English Birds

Here are a few shots I got this week on my flying trip to Harrogate and Ripon. I don't know what all of the birds are, though (but thanks to John, now I do for all but one), and some of the shots are not all that good. I also saw a raven, and a kite - what a magnificent sight that was!

This is a rook jackdaw on a rooftop (well, the guy at the Fountains Abbey said "I think that's a rook"). My first - they're stockier than crows, and walk with a rolling gait, like a bulldog.

Another rook jackdaw (I think)

I have no idea what this is! It's a pied wagtail!

Same bird with what I think is a crow but might be a rook jackdaw walking out from behind the wall.

Same guy.

But this is a chaffinch. A rather tame one at Fountains Abbey.



This is a tit - a blue tit, I'm pretty sure.


Different one, but another tit.


And this, of course, is a magpie.

This blackbird was taken through a window pane in my hotel room.

I think this is a female blackbird but it might be some other kind of thrush is probably a mistle thrush or possibly a song thrush.

And this is a giant pigeon. All the pigeons I saw were huge, and they all looked much alike, none of the variety I'm used to in city pigeons (mongrel rock pigeons) - these are wood pigeons. They were ginormous, seriously. One landed on the top of a tiny tree, the branch bending steeply under his weight as he nibbled the new buds. I thought he was going to break it.



And once again, one I'm not certain of a goldfinch, European version. I spotted him at Leeds-Bradford airport.