The year ticks mount up and yet more dodgy photos

It's that time of year again when every day out produces a few year ticks and even the commonest bird has it's moment of glory.  Year listing might not be everybodys cup of tea, but at least in drives you on to go to places which you might not otherwise consider at this time of year and at least it makes you look again at even the commonest birds. So for example last week we made the effort to go to World's End in dismal weather because it's the time of year for the black grouse lek and we had a tremendous experience in the mist even if photography was nigh on impossible, whilst on Saturday just gone we went to Anglesey to look for divers, grebes and choughs. In total we managed to get 15 years ticks on Saturday, including chough (2), Slavonian grebe (2), great northern diver (3), black guillemot (2) and snow bunting (3), plus a lot of other great birds, many of which which weren't even year ticks such as 5 cattle egrets and 4 long-tailed ducks.

Then on Sunday we called in at Pennington Flash for the gull roost and managed to pick out the juvenile Iceland gull. Star bird of the past few days though has to be a 1st winter female black-throated thrush on Monday 16th at Adwick Washlands RSPB, not as close as the St Asaph bird in December (except in flight), but still a nice view through the scope, and nice to visit this reserve for the first time.

Finally on 17th I got another five year ticks including green-winged teal at North Cave Wetlands in East Yorkshire.

UK Year: 138 (latest black-throated thush, Iceland gull, green-winged teal).

These choughs obligingly landed on the roof of the RSPB cafe at South Stack.

Not a year tick but always nice to see, three of the five cattle egrets at Maltreath, Angelsey, I've now seen eight this year already!

Great northern diver, Trearddur Bay, Anglesey. One of three seen on Saturday, the others were at Bedmannarch Bay and the Inland Sea.

My 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th long-tailed ducks so far this year, these were also in Trearddur Bay.

Two of three snow buntings at Llandudno west shore.

Dodgy photos-r-us. Black-throated thrush Adwick Wetlands.

Green-winged teal at North Cave Wetlands.

Juvenile Iceland gull Manby Flash, Lincolnshire.

This odd looking teal was at North Cave Wetlands, but is it a hybrid or just an aberrant teal?