Yankee vagrants.

With loads of American vagrants seemingly arriving weekly I'm always on the look out for something unusual! However, this bird can't be classed as a genuine vagrant  -even though its arrived at the same time as Hooded Merganser, Bufflehead, more Ring-billed Gulls and Bonaparte's Gulls than you can shake a stick at, 2 Pied-billed Grebes in the Emerald Isle and inumerable dodgy Lesser Scaup, Dressers Eiders and other such delights.

It's been living wild since last spring and after hearing it was still going strong I couldn't resist a look. Somewhere in deepest darkest Cheshire between the Gowy tip and Craughton lurks this beauty.

Its been seen displaying with a Common Buzzard and seems quite happy feeding on the local rabbits.

Plenty of corvids around at the moment and the local Rookery is a place teeming with activity. A Raven's still knocking around the stuble fields on occasions and Carrion Crows are beginning to display.

A few summer migrants are beginning to trickle through & a pair of Little-ringed Plover have taken up what will probably be very temporary residence on bare ground alongside a series of rain water attenuation ponds near the end of the M56 motorway. I can see them from the car as I return from work in the evenings!

A large unidentified raptor flew over the house early this morning but by the time I picked it up it was to far off to positively identify as I didn't have my binoculars with me. My first reaction was 'Osprey' but with news of a Red Kite a few miles further north a couple of hours later I'm now not sure. Bugger.Visible migration consisted of a single Redpoll and a Grey Wagtail.