As most of the country took a battering from Storm Eunice, for us it was the nicest day of the year so far being calm and sunny until mid-afternoon when some cloud rolled-in. We completed the monthly WeBS count for Norwick but the highlight was flushing a large heavily-streaked Redpoll from off the ground at Skaw being the first Northwestern Redpoll that I've seen outside of the autumn months.
Norwick: 2 Great Northern Divers, 2 Long-tailed Duck, Song Thrush & 4 Chaffinches.
Skaw: Great Northern Diver, 2cy Glaucous Gull & Northwestern Redpoll.
Northwestern Redpoll at Skaw
A large, dark, heavily-streaked Redpoll with a beautifully orange-suffused face including its 'swollen' cheeks and strongly-marked flanks and undertail-coverts.
Northwestern Redpoll at Skaw
A deep-based, short bill with a concave-shaped upper-mandible. It appears plain-faced with warm-brown but heavily-streaked mantle and scapulars.
Northwestern Redpoll at Skaw
Ground colour of upper rump white whereas lower rump pink-suffused but streaked throughout. White central tramlines down its mantle.
Photographed looking directly into the sunlight radically changes its appearance in the resultant images with it appearing overall much paler with its face now appearing chamois-coloured and the ground-colour to its mantle a pale buff! Hence, suddenly far more at the 'islandica' end of the spectrum, whereas in life it appeared as in the upper three images, and hence, rostrata-like.
