British Birds 1

Male Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) at the London Wetland Centre.A very fresh Moorhen chick (Gallinula chloropus) in the garden of the Natural History Museum. Chick and a juvenile. The kids grow up fast.Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) outside my window in Buckfastleigh.Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) nesting at the Totnes railroad station.Male Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) at the Fingle Bridge Inn, where I enjoyed another fine local cider. Earlier, I had seen the female and been completely flummoxed about her identity, paging through my book — Princeton Field Guides’ Birds of Europe 2nd Ed., known as the Collins guide over there — twice to no avail, even though the wing markings are quite distinct. This male danced around my picnic table, until a female showed up…The second most common species in the UK after the Wren, but it takes a few days to get one’s birds’ eye tuned to the local scene.For instance, this Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) in the middle of the Italian Garden in Hyde Park? Real. (People were asking.) And very territorial: it kept chasing away a juvenile heron.