Ermine!

 Yesterday was grim, blowing a Southern hoolie with bitterly cold sleet most of the day. It scarcely got light all day. So we called off our usual birding morning. During the day various minor jobs were faffed at including getting the latest Alnwick Wildlife Group newsletter stuff away to be draughted.

It was around 2.30pm while watching the telly in front of the fire  that the phone rang. It was one of our neighbours along the village to say that they have just seen a white Blackbird ( Whitebird?) in their garden. Keen for some mental enrichment, I was off up the lane with the camera.

Sure enough, a ghostly apparition fluttered across the lawn to land below a thick evergreen shrub before running under it to hide.

After a bit, the Blackbird hopped forward and flew up onto the fence for a second then dropped back into cover.

What a bird, I enjoy these varied colour aberrations and this one was a stunner. It was difficult to tell the sex. The bill was indeed bright yellow like a male, but the few darker feathers it had were more browny grey than black.

I cant see this bird having been hiding in our village of 18 houses for long. Apart from the snow last week, it stood out like a sore thumb. Maybe it has arrived with the recent influx of Redwings and Fieldfares off the continent?

This morning it was a shade off being dark, and there it was, a beacon below Audrey and Robert's bird feeders. Its a shame there was no sign at lunchtime when the sun came out and I had my camera.

Not a tick of any kind, but certainly a years local patch highlight so far...

Leucistic Blackbird or maybe an Blackbird in Ermine!.