Tuesday 22 September 2015

ID Parade

Ok, so here's the tale. Some friends were cruising (not in the Arcot sense!) from (Wonderful, Wonderful) Copenhagen to Newcastle and took these three photographs. They are not birders.
According to my friends; 'An 'expert' lady who was on the ship had the book Birds of Britain and Europe and said they were XXX on migration. They had an identical picture in the book, she showed us pictures of XXX having stripes down their chest and....., they also have the black markings through their eyes looking like cheetahs, also had black and white bars across their tails.....' When I saw the photographs, I disagreed with the ID. I sought expert help and when I replied to the friends, he explained the italicised paragraph above and asked for a 'recount'. Thoughts, Oh Great and Good readers, please.

7 comments:

  1. Kestrel for me. Are these photos of two different birds?

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  2. Bird 1 is one and 2 and 3 are the second. I thought Merlin initially but a power greater than I said Kestrel. I'll tell you what the first ID was tomorrow,

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  3. The fine under tail barring ruled out Merlin straight away. I can't wait to find out what the "expert" lady said they were.

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  4. Now I wasn't expecting that. Black marking through the eyes like a Cheetah?

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