It doesn't rain, it pours!

Within a few minutes of posting the previous entry, I had an email from Frank Majoor, the ringer of 'Red A1'. It had been ringed as a first winter bird in November 2006 in Hilversum, a town in the Netherlands, some 30 km south-east of Amsterdam and 25 km north of Utrecht, according to Wikipedia.

He also updated me on a Common Gull I had spotted at the supermarket on 21st February 2008. I thought I had blogged about it at the time, but it doesn't look like it after all. It was still a juvenile and had been ringed in November 2007 in Amsterdam. It was spotted back in Amsterdam a month later, which goes some way to explain why I didn't see it again then.



This is a photo I had taken at the time, with my crappy camera phone through the binoculars, and the reason why, since, I have taken my proper camera with me when I go and do the weekly shopping.

Much impressed at the speedy reply!

Speedy reply from some londonbirders too after I asked there for confirmation yesterday, and so I can update my patchlist to 59, because this morning I had another tick. It doesn't rain, it pours :) I had been counting the tits in a mixed flock of Long-tailed and Blue as they were passing through the back gardens and heard an unusual call for the area a few minutes later: a Coal Tit on an aerial right in front was making it #59. Can't have everything though, it was gone before I could grab my camera.