Sunday 16 June 2019

Estonia's Bird of the Year: Nightjar on live webcam

Looduskalender is hosting a live webcam of a Nightjar on its nest in Estonia. Two chicks are present in the nest which has an adult sitting tight during the day. After midnight UK time, the adults feed the chicks. Estonia is 2 hours ahead of UK.

10th July. It looks like the family has dispersed.

A mixture of "spotted" thrushes

Tino Mischler has been checking through the stamps on my pages for Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) and Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) and has made some observations about anomalies.

The stamp from Turkish Cyprus which is supposed to show T. philomelos actually has a bird that is right for T. viscivorus (Greyish colour and cheek markings).

Conversely, the stamp from Bahrain listed as T. viscivorus shows a bird that looks more like T. philomelos: brown back, no vertical eye-stripes.

I shall change these two identities in my next update.

The best example of T. viscivorus would appear to be the stamp issued by Bulgaria in 1999.