This wonderful adult male wheatear on Ainsdale beach today made a pleasant
change from all of the juveniles I've seen recently. I can't say I've ever
seen such a stunning autumn male before, the black mask bordered by white eye
stripe and throat contrasting wonderfully with the ochre coloured breast and
brown back, and note the black wings with pale fringes. Just beautiful, at least the match of any spring wheatear. Presumably the deep
colours make this a Greenland race bird Leucorhoa. There
were also three juvenile wheatears nearby.
Apart from the deeper colours, Leucorhoa is also said to be larger
with longer wings and a more upright stance and these photos seem to show the
latter though size and wing length are harder to judge.
Unfortunately though, I don't think that it's possible to be certain of the
identification of Leucorhoa in the field.
The elegant tern had been seen here for the past two days but not today. There
were only about 800 Sandwich terns today, but many more are spread between
here Formby and Hightown, so the bird is almost certainly still in the area.
I managed to read three Sandwich tern rings today, one from Scotland (Clyde),
one from Ireland and one from Wales.
The Irish bird was ringed at Lady's Island, Wexford in 2018.
The Welsh bird was ringed at Cemlyn Bay in 2019.
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