Sunday 10 September 2017

Spurn Migration Festival Wryneck

This weekend the fifth Spurn Migration Festival took place.  I spent virtually the whole time in a large barn attempting to sell copies of my unique and informative Yorkshire Wildlife calendars.  On the first day I only managed to sell one, but on the Sunday sales increased by a massive 50%!  While I was going stir crazy my nephew borrowed my camera and tried to photograph some of the birds in the area.  Some of these will be posted tomorrow, but today I'm going to concentrate on his close encounter with a Wryneck.  This was on the cliff edge near the Sandy Beaches Caravan site.  If you haven't seen a Wryneck before they are smaller than you think, as this one balancing on a Sow-thistle amply demonstrates.  As you may see they have a very cryptic plumage, and can look almost reptilian at times.  Although none of these poses quite catches the bird's classic 'twisted' neck, they are interesting pictures taken by a recent school-leaver.  If you look carefully at three of the images you can actually discern its unfeasibly long tongue!  Perhaps, this is the time to remind everyone that a Wryneck belongs to the Woodpecker family, and they also have these very long tongues, and when not used are coiled within their skull!
All photographs (c) 2017 Ben Coneyworth
Wryneck
Master of Camouflage 
 Tongue arching out in this photo
 Tongue pointing vertically
 Close-up
 Another picking off an insect of the flower-head
 Close-up
 Head-on













2 comments:

Maggie said...

You sold hald a calendar on day 2?

Michael Flowers said...

Quite right. I wondered who'd be first to notice. That should be 200%!