.....................and here it is just to prove it...............
A few species appeared on todays list that were not seen yesterday, but the overall total remained the same - 43. KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were two of them, the former was hunting along the west end of Ashes lane, and it, or another was seen later in the walk around the more usual place, the Greenhouse Complex, which is further east on the lane. The Sparrowhawk, or more accurately the pair of of Sparrowhawks, were seen over the wet woods, whilst I was wandering through it. They were chasing and calling to each other, the male alighted in a chestnut tree directly above me, and seemed not to notice me, allowing me to get some poor pics. (below)
STOCK DOVE was another species not seen yesterday, one flew over the Tree Nursery, whilst two flocks of LONG TAILED TITS that avoided the list yesterday were seen this mornng, one also in the tree nursery, the other in the copse that is adjacent to the greenhouse complex. The last, but more exciting species that didn't appear yesterday was a LITTLE EGRET (63), it was found around one of the ponds at the College Gardens, it was with 4 MALLARDS and two MOORHENS, which made this patch of water (no bigger than a tennis court) busier than the lake area, which could only boast just 2 Mallard and a single Moorhen! Its always good to get Little Egret on the year list, they are a 'hit and miss' species that could quite easily not turn up at all during the year, todays bird keeps the year list ticking over to 63 now, bringing this month up to second place out the 9 January's recorded.
The best of the rest, was a GOLDCREST, seen in the hedgerow at Ashes Lane, TREECREEPERS, NUTHATCH and COAL tit in the wet woods, and a flock of SISKIN numbering 130+ feeding in the Alders along the College Stream. I wanted to stay longer to get a more accurate count, but a huge black dog was running around, and following me, sticking its nose into....well you know where, the place they always stick their noses, even a swift cuff round the head didn't make it go away!
When I got home, the cloud was beginning to pile in again, so i quickly took some shots of the Garden birds, all the usual stuff, but as the blog has been lacking in photo's this week, here they are.
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. (loads of drumming heard today out on the patch)
Above is a GREAT TIT, and below is a SISKIN
Below is the Siskin again with a few GREENFINCH'S
Below are more GREENFINCH'S ( with a GOLDFINCH) almost a full feeder !
This Greenfinch was caught in mid flight, I thought it looked quite cool!
10 comments:
Great stuff Warren, Lovely photos! I wish I could claim GSWs and Siskins as 'the usual stuff'!!
Glad to see you had the blue sky that we've had for the past 2 days now (a rarity in Ireland!)
Lovely shot of the Sparrowhawk, not often you see one from that angle!
Hi Warren,
Nice post mate and 63 species, well done... I'd like to see a bit of blue sky also! But this is not gonna come according to the forecast... I'm amazed about the numbers of birds around your feeder!
Warren, you made me laugh! That is a strange color......we still haven't seen it, and the weatherman just said the cloud cover will persist and temps are going to start dropping again. Snow on Tuesday... Like the Greenfinch in flight!
It didn't get blue here until 1pm and then not for too long, so I didn't need the sun block.
Sun? Blue skies? Do they really exist? It would seem so from your post Lol. They, in themselves, are rarities let alone any of the birds.
Warren: That certainly was a strange sky, we have had a few but not that blue. I loved your woodpecker shot.
Little Egret. I`d like one of those Warren.
The subject of the first photo, is the rarest thing i`ve seen in ages ;-)
what's that blue stuff Warren? Never seen it before! weird or what!
Cheers
D
I still envy your diff types of visitors...nothing here at all except the house finches and juncos returned yesterday, briefly. Very blustery here, UGH. Anywho, real nice photos!
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