Albino Storm Petrel

This one would cause a few raised eyebrows, voices and temperatures if it flew past a seawatch point!


This partial albino Storm Petrel was caught (and ringed) recently on Eilean nan Ron, off the Kyle of Tongue, Scotland. It was an adult bird and had its right foot missing! This might seem odd, but is actually quite a common occurrence in petrels - one of the hazards of dangling your feet in the water whilst feeding!

Thanks to Colin McShane (and Lisa Salt) for the photo.

New species - Lime-billed Bullfinch!

Ringing always turns up something odd, and this Bullfinch is no exception. It was caught at Woolston Eyes, Cheshire, yesterday, and showed some very odd colouration indeed. One feather on the forehead, all of the nasal feathing and a couple of wing feathers were white, and the whole bird was generally quite pale in colour. Most striking though was the bill, which was mostly a pale lime colour instead of black! Very odd!


Thanks to Stephen Menzie for the info and photo of this oddity, and for comparison, a normal Bullfinch photo by Jill Pakenham is shown below.