Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Snowy Owl.... not quite.

Following a report from a non-birding neighbour, who said that she thought she'd seen a Snowy Owl from the bus flying over the main road near Mossy Hill, set off in that direction with a fair bit of hope. Her description didn't sound too bad (big white bird with black barring on the wings) and it wouldn't be so outrageous for a Snowy to turn up after all the ones that have been winter further south last winter. A quick look around Mossy Hill revealed nothing, apart from lots of Snowy Owl shaped rocks, so I moved over the road to Virdi Field, almost immediately sussed out what had been seen, when a partial albino Bonxie got up and flew around - not the best outcome, but these things are always worth checking out. Lot's of other stuff there as well - breeding Dunlin, Arctic Skuas and a sizable Bonxie colony.



Partial Albino Bonxie.




Regular Bonxies.

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