I was able to get down to the front at Bangor this lunchtime with my camera as the weather was much improved (the light however was not!)Within about 5 minutes, I had found the Jackdaw I had seen the day prior and was able to fire off a couple of record shots. The birds were unusually flighty for Jackdaw as kept their distance so the photos were quite distant and not especially clear. There is a definite collar to this bird though, even if it isn't pure, I personally believe it has a Nordic parent. I remember there being somewhat of a fall of Nordic-type birds in the winter period of 2007/2008 that Bill Aspin documented well in the East Lancashire region. I suppose it isn't too farfetched to beileve that a few birds stayed in England to breed after this 'invasion' and interbred with our race. Could this bird seen today be evidence of this?
There was also a rather smart looking 1st winter Herring Gull that was standing there looking rather photogenic...I couldn't resist a couple of shots.
1 comment:
Zac, saw the initial image on Birdforum, looking at the 2nd image on your blog there is little doubt that it is a nominate race monedula Jackdaw.
Despite the caution expressed elsewhere the underparts on your bird show the typical greyer black and faint mottling of the nominate race. Take a good hard read of Rudy Offerein's paper linked to in the Birdforum thread and you'll soon see that some monedula show little or no collar.
Spring in my view is the mnost difficult time to pick out individuals of this race from our own as our birds are worn in early spring often showing what appears to be a pale collar line though never flaring out at the end like yours. Nominate race birds imo regularly winter in small numbers and they are there to be found by those that look. Nice one!
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