Saturday Surplus

Here are some pictures that didn’t fit into Saturday’s report.

Besides the Canada goose I showed you, the graylag geese are also abundant and a little more wary than the Canada geese. Here’s one keeping an eye on me while its compatriots continue to graze.

Here’s a white wagtail who was foraging in the pasture along with the lapwings.

As I approached the huge field in which I later spotted the buzzard perched, I glimpsed this smaller bird hovering above and managed this one picture before it opted to hover farther away. Back in June, I thought I saw marsh harriers hovering, but now I suspect the bird I was able to photograph then was also a buzzard. As for our hoverer, now that I have a better image, and I’ve read more about hovering raptors, I’m pretty confident that this is a common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) instead, and a close cousin to both the American kestrels and the peregrine falcons we see in Estabrook.

Here’s another picture of that acrobatic great tit gleaning for seeds on this gone-by blossom.

Finally, the cormorants are still here, and this one was catching some sun beside the Schie river as I rode back to my apartment.