By 08:00 it was beginning to ease, and off to the south a bright strip of blue sky was the promise of things to come, although it didn't arrive till 08:30. I decided as I had missed the best part of the day, to go off and do my last visit to one of my BTO tetrads, for the forthcoming Bird Atlas. The tetrad takes in part of my patch to the south , so I can kill two cats with one stone. ( I know thats the wrong saying, but I like it better!!) The best birds recorded were HOBBY, which flew low over the greenhouse complex, and the PEREGRINES which were off my patch - just. A total of 37 breeding species was recorded for the Atlas.
I got back a little before dinnertime, and while waiting for my roast, I sat in the garden and took some pics, in the sunny intervals that were very welcome after the recent weather.
After dinner I visited the fields around Migrant Alley, and the tree nursery, primarily to try and find one of the Lesser Whitethroats that have eluded the june list so far. The pair at the electricity sub-station in ashes lane weren't found, nor was the pair at the scrub at the north end of Migrant alley, so they will have to wait for another day! Not much was seen really as I plodded the muddy, wet fields, a KESTREL was up hunting and a SPARROWHAWK was chasing SWALLOWS - unsuccessfully, the only other noteworthy bird was another sighting of a MEDITTERANEAN GULL, which flew south over Migrant Alley.
Not a very good weekend, I feel a bit cheated really, the weather doesn't help! I had a look at the long range forecast, and it dosn't get much better in the next ten days. :-(
Oh well, whilst the sun did come out, I took some garden pics. Below is a Male CHAFFINCH
And a Male GREENFINCH
A BLUE TIT, looking a bit worse for wear after its breeding exertions
I saw this Large red Damselfly at one of my mini ponds
also this Common Blue Damselfly - I think! If it is it's a first for my garden- yeah!
7 comments:
You certainly get some great sightings on your walks Warren.Have to say like your saying about two cats etc,not too good the forecast then for my 5 day in Wales.
Sheila
Hi Warren,
I also missed coming to your blog but time-to-time, work is taking me away from the blog and from our common hobby!!!
It is also raining over here and is gonna be like that for the rest of the week, which is not nice because the season is gonna be over soon here!!! Nice male chaffinch you got there..
Cheers
Warren: Beautiful damselflies and that Chaffinch is a neat bird.
Hi Warren.
Sorry you didn't have such a good day as you wanted, still nice garden pictures. I envy you getting a Large Red Eyed Damselfly at your pond. Nice one.
Lovely photos of your garden birds Warren.
Hee hee hee! I liked your rewording of the old saying! My beautiful Song Thrush was killed by the neighbours darned cat months back and it still upsets me so I know exactly what you are saying!
I find it interesting that a kestrel and a sparrowhawk are two different birds over there - the American kestrel used to be named the sparrowhawk over here!
How do you go about identifying insects, or what is your background in that area? I have had little success in my amateur efforts at etymology, but am intrigued by the idea of keeping track of the bugs you see in your yard in addition to the birds!
...you certainly are having bad weather. Hopefully you'll be able to dodge the raindrops in the coming days. Even so....a lovely post with beautiful birds...and bugs!
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