Anyway enough of the small talk. Today i went searching for Pine Buntings, in a flock of 300+ Yellowhammers very close to home near Wolfheze. The field is amazing, hundreds (400+) Brambling, ringtail Hen Harrier, 7 Reed Buntings, and a couple of Black Woodpeckers chasing each other around.
But what of the buntings? Well i have learnt, reconfirmed a few things today.
A) my right eye shows different colours to my left eye. Right is my scope eye, and it shows much colder colours.
B) photos, especially bad ones, can be confusing
The most interesting bird i had today was a cold plumaged Yellowhammer type. First glance with my right eye showed no colour, but that was something i am used to. So i switched to my left eye, warmer colours, but harder to concentrate. Woth my left eye it also seemed to lack any yellow tints to the underparts. He bird was 150+ metres away but i decided to try and digiscope it. The photos below are really weird, as well as being very poor. They illustrate the white background to the underparts, but they show a yellow wash on the head and to the remiges. Now the remiges may well have had yellow fringing, i seriously couldn't have made that out at that distance, but i would swear that the head didn't have a hint of colour to it, when viewed with either of my eyes!
The birds are very mobile, and unless they flush into the wood then viewing on the ground is near impossible.
