I think my local Red Kites actively tease the local crows and jackdaws by flying low over “their” woodland. They also seem to attract the fury of Magpies.

Glad you liked them :)

Troll!

Fair comment.

I’ve never had much success with the local Berks Birds recording site, but a reasonable suggestion. This suggests historically you get sightings of Tree Pipits maybe April to occasionally August here (Berkshire), while Meadow Pipits are much more reported, including in the last few days.

Comparing the photos on their site, I can see more why the thickness of the streaks at the sides (suggested by WILDGuides Britain’s Birds) might be a good indicator, if not perfect.

I’m afraid I was mostly trusting Merlin, which only offered Meadow. Looking up the difference between the two in a book, they are very similar, and I’m not familiar with them - Merlin perhaps went by eye markings or side streaks, or perhaps balance of probabilities based on time of year/location (Tree Pipits being rarer).

P.S. I’ve not knowingly photoed a Tree Pipit either!

If in doubt, cheat - Merlin Photo ID (Certainly on Google Play Store, presumably on Apple) is a marvellous tool - free, though you will get prompts to go on Cornell U. courses, etc. Merlin also has a Step by Step ID tool with it (asking for size, main colours, where seen, what doing, etc. and making a few guesses). Even Google Lens might give you a decent result. Oh, and the most wonderful thing about Merlin is that you can set it to listen to bird song and it will flash up guesses at what it is hearing in real time - warning, this can get a little addictive.

If you prefer books, my current favourite is “Britain’s Birds” from WILDGuides, with an RSPB endorsement (even if I hold love for the Hamlyn Guide from 1970 - great art).

In passing, with those additional photos, we can see a white streak over the head, which definitely points towards Coal Tits (and away from the rarer Marsh and Willow Tits).

Ah, that makes a lot more sense - certainly in the UK in woodland I’d expect Wood Pigeons, not Feral.

Oh, nice. Ummm, not nice, ummm … atmospheric? Anyway, very nicely composed.

I like that it’s just about to catch an insect!

Where did you take this - if it was the UK, I’d guess at a Coal Tit. Americans don’t have tits (who knew?) so over there might call it a Chickadee of some kind. It’s not any sort of Blue Tit I know.

Presumably a feral pigeon (with its ancestors tending to Rock Dove) - so city dwellers ought to be familiar with the general type. Being a mongrel, that particiular plumage is indeed rare or even unique!

But a well posed pigeon is good to photo :)

“Awesome” is a bit strong - well worth watching, perhaps.

And you clearly haven’t looked enough at house sparrows, lovely plumage and fun to watch flocks of them - there again, it you are referring to sparrows as invasive, you might be American and expect a bit more colour from your birds :)

Excellent name, though I also feel there’s a hint of bandit or even outright evil in there with the black eye stripes.

Too much to hope the clouds had rain in them I suppose - while I knew Ludlow well, I only visited Leominster a couple of times.

Nice sunset, but unless you had a reason I can’t see, it would have been better rotated to horizontal in post-processing - water, especially with reflections, is pretty unforgiving when it comes to showing exactly which way is “up”.

Heh, I needed the title to see what you saw, but once seen … satisfying!

Arguably the light wasn’t very good - these are ISO8000-10000 photos as the patch of thistles was in the shade of the tree. But as you say, enough directional light light make the photos more interesting.

Oh yes, if I see thistles gone to seed, I always look closely for these.

Nice sequence, and also nicely presented within the website - uncluttered, good margins, technical details like ISO available on drop downs, etc.

So, what were you testing, and do you think this passed the test?

As art, to me, a mildly interesting photo from the contrasts, but not terribly exciting,

I suspect I’ve pushed it as far as it will go - as is pretty obvious from the sky whiting out to get more than just black shadows in the sky!