic.

  

2 Black Redstart were busy catching flies at Porthloo

  Graham returned home today after leaving in May. He was straight in the field and around the Content fields we managed to see 3 Crossbill. 3 Brambling, 5 Siskin, 2 Goldfinch, 30 Redwing and 2 Fieldfare.

Note the broken leg on this Woodcock at Content

 

Lots of Red Admirals on the wing today

 

I love listening to Miles Davis late in the evening. So What" is the first track on the 1959 Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. So What" is one of the best known examples of modal jazz,  The piano-and-bass introduction for the piece was written by Gil Evans for Bill Evans (no relation) and Paul Chambers on Kind of Blue.  This is an orchestrated version by Gil Evans of this introduction by Miles' Quintet (minus Cannonball Adderley who was ill that day) and the Gil Evans Orchestra; the orchestra gave the introduction, after which the quintet played the rest of "So What".