Before I moved to Oxon, wildfowl weren't 'my thing'. Still working on them. Been searching Greylag and Canada flocks for anything different. These two White-fronts were with Greylags and Canadas in flooded fields opposite St Giles' church, Standlake this pm. Soon pushed off by kids.
In the field, both looked to have pink bills and were not large, relative to Greylags. So, the obvious ID is nominate albifrons. But one is so much swarthier than the other yet, on the other hand, is the
smaller of the two. Should I not overthink it given past records of 'unknown origin' Taiga Gembelli (tho these don't seem to match them???). Sorry for grainy video.
Wonder if those two are the two birds that have been on Port Meadow the last couple of days but weren't there today. The difficulty is always the possibility of the Blenheim hybrid birds, some of which look fairly normal.
ReplyDeleteThanks. So, are you saying there's definite proof the Blenheim birds bred Adam? I've found reference to 2 arriving as 1st W and becoming adults. But nothing re breeding and I don't have Phil's original paper. How would they breed with Russian or Greenland birds ? I've read up on races. Probably too complex a discussion for on here though.
ReplyDelete