Thursday 18 March 2010

I was out early this morning before work, in anticipation of finding some birds at Migrant Alley again, but it was back to the quiet mode, all I saw of note were 5 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS on the horse paddocks.

This afternoon it remained in quiet mode, I again walked through the Small Holding, Wet woods and lake area, hoping to here a Chiffchaff, but none came forth, it was as it has been recently, singing TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST and COAL TIT. On the lakes the 6 CANADA GEESE remained, with 8 MALLARD and 4 MOORHEN, but the Coot had hidden up again or moved on.

I decided to head for Migrant Alley, and passing through the Wet Woods again, I found a flock of 23 CHAFFINCH feeding on the floor, a good look through them didn't produce any Brambling or Hawfinch though. I came out of the woods and crossed Marchants field, where a flock of around 40 FIELDFARE and 8 REDWING were feeding - quite a decent amount of these birds for this late.

Once at Migrant Alley I walked a circuit of the fields, but found nothing of note except another flock of mixed Fieldfare and Redwing, about 30 birds in all. The next hour was spent sitting on my horse jump seat and skywatching, which gave me nothing but HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULLS, and the resident KESTREL hunting around the Greenhouse Complex. I was thinking about moving on, when from the tall hedge behind me, I heard the call of..................a CHIFFCHAFF (73,66) . Well Migrant Alley has turned up its first migrant of the year, a big welcome back to the little warblers!

Below are some photo's of the first Chiffchaff of the year, not a very exciting bird to look at, but it means it's the start of spring migration on my patch.







9 comments:

EP Andy said...

Hi Wareen

Way hay, Spring is here at last. We can all go out and celebrate. Congrats on the Chiffchaff, can't wait to hear my first one now.
We all lost the sweepstake though, but I bet, by the weekend the woods will be ringing with their calls - I hope.

Phil said...

Well done Warren! You can sleep easy tonight now.

Warren Baker said...

We were all too eager Andy!

Adam said...

Well done Warren - I was searching them out on my patch yesterday, knew they would turning up this week! That first Wheatear now! Simon had a couple of Black Redstarts at Pembury toady so keep your eyes peeled for those lovelies in case they start dropping your way!

Adam

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
Congrst, you got nice pictures of the chiffchaff, they are not so easy to take pictures off. It looks like it is coming here too, I mean spring. Lakes are now free of ice and a lot of activities around. We will be soon on business again!

Tony Morris said...

What stunning photographs! (or so I was told on the forum)

ShySongbird said...

Oh well done Warren! I'm really chuffed about the Chiffchaff, that's a lot of ch's and ff's!!

We can really feel Spring is here now...I hope :)

Anonymous said...

Nice one Warren.
My patch was as dead as a Dodo, yesterday.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
They have started to arrive .