Monday 6 July 2009

I did a bit of window watching last evening, looking over the fields in front of the house and scanning the sky. I was hoping for a flyover wader - well you never know! I didn't see one of course, but the KESTREL came out to hunt around the greenhouses and adjacent fields.

This morning I again found the SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS, and they seemed very busy and vocal, but I still havn't seen any young yet - fingers crossed for these decreasing little migrants.

Back to this afternoon and the weather has lurched from one extreme to another, this time last week there was a heatwave beginning, today it was 70F in the short lived sunny spells, and much cooler in the gale force wind and hefty thundery showers that rattled through!
Trying to hear anything against the roar of the wind blown tree's was a waste of time, so I thought i'd spend a couple of hours scanning the sky and fields at Migrant Alley. A Hobby, Buzzard or a sighting of the local Peregrine would be nice for the months list, but it was tough going and none of them showed. There was a lot of SWIFT activity noticed, scores of them were feeding up high, maybe it was less windy up there, A couple of LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS and HERRING GULLS flew south, but the only raptors seen were way off my patch, a probable Buzzard, sparrrowhawk and Kestrel were all maybe seen, very distantly!
A little bit of success came in the form of a CORMORANT, another one for the July list, it went over heading north. After 90 mins I decided that I had been windblown enough, so I went up along the scrub at the end of the fields, it wasn't much better there! However in a small, out of the wind area I found my first Gatekeeper Butterfly, a little bit more success! It all counts on a ropey old day like today!

No pics today, I left the camera at home, no chance of photo's in this weather.

7 comments:

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Only saw/heard Corvids on the Common .
Really hard going in that wind .
Well done with the Gatekeeper .

Ken. said...

Hi Warren.
I know what you mean about the weather, definately a bad day, although it sounds as if it was worse over your way.
I'm pleased that your Flycatcher's are back on your patch.

Kelly said...

Warren...what on earth is going on with your weather? Is it normally so volatile?

Monika said...

We've had a crazy weather shift today as well. No wind, but a 25 degree drop in temperature from yesterday! Cool that you were able to add a species in those winds.

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
So it looks like the wind went into your direction. Here not wind at all, but really nasty clouds which makes the light really and for pictures too! I guess you both do have to pray for a better summer than spring!

ShySongbird said...

The weather much the same here too Warren, no good for photos at all! Well done with the Cormorant and the Gatekeeper though.

Thank you for the encouraging words on my post, it means a lot :)

Simon said...

Well done with the SpotFly, I am struggling to find the resident pair(s) this year.