Well it looked like a Linnet yesterday on my laptop
Confucius he say "better to remain silent and look foolish than to open mouth and remove all possible doubt"
Steve
You sure can see a lot more in those crappy pixels than I can Ian! I think what confused me is the number of sub-species. It looks more like Carduelis flammea than Carduelis cabaret to me. But to confuse it with Carduelis cannabina is not surprising either for a newbie like me. It seems others here may be equally uncertain too.
Thanks for your help.
Fairly warm buffish around the face and flanks the latter of which are streaked darker. The bill is dark tipped but pale yellowish for 2/3's of it's length and the lores (in between bill and eye) are noticeably dark, blackish as is the feathering just around the base of the bill. Importantly, notice the bright deep reddish isololated patch on the forehead (or 'poll' as it's known) plus the similarly coloured breast. Note also the fairly heavy (isolated) steaks on it's undertail coverts.
Any clearer?
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 27th of March 2011 11:35:46 PM
Flowers! Don't get me started, you think you have it bad with Barnacle Geese 'not being wild' me and Henry Cook have probably pulled our hair out trying to work out countable species for our GM Plant list with what constitutes a wild flower - still get a headache thinking about it now .
Guess I won't be able to tempt you on the tour i will be leading to Romania next year in search of wild Bear, Wolf and Lynx as well as going for a fungi hunt in ancient Transylvanian woodland....filled with delicious edible mushrooms
All the best mate
Dave
What until I start posting on your wildlife forum, then you'll see how poor my skills are in that arena. Fungus to me is either risotto de fungi or a nice big field mushroom pan fried in a bit of butter . Flowers etc are worse still and if it's not a daffodil then forget it. I'm one dimensional and proud of it
Yes master Yoda
A wise naturalist once told me 'The more i learn the less i know' - Don't think there is a quote that sums up learning about the natural world better than this one. Always good to go over 'basics' to make sure - i'm looking at the two species now to make sure!
Dave
Ah, but the difference is that I've not actually said what the bird is as such Dave as I think it should be left to the observer to decide why it is what it is. With a little help or prompting along the way of course, otherwise how are we to learn and improve
Martyn, get your favourite field guide (I'd always advise the latest Collins Bird Guide if you haven't already got it) and compare your mystery bird to Lesser Redpoll. See what you think and why it is or isn't that species or Linnet.
Hi Martyn
looks like a male Linnet to me.
Can you start an alternative Mystery Bird Competition? Thought I was doing OK this year (four out of four!) with Ian's until this month...
Steve
Hi Martyn,
There are a few simple things to help with getting 'sharp images', like are you using a good tripod or hand holding? Are you shooting continuous focus on moving subjects? What type of focus points are you using? The list could be endless though.
How much are you cropping the images?
Sorry can't be more precise. From experience of hearing people say they have 'faulty' gear and they can't get sharp images, most turn out to be user error (though sometimes they are right).
All the best
Dave
One of the great things about this forum is having access to so many knowledgeable and experienced birders. I've met a few of you locally on my birding trips to Penny, Rindle Road and Clifton Marina and everyone has been very friendly and helpful.
And so once again I am asking for ID help on a bird I photographed (rather poorly) today. It's at the bottom of my most recent post about Rindle Road on my blog (web address below this message) and I think it's either a Redpoll or a Linnet, but it could be something else.
If anyone could take the time to have a look for me I'd be very grateful - you could write your reply (and hopefully indicate what clinches the ID) in the comments underneath the picture on my blog or as a reply to this message on this forum.
As an aside, I also recently posted on by blog about still being dissatisfied with the quality of the photos I'm currently taking. The photos here are not of great quality, but I'm hoping the bird in question will be recognisable to those with experience. I'm not so concerned about the quality of these photos, but the ones of the Buzzard in the same post should have been much better. If anyone has any suggestions about improving the quality of shots like this I'd also like to hear from you.
Looking forward to some replies.
Cheers, Martyn
Can anyone help me to positively identify three birds I saw at Penny this weekend please. I think they are:
1) stock dove - or is it just a pigeon? 2) Meadow pipits - are they all mpits or is the one in the grass different ? 3) Siskin - very poor picture
Pictures of all of them (along with some others I do know) are here: http://gt-birding-scrapbook.blogspot.com/2011/01/pennington-flash.html
You'll need to scroll down until the birds in question come in to view. I know these are common birds to most of you, but I'd just like confirmation if that's OK.
You can put any replies in the comments underneath all the pictures at the bottom of the post or you could PM me here - either will be fine.
Confucius he say "better to remain silent and look foolish than to open mouth and remove all possible doubt" 
.
Guess I won't be able to tempt you on the tour i will be leading to Romania next year in search of wild Bear, Wolf and Lynx as well as going for a fungi hunt in ancient Transylvanian woodland....filled with delicious edible mushrooms 
A wise naturalist once told me 'The more i learn the less i know' - Don't think there is a quote that sums up learning about the natural world better than this one. Always good to go over 'basics' to make sure - i'm looking at the two species now to make sure!