An unusual visitor to my feed station, an adult Rook quite an ugly little git
he actually seems partially tame as he will not retreat if you remain 10ft plus from him. 

 

 



Bonaparte's Gull (Chroicocephalus Philadelphia)

I was lucky to encounter this rare Bonaparte's Gull at RSPB Elmley Isle of Sheppey on Wed the 1-5-2013 it was on the Wellmarsh scrape.
A rare vagrant from North America and Alaska few records of  this bird in the UK and Ireland it is one of the few gulls that will nest in coniferous tree's
The English name of the Bonaparte's Gull honours Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who made important contributions to American Ornithology while an active member of the academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia during the 1820's. The scientific name Philadelphia was given in 1815 by the describer of the species, George Ord of Philadelphia, presumably because he collected his specimen there.


 

 

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The Avocets are now in attendance on the Elmley reserve but seem to have competition from noisy Black Headed Gulls, the water on the scrape at Wellmarsh hide is a trifle high limiting the feeding of some birds.

Three of these pictures were taken rcently and two last year..

Redshanks both of these were taken at rspb Elmley they are nesting on the reserve at this time.

 

 

 

 

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The pictures below were taken at RSPB Elmley Monday 27th May, they depict Shelduck and young and a female Shoveler with young.

The shots were taken with a Canon 7D and a Canon 400mm f5.6 lens.

 

 

 

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