Tuesday 27 October 2009

After the early morning cloud dispersed, it was another cracking day, warm and sunny - tee shirt weather right up until 15:30, when it got a bit windy.

So this afternoon I was looking forward to my walk, but it was extremely quiet and disappointing birdwise.Long stretches of birdless silences were encountered, broken only by the most common of birds, ROBINS and DUNNOCKS, mostly with the odd GREEN WOODPECKER. The lake and wet woods were a repeat of yesterday, a group of around 13 LONG TAILED TITS fed in a large oak in the woods, and just MALLARD MOORHEN and GREY HERON were on the lake.

A walk round Migrant Alley was just as quiet, a single YELLOWHAMMER was seen, two MEADOW PIPITS and four LINNETS. A skyscan only produced two BLACK HEADED GULLS! Even the corvid flock of Jackdaws and Rooks had gone elsewhere.

Have they all got wind of the fact I'm off for the next few days, and winged it ?

Oh well, I have to take the good days with the not so good, I did spend half an hour trying to photograph the birds at the garden feeders late on, but the shadows got in the way a bit.

Above and below is a BLUE TIT, these look better if you click on them to enlarge them.

Above is a GOLDFINCH from the garden, complete with shadows ! below is one I saw in ashes lane.
Below is a GREENFINCH, the shadow just caught it's bill.....shame.






11 comments:

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
So no new species yet!! Gosh I tried to send you the bohemian yesterday ;-) I guess I failed!!! Here it is getting darker after work now, so I guess I can only take pictures during the week end... Grrrr!!!

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: Neat captures of the little birds.

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
Concerning the waxings, it depends on the depression... They might fly quickly if the wind blows in your direction, which might be the case in the coming weeks. I've been looking at the depression and they are coming from Finland in the next coming weeks... So we, both of us might see them quickly!!

Ken. said...

Sorry you had a quiet day on the bird front.Enjoy your days off

Anonymous said...

Very nice photos. I enjoyed them.

Anonymous said...

Roles reversed again, Warren.
I can`t possibly have another good day, so you might add something to your list, tomorrow.

Pete Woodruff said...

Many hours of 'emptiness' in this birding game Warren, they never come easy do they, but then all of a sudden......BIRDS!

Pete Woodruff said...

Excellent news Warren......you're famous and have a pic posted and credited to you on Birds2blog......stand by for some commissions.

ShySongbird said...

You are definitely having better weather down there than we are here Warren, it was mild here but dull today and the same yesterday. I got some photos yesterday but the light was bad so they are not very good and by the time there was some sun the shadows played havoc with the birds in the hedgerows and trees.

Your photos here are lovely, particularly the Blue Tit.

Sorry I missed commenting on your previous post, things have been a little hectic.

JPT said...

Love the Goldfinch.

Jann said...

How did I miss this post? Well done Warren! I love seeing the blue tit, goldfinch, and greenfinch, nice! Your patch really is a birder's paradise!