Just come back from a walk at Labrador site and Melinda picked up several hits of dark eyed Junco.Is Merlin playing up ?
My4eyes said: Junco confirmed with photo
Any chance of seeing that photo. It just shows that one should never say never as far as bird sightings are concerned. I believe that quite a lot of American birds have been blown across the pond this winter.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
It is reported on Bird Guides TJ but am not a member so can't access the photo ...
www.birdguides.com/.../3990270
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Probably be circulated in a few weeks once the twitcher crush risk has gone (and the bird)
I certainly wouldn't rule out both being junco.....highly unlikely both were, esp as the Devon one was only Merlin 'sighting' and was in a place popular with bird watchers who didn't see or hear it.
As it's 2024, I am thinking some sort of consistent response is worth considering, as there will continue to be an increase in 'Merlin sightings', most of which, law of averages, will be incorrect. I can see another one again this morning.
Never say never is of course, 'correct'. But, realistically, statistically, masses of reports of rarities or mega rarities are either reporting the same birds, or are wrong.
Hi
Dark Eyed Junco today at Gillingham in Dorset
S
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That is presumably the Dorset one being referred to on here and the internet, incl Birdguides.
WendyBartter said:It is reported on Bird Guides TJ but am not a member so can't access the photo ... www.birdguides.com/.../3990270
I wondered weather this might help. you dont need to be subscribed to view these images but you need to be subscribed to view the observations details in the gallery. there will be writing that says change view with 3 squares click the 3rd icon it will say details blovk layout when you click on it then tou can see the day date on the photos
I cant find that specific observation image you lonked to but I have found the gallery of observations of the bird in Dorset.
if you click on the picture on one of the photos from observations the link of the observations on the images it will take you to a bigger picture of the photo you clicked on. theres 8 images in the gallery one is from 2019 but the rest are 2024 so theres 7 from this month this year
https://www.birdguides.com/gallery/birds/junco-hyemalis/?locationId=2298&speciesId=52679&SortBy=UploadDate&Images=true&Videos=true&page=1
the map of the location can be seen when you click on the photo of the observation aswell.
theres also a video of one in Dorset from the 7th aswell https://www.birdguides.com/gallery/birds/junco-hyemalis/1157789/
they are being added to the gallery everytime someone makes observations of this species in Dorset in this Gallery so there might be some new observations of the species aswell.
if going by Bird news photo observations the only sightings in Devon I can find is Westward How in 2019 there isnt any April 2024 (in Labrador Bay (yet)
https://www.birdguides.com/gallery/birds/junco-hyemalis/?LocationId=2297&Image=True&Video=True&SortBy=Unknown