Tuesday 7 April 2009

A day of sunny intervals today, but quite a breeze, which got stronger as the day went on. My routine trip to find a newly arrived migrant over at the lake area, was not successful in that area, but before I got there I was chuffed to bits to hear a WILLOW WARBLER (84) singing from a small scrubby area at the small holding, a nice birthday treat for me! This bird is 4 days earlier than the mean arrival date. The earliest Willow warbler was heard on Apr 1st, that was in 2006, the latest arrival date was may 1st, in 2004. Such a wide arrival date is down to the fact that this species doesn't breed on my patch, it just passes through, although last year I did have two long staying territorial birds singing for the first time, but couldn't prove breeding.

The scrub at the lake area sounded very springlike, BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF were singing loudly, as well as all the local resident birds, WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH and MISTLE THRUSH. With all that singing, and the GREAT, BLUE and COAL TITS calling, it was hard to drag myself away, believing that any second that Nightingale might sing!

Crossing the tree nursery, a GREEN WOODPECKER flew up in front of me, and both NUTHATCH and TREECREEPER were heard from the wet woods behind me, I sat on a stile, for a minutes rest, and glanced skywards at a bird that was soaring, it was the PEREGRINE again, which was joined, as yesterday, by it's partner. I watched for some time as the chased, and jousted in the sky.

An hour scanning fields, paddocks, and sky at migrant alley, produced very little today, just a SKYLARK, 2 LINNETS, 4 GOLDFINCH, a MEADOW PIPIT and the usual ROOKS and JACKDAWS. There was however a Buzzard up high to the west of my patch.

No butterfies today, the only ones recorded were being blown along on the wind! But below are a couple of shots of the Willow Warbler. Below them is an effort at the Peregrines but they were just to high up.







14 comments:

Kingsdowner said...

A very happy birthday to you, and I hope you won't want any more presents after the willow warbler!

Arrivals do seem to be early this year, presumably due to the fine weather....lovely!

Warren Baker said...

Cheers Steve.
No pezzies, just a nice fish'n'chips tea, with a bottle of Red!

EP Andy said...

Hi Warren

Happy Birthday and a Willow Warbler. Apparently Nightingales are starting to arrive so keep your ears open.

Only the on bottle though !!!!!

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
ok I got the info, happy birthday mate!!! Good to have nice pictures of a willow warbler for your birthday isn't it? Do not party too much, your patch will wait for you tomorrow :-), just like us waiting to see what will be the next bird to arrive!

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Have just posted and then looked at yours , and we've done it again with the Willow Warblers this time .
Hope you enjoy your day , you can sit back and relax on the OAP now !

Anonymous said...

Willow Warbler, snap, Warren.
Great pics of it too.

Happy birthday, mate.

Steve said...

Great shots of the Willow Warbler Warren. You seem to get everthing over there, oh, Happy Birthday.

Tricia Ryder said...

A very Happy Birthday to you Warren;

fish'n'chips and a bottle of the red stuff together with a goodly selection on your patch and a Willow Warbler with good pictures.... hmmmm sounds a good way to celebrate to me

FAB said...

Many happy returns Warren. Great shots of the Chiffchaff.

Kelly said...

Happy Birthday, Warren! The Willow Warbler is a nice-looking bird. Glad you found him early...and on your birthday!

Phil and Mandy said...

Yes Warren,Happy Birthday and well done on the Willow Warbler, lovely shots mate.

ShySongbird said...

MANY HAPPY RETURNS WARREN! and such lovely photos of the Willow Warbler, an excellent birthday present!

Simon said...

Happy Birthday Warren, and some nice shots of the Willow Warbler.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: Beautiful photos of that bird.