The WEBS count at the settling beds last week was the busiest I've seen it. The lack of water on the Washes must be having some effect several hundred Teal, Greylag Goose and Mallard jostled with Gadwall, Shoveller, Wigeon and the odd diving duck and the little Richardson' Canada Goose. The Whoopers Swan remain on the arable and numbered 28. Later these birds flew over the house at dusk on their way to Kingfishers Bridge to roost. A bit of birding out of the back bedroom window turned into a bit of photography as the light became very sharp.
Helen sent me some pictures of a handsome melanistic male Pheasant in her Witcham garden, a cracking bird.
Just to say, I don't think that's a melanistic pheasant. I believe it is a Green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor), or, at least, some form of cross. I admit, it does have a darker back than some of those seen on a Google search, but that might have been bred in as part of the cross, too. I understand they are released, just like white 'mutant' pheasants (which aren't albino or leucistic either), to become 'special' target birds during shoots. Cheers, John Walsh.
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