The fog didn't clear until around 09:00hrs, and I was wasting my time going out trying to find birds, but go out I did - I should have stayed in bed!I walked along ashes lane, through the tree nursery, up along the hedgerow boundary, into migrant alley, around the college grounds, back through migrant alley and home. What did I see ? A miserly 28 species, well I didn't actually see many of them, I just heard them! All the regular common species, WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, PIED WAGTAIL, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH four TIT species four FINCH species and a flock of HERRING GULLS on the college sports pitch, oh, and a MISTLE THRUSH, the first since the 16th. The common summer species CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP and WHITETHROAT also showed up.
I decided to sit indoors with a cup of tea and wait until the fog lifted before going out again, but by then the best part of the day had gone. A quick scan throught the Small holding, wet woods and lake area, again only provided the common species, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, YELLOWHAMMER, and GOLDCREST, with MALLARD and MOORHEN on the lake. In all just 40 species were recorded, well down on recent mornings, so I went back over to Migrant Alley for a skywatch. I quickly added the HOUSE MARTINS and SWALLOWS that had now appeared, and a HOBBY that chased after them, as well as at least 3 flyover YELLOW WAGTAILS, also 2 TURTLE DOVES flew fast and low southwards, probable migrants, not local birds. I gave up around 11:00hrs, as workers turned up on the Pipeline constuction, looks like they're doing the final clearing up work.
Just 45 species were recorded today, but I supose thats a more realistic total than recent visits, ive just been spoilt!
I got a couple of photo's below is a Pied Wagtail
and a young LINNET.
Dave of http://lalows.blogspot.com/ asks for some photo's of my patch to posted. I'll see what I can do dave, probably next week.
10 comments:
sorry your weather's been poor Warren,love the photo of the wagtail.It is crystal clear.beautiful
Sheila
Great wagtail shot! I get jealous of even your most common species, because they're exotic to me! I look forward to some photos of your patch, too.
Gorgeous photo of the Wagtail Warren and a lovely one of the young Linnet too. Oh dear! Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness come to mind, it's all happening much too quickly for my liking!
I agree, I'd love to see shots of your patch. That wagtail is stunning! Great shot of it and the linnet!
Hi Warren,
It looks like we are at the same point again... Rain and heavy wind today.. but most importantly, no bird at all... I have been going around just to see starlings and redwings!! Nothing more!! Guess we again have to be patient with mother nature :-)
Thanks for the map Warren, very enlightening helps me make sense of your daily walks, I'd do the same but I'm sure you know what Blackpool promenade looks like, tower n all.
Did you ever hear of/read/contibute to the shortlived publication from the early, or was it mid, 90s Patchwork?
Cheers
D
The killer fog. At least you got a couple of great photos, Warren.
The photo of the Pied Wagtail is worth all of your efforts. Since we don't have that bird here, I'm in awe of it's striking looks. You've had to fight fog and rain a lot! I guess it's either feast or famine--we are entering our drought phase. A lot of plants are starting to wither.
Warren: You sure got a nice capture of the fog. That bird looks so cool.
Pity about the fog but I like your atmospheric capture of it!
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