MAY'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS

There were 25 entries to this month's competition, the best return yet and one that I am extremely grateful to you all for, also this month we also received our first entry from outside the UK, so welcome Michel Rogg from Geneva, Switzerland! This month's mystery birds may have appeared potentially easier than last month's but all is never necessarily as it seems, so how did you do? Read on...

Mystery Bird 15

Did I feel sorry for the apparent difficulty in last month's mystery birds? Very doubtful indeed (☺), but nevertheless, mystery bird number 15 (above) was correctly identified by all 25 entrants, so although you all did very well perhaps I'm going too easy on you? There is really very little to confuse this bird with, although I felt some might just plump for Sparrowhawk and afew atleast had considered it but this bird's completely uniform grey head (no supercilium), greyish breast (without barring), large eyering and pointed bill (both just visible) do indeed identify it as a Common Cuckoo. One person also mentioned Oriental Cuckoo but as a species renound for being extremely difficult to separate from Common Cuckoo with plumage features that clearly overlap, not even I could be that callous and either way, Oriental Cuckoo is no longer on the British List!

Common Cuckoo, Moss Lane, Astley- Ian McKerchar

Mystery Bird 16

Yet again, all but one entrant managed to correctly identify this mystery bird, so a big pat of the back to you all! Everyone atleast managed to identify it as a wader (always a good starting point) and overall it appears rather non descript, brownish on the upperparts with darker streaking, a black bill of unknown length because most of it is hidden by the water and possibly whitish underparts from what we can see. One entrant went for Pectoral Sandpiper, a fair decision on the face of it but the scattered, blackish markings against the white base colour around the breast are unlike what we would expect on Pec. Sand. and the bill base might just appear lighter and no so solid black as this individual's. In the end most entrants clearly picked out the thin area of black on the belly, just above the visible leg and this of course led them all to believe the bird was a Dunlin but could this be mud staining as afew queried? No, that would be attempting to lead you astray, which I wouldn't do (not yet anyway) and the bird is indeed a Dunlin. The mystery bird, on the right in the photo below, was the odd one out of a party of four Dunlins and clearly is still moulting into it's breeding plumage when all the others around it had already attained theirs (the photo was taken in late May!), so was quite a striking bird.

Dunlins, Astley Peat Pools, Astley- Ian McKerchar

The 24 correct entrants this month were Rob and Sonia Adderley, Ian Bowker, Kane Brides, Dave Broome, Tony Coatsworth, Henry Cook, Joan Disley, Dave Evans, John Frankland, Helen Garwood, Geoff Hargreaves, Craig Higson, Nick Hilton, James Hutchinson, Andy Isherwood, Dean MacDonald, Jimmy Meadows, Steve Nelson, Andrew Newall, Nick Patel, Peter Rolph, Michel Rogg, Les Steele and Simon Warford. Dave Broome's run continues with a complete 16 correct answers but not too far behind is Tony Coatsworth with 15 correct answers, Rob and Sonia Adderley with 14, Andy Isherwood with 13, Kane Brides with 12 and John  Frankland with 10.