Foul weather birding

I wanted to test out my 'new' coat (new in the sense that I bought it in November 2010 but it still had the label on it) and my new trousers (new in the sense that I bought them in the sales yesterday), and what better way to test them than to head down to Moore in conditions that were, as my nanna would say, not fit to turn a dog out in?



Here's a Long-tailed Tit taking advantage of the tail wing:

Talking of Long-tailed Tits... I was checking through a Long-tailed Tit flock that was slowly making its way along the edge of the wood a) looking for something, anything, that wasn't a Long-tailed Tit—a Common Treecreeper was the best I could muster—and b) looking at variation in head pattern and, on close birds, leg colour. Activity b) is a sort of work in progress crackpot theory currently based on observation of three individuals in the hand; but anyway, that is, for now, by-the-by. As I was looking through the flock, I clapped eyes on a very pale-headed individual; or, more correctly, an individual with a greatly reduced lateral crown stripe.  More-or-less somewhere between 1 and 2:

Artwork by Szabolcs Kókay from Dutch Birding 30:5

It was quite striking really but, despite staying with the flock for about twenty minutes, I only ever managed to see the bird twice (including the initial sighting); and both times it was for just long enough to register the head pattern, then it would flit off and melt away. No chance to check out the rest of the bird's plumage. Could the lateral crown stripe on rosaceus ever be so thin or might this bird be europaeus? How common is europaeus in the UK? According to this it's a BBRC description taxon but is that just because no one looks at Long-tailed Tits unless they have a snowball head? The Migration Atlas lists a ringing record of one bird (race, as far as I'm aware, undetermined) that was ringed in October in Norfolk and recaught the following September in Belgium; that is—or was up to 2002 at least; I'm unaware of any records since that would change that status*—the only international recovery, with no records of birds coming 'the other way'.  That's not to say, of course, this bird wasn't of Continental stock, arrived in Norfolk to spend the winter, was ringed and then headed back home to Belgium.

Anyway, an interesting bird, the Moore bird. Kind of like a poor man's caudatus.  Eventually the birds headed higher into the trees where they became backlit and hard to track, so I headed off to look at some gulls.

Yuk.

There were also 21 Grey Herons lined up on the leeward side of the island.  Two 1cy birds:

One, I guess, 2cy bird:

The retained (juvenile?) greater coverts are pretty obvious, worn and brown as they are; the wispy black crown feathers were rather short, too. But according to the (surprisingly scant) literature, the forehead should be grey.  Hmm...

And 18 birds that appeared to be adults (3+cy):

Also with a couple of unmoulted greater coverts? But lacking the obvious contrast shown by the presumed 2cy bird above. You might have to look close.

And the best news of all: despite the torrential rain and howling gale, I stayed as dry as a bone and snug as a bug.  Country Innovation and Craghoppers are to be congratulated.

*Edit (30-12-2011): There has been a record of birds coming into the country; three birds ringed in Belgium on 10th October 2001 were subsequently recaught in Essex on 21st of the same month—thanks for Mark Grantham; details at the bottom of this page.