Cold Edge

6 Greylags flew in from the east

The (probably for now) resident Herring Gull - see 19 Aug and 5 Sep - now has a white-tipped primary

Starling 60: adults and many juveniles. All birds now have a heavily spotted body and neat brown-edged flight and tail feathers. The juveniles' heads are pale - some more than others

Fly Flatts and Withens Head

 After finding very little at Fly Flats - scoping from the top road I tried Withens Head for half an hour or so. All quiet, then a Black Redstart turned up on the roof at the same time as a single Wheatear and c60 Meadow Pipits. All very flighty, most of the pipits stayed for several minutes then headed off, wall hopping then away across the moor. The Wheatear and Black Redstart headed off towards the  long pile of stones near Slade where I lost them. Just right time, right place I guess.

A Kestrel was about and on the thistle heads around 40 Goldfinch.

Cold Edge

Teal with Black-headed Gulls

Cold Edge

Stonechat juvenile

Cold Edge

Teal. I think this is an eclipse male. The top photo shows a small pale yellow triangle on the undertail: a female or juvenile would have a white line here. 'Europe's Birds' says eclipse males often have a dark cap and pale cheeks: this bird approaches this. Its belly is pale: 'Collins Bird Guide' says juveniles have darker bellies than adults.

British Cormorant, P c carbo

Pheasant: 2 males (one with no tail), 1 female

Blackstone Edge

Linnets + 2 juvenile Goldfinches

Cold Edge

Herring Gull adult. Like the bird posted on 19 August, this bird has moulted its primaries, and no white primary tips are present. However, the new primaries here have grown well past the tail tip, while the primary tips of the 19 August bird were level with the tail tip. (It could be the same bird?)

2 Greylags

Blackstone Edge

Ringed Plover: 2 non-breeding adults. Non-breeding Ringed Plovers lose the black frontal bar above the forehead, while juveniles have pale fringes on the upperpart feathers.

The LEFT bird above has a fairly broad breast band and dull orange legs.

The RIGHT bird is warmer brown and has a thin breast band. Its legs are dark with just a hint of orange.

The thinner breast band, darker legs, and warmer brown upperparts made me wonder if the right bird is female - with the other being male - but I cannot find any authority to support this idea.

Cold Edge

Scaup juvenile still here

Blackstone Edge

3 white Greylag Geese. The question is, are they leucistic or albino? Collins Bird Guide (2022, Svensson et al): LEUCISM - innate pigment deficiency leading to pale, washed-out colours of the plumage; ALBINISM - innate lack of pigment, usually in the feathers, leading to partly or completely white plumage. So these birds are albino, and the above definition still lets them have coloured legs and bill and orbital ring.