{"id":991,"date":"2007-11-05T21:11:45","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T21:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/991"},"modified":"2013-11-23T21:12:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T21:12:02","slug":"rare-bird-sighting-little-auk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/rare-bird-sighting-little-auk\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly a rare bird sighting (Little Auk or Guillemot?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

It was disappointingly dull today (never trust the weather reports), but I had some time in the middle of the day and took a short walk along the edge of some woodland. No sign of any woodpeckers (I was in the area where occasionally there are great spotteds). There were plenty of jackdaws though, and rooks flocking overhead. Plus the inevitable gull; but nothing worth pointing the camera at. <\/p>\n

I was just heading back when I spotted a small bird flying in a dead straight line across the field toward me, and at great speed. Its wing-beat was rapid and I knew on sight that it wasn't one of the usual suspects round here. It was difficult to judge the size, but it was somewhat stocky. For once I was sufficiently organized to grab some shots. They're very grainy (light was terrible), and none too sharp. But with some help from the forums over at Wild About Britain<\/a>, the initial view is that I caught a very rare southern sighting of a Little Auk, but during the evening the opinion has shifted to a guillemot. Edit: Birdforum<\/a> opinion favours the little auk.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Little Auk is (according to my RSPB guide) very rare inland, and normally seen in and around the North Sea (some way to the north from here). A guillemot is more likely (they range further south), but still an unusual and unexpected sighting. Whichever it was, it's clearly way off-track. I assume it must have come down the coast (I was 5-6 miles inland) and was trying to navigate itself back to more northerly territory (that was the rough direction it was flying), choosing to go overland and away from the southern coast. <\/p>\n

No apologies for the low quality of the images this time!<\/p>\n

\"little<\/a><\/p>\n

\"little<\/a><\/p>\n

\"little<\/a><\/p>\n

Camera note: taken with the EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n

Post edited 22.18 and again 00.03 on 8\/11\/07<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[366],"class_list":["post-991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-auk","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t