Wednesday 7 October 2009

Very little birding was had today, just my walk in to work, which is carried out in 'half light' now that the nights are longer. However, it was rewarded with the sighting of a STONECHAT, at Migrant Alley, a first winter bird, which was feeding on insects that were already active in the balmy temperatures that didn't dip below 18C overnight. Stonechats are a real treat on my patch, as they don't turn up every year, although this one was the third to arrive on my patch this year; a welcome species to Octobers list. The only other noteworthy species to be seen was a KESTREL hunting over the Greenhouse complex, and a flock of both CANADA and GREYLAG GEESE, that flew over.

As I walked home from work, the first drops of rain fell, and just as I got home the heavens opened, real heavy and persistent rain! I wasn't going out in that! So I had to make do with a Garden bird watch. This lasted all of 20mins, as the SPARROWHAWK came in, chased a few GREAT TITS, which it didn't catch, and then went into the leylandi tree, end of garden bird watch!

A sorry state of affairs when you cant get out birding at all. Still, the weathers ment to improve tomorrow, and as I spent this afternoon catching up on ''house jobs'' tomorrow I will treat myself to a long afternoons birding!!

5 comments:

Adam said...

Thanks for your comments on my blog Warren. Starlins not so noticeable on the wires until it rained, they also use the mobile phone mast -think they're the only structures that have enough room for all of them!

Adam

PS. Well done on Stonechat!

Pete Woodruff said...

A nice coincidence as you have a Stonechat as the only highlighted bird for you today Warren. I've been 'Stonechating' today, my favourite passerine and one I've been studying for over 10 years.

Good Birding.

Chris said...

HI Warren,
Sometime you need this kind of weather to do your home work and be ready for the next day :-) At least you saw the stonechat, which made your day I guess... Wish you the best for tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Yeh, well done with the Stonechat, and have good afternoon, tomorrow.

Kelly said...

...I need to do those "house jobs" too...a lot of them! (I love the way certain bird names sound, and Stonechat is one of them...a lovely name.)