Candle.....burnt at both ends

I've well and truly burnt the candle at both ends today!

I was down at Druridge for 5.40 this morning to do my sixth territory mapping survey and this evening I went out ringing barn owls near Alnwick and did a days a work in between, now it's 11pm and I'm writing this.

It's much quieter now at Druridge, the resident breeders are concentrating on feeding young rather than singing, leaving the singing to the new kids on the block like the sedge warblers and whitethroats. That said, the reed buntings haven't stopped and I counted at least 10 singing males this morning.

Bird of the morning was this male blue-headed wagtail which was singing between the Hamlet and High Chibburn Farm.

blue-headed wagtail...or is it?

But is it a 'blue-headed' wagtail Motacilla flava flava or a 'channel' wagtail M. flava x falvissima? The 'flared' supercillium would suggest the latter, but what would I know - I can't even get a barred warbler accepted by the County Records Committee......

This is more my stamp - much more straight forward

pied wagtail

Not much else of note this morning except to stay it was stunning spring morning, once the sun got up and it warmed up it was very pleasant indeed.

Sunny patch

This evening was spent checking barn owl boxes around the Alnwick area with Phil, no young were big enough to ring yet so we need to go back to them. This 2nd calender year female came out of a box and was ringed. Barn owls are fantastic, looking forward to doing some pullus over the next few weeks.

barn owl - female