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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by Mike Pennington

  1. Mike Pennington

    Pacific Islands

    I will be crossing the Pacific next winter on a cruise ship and will have single days ashore on Nuka Hiva, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Tonga and at Suva, Fiji. If anyone has any tips, or contacts for possible guides (especially Tahiti and Fiji), they would be much appreciated.
  2. Mike Pennington

    Birds of Helgoland

    A book that has just been brought to my attention and which will go on my Christmas List. Die Vogelwelt der Insel Helgoland (Birds of the island of Helgoland). http://www.amazon.de/Vogelwelt-Insel-Helgoland-Jochen-Dierschke/dp/3000354379/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321998186&sr=8-1...
  3. Mike Pennington

    "Popular" misspelt bird names

    Not mis-spelling as such, just older spellings. I still prefer the original British spelling of ousel ...
  4. Mike Pennington

    Redpoll fun!

    No completed work that I am aware of but I think the Sound Approach team are working on it, but its not a principal project. Certainly, when I heard my first Lessers for several years on a trip south I had one of those 'I know that call but I'm not sure' moments before reaslising it was a...
  5. Mike Pennington

    Redpoll fun!

    An interesting thread with some useful links and good discussion. I think the logic behind this small bird on Fair Isle being a small dark NW redpoll presumably from Iceland has already been established without my input. It is also worth pointing out that I am not sure that anyone has...
  6. Mike Pennington

    Comment by 'Mike Pennington' in media 'Spot the insect on the right.'

    THis is a Swallow Hirundo rustica.
  7. Mike Pennington

    Mealy Redpoll West Mids

    Hi all, I've been away, although noted the discussion on this bird. FWIW, I would probably slightly favour the pale Mealy theory at the moment (especially if the dark utcs photo is really this bird, although this seems unlikely as no other photos resemble it). It could be a first-winter...
  8. Mike Pennington

    Redpoll in Langham, Norfolk

    Looks good for exilipes to me. As stated the flanks are quite streaky but well within the variation I'd expect and a single streak on the longest undertail covert is fine. I'd rule out hornemanni on the structure (not hulking enough) and the lack of contrast between the buffy head and the...
  9. Mike Pennington

    Cattle Egret - BB?

    Told you it was from memory! So I went and checked my facts (BB 99: 52) 'For all the species involved there have been more than 200 records in total and 100 or more in the last ten years,'
  10. Mike Pennington

    Cattle Egret - BB?

    Mark, Speaking from memory and not officially, I think that the last group were the first taken off according to a strict set of criteria which were, again from memory, over 300 records and 100 in the last 10 years.
  11. Mike Pennington

    Moth ID required Shetland Isles

    Hi Dave, You didn't get much of a response! Dusky Brocade, July Highflier and Eana penziana var colquhounana Northern Spinach x 2
  12. Mike Pennington

    Redpoll Species

    Very quickly I'd say that it 'feels' wrong BUT I have little doubt I would have claimed it as an Arctic 10 years ago and I'm sure it would still have a good chance of getting accepted as one here. The mottled cheeks look odd, the flanks look rather messy, it's very pale for exilipes but isn't a...
  13. Mike Pennington

    Redpoll Species

    THis is, of course, the crucial question (not the gang-banging, but whether the redpolls recognise the differences). If there is assortative mating (i.e. Lessers choose Lessers, Mealies choose Mealies unless there is no choice) then they are species under the Biological Species Concept (BSC)...
  14. Mike Pennington

    North Western Redpoll in Shetland.

    Hi Dougie, While you've been in Shetland there have been more NW Redpolls than Mealies (I still 'think' the bird you saw in my garden was a Mealy but spring birds are something else). There was a small Mealy influx in late October 2005 (look how grey-headed the birds are in the 2005 SBR) and we...
  15. Mike Pennington

    Common Bullfinch vs. the Siberian type

    The race of Bullfinch breeding in Norway (P. p. pyrrhula) breeds from Norway right the way to eastern Siberia. There is no way of separating birds from Siberia. Birds with the 'toy trumpet' call mentioned by Dougie apparently breed in European Russia; whether they breed in Siberia is still...
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