A delight to find my first Grimsbury Reservoir ruff this evening. A very elegant wader, this one a juvenile, with a juvenile dunlin (moulting into winter plumage) for company.
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| ruff and dunlin |
I say the ruff is an elegant wader - long legs and neck, short/medium length bill, smart plumage - but this one did have a bit of a limp. This bird will most likely have hatched out somewhere in the arctic fringe and is making its way south - perhaps to the west African coast.
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| ruff |
Close by were a couple of juvenile grey wagtails and a common sandpiper.
Earlier in the day I took a new macro lens out for a play and got a couple of nice images in the centre of Banbury.
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| sweet chestnut fruit ripening, People's Park, Banbury |
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| Oxford ragwort flowering behind RSPB Office, Banbury |
Hi Mike, your first Ruff at Grimsbury might actually be the first Ruff recorded there! I don't have any other records of any going back through BOS and OOS reports. Cracking bird to find here! Gareth
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ReplyDeleteThe Dunlin is actually a juvenile moulting into winter plumage
thanks Ewan, good to get feedback.
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