A short post (1)

The quantity of work these photos inflict is a bit time-consuming. These posts will be short until I get the time to revisit them. This post involves birds seen at Portland during mid-July.

Lodmoor, 12th July 2013.
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This "reed warbler" that posed fairly well is a Cetti's warbler. A noisy bird that travels around in silence, so not too easy to see, though it is fairly common in the right environment. It is far more rufous in colouration and displays its tail differently than a reed warbler. It was too far away for me to see this myself, however.

This duck hiding in the background of one of my gadwall photos is a female pochard. Its a winter bird, so quite early, but distinctive so it is certainly that. Didn't notice this bird at all until I went through my photos. Maybe I really should get some binoculars some day.

Also had a singular female bearded reedling doing its plink call at the far end of the reserve. It was the target bird of my stay in Portland, though I'll post the better pictures from Radipole further down.

Radipole, 13th July 2013.
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Young male. It popped out of the reeds very close to the path and I happened
to be near a suitable gap in the bush that is obscuring most of this photo.

It took many attempts but I finally found a lesser whitethroat. I have been checking many whitethroats in search of this bird. The pictures were awful but enough for recognition.