Rough legged Buzzard ?

Anton sent me his latest installment of photos from the camera I gave him last year. It's always a little exciting looking through them to see if he has photographed anything good. Anyway a few nice photos of the Turtle Dove he found and a brief Black Redstart were nice but the best were the last two photos he took on the card. While walking around the lake he saw a Buzzard on a post and took a picture to record the date. When he went around for a closer look the bird had vanished and was not seen again. Fortunately he kept the photo...

It appears to show a Rough legged Buzzard.  It might be another first for Tory but something is telling me on was claimed a few years ago in October, I am not sure if the record was submitted or accepted by the Rare Bird Committee.

I'm not sure given the quality of the photo if Common Buzzard can be ruled out given there variable plumage. Comments welcome. .

Mid June

Hi Peter,
 
I was on Tory on June 10th and 11th.  Anton had a Black Redstart early on 10th in his east garden. Apart from that there was a Spotted Flycatcher and 3 Chiffchaffs on 10th.  On 11th were the same (?) 3 Chiffchaffs, single Song Thrush, Collared Dove and Bonxie.  The highlight was 9 Bottlenose Dolphins close inshore in the harbour in view for over half an hour before moving off west.

Chris

Early June

In addition to Joe Adamsons Kumlien's Gull, Chris Ingram reportso the following

Hi Peter,

I was on Tory on 4th/5th June.  Seamus Feeney arrived with me on 4th and Joe Adamson came over on 5th. Sightings as follows:

Great Northern Diver  an immature off Greenport on 4th
Manx Shearwater  small passage offshore on 4th, continuous passage on 5th
Storm Petrel  1 offshore on 4th
Shelduck  immature on east beach on 4th
Peregrine  1 over harbour on 4th
Little Tern  at least 3 feeding offshore on 5th
Great Skua  2 off north of island on 4th2 near lighthouse on 5th
Curlew  1 in east on 4th
Whimbrel  2 at lighthouse on 5th
Dunlin  1 on east beach and one over west town on 4th
Turnstone  3 offshore W on 5th
Collared Dove  1 around west town both days
Cuckoo  1 near Anton's garden on 4th
Song Thrush  1 in east on 4th
House Martin  3 over west beach on 4th
Sedge Warbler  at least 6 on 4th
Chiffchaff  6 on 4th including singing bird in east, 1+ on 5th

Regards Chris

5th June

Anton reports the following

Pair of Shoveler on the lake
1 Blackcap
2 Chiffchaff
2 Linnet
and a Cuckoo all in his garden..

Dusky Tree Sparrow

A few photos of the Tree Sparrow attached

Hi Peter,

Had a look at the blog and saw Rob mentioned the dusky-cheeked Tree Sparrow. 

Theo drew attention to it the day I was there, it was on the playing pitch behind Anton's. It was difficult to pin down as the 'flock' was moving around a lot. I fired off a few shots as I thought it was the best view we were going to get of it. We also considered a hybrid, on the poor views we had, but it appears to be just a darker bird compared with the other Tree Sparrow.

I won't waste your time with the Hooded Merganser shots I got. 

Séamus.