I still await any activity on the Migrant front, the mean date for the arrival of the Cuckoo has now passed, and by this time last year I had recorded both Lesser and Common Whitethroat, as well as House martin.
Even the the common resident birds were hard to find today, and very little song was heard, only 3 CHIFFCHAFF and two BLACKCAP were braving the wintery feel of the morning, with some courageous attempts at singing.
My 3 hour patch walk was ended after I realised I was 'flogging a dead horse' if I thought I was going to find anything new, the only bright spot in the day was a flyover MEADOW PIPIT - yes it was that poor a day! Only 40 species were noted, a total that was easily being surpassed on any winters day!
The weather forecasters were saying it would brighten up in the afternoon, so in anticipation of that, I had a visit to Migrant alley for a quick circuit of the paddocks and a skywatching session, I managed to pick up PHEASANT and SKYLARK for the day list, found around the fields, and the skywatching produced a flyover CORMORANT and a COMMON BUZZARD, also two KESTRELS were hunting 100m apart from each other, I watched one of them successfully catch a small rodent. These additions only brought the daylist 45, and the promised brightening up never happened, it stayed cold grey and windy, so I gave up for the day, - very frustrating!!!!!!!!
This afternoon I took some garden bird photo's to brighten the blog up. Above is a spanking Male GREENFINCH and Below is a Male GREAT TIT.
This GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was taking sunflower seeds from the floor, quite unusual to see them feed on the ground.
6 comments:
You did well to get 45 species Warren if New Hythe was anything to go by. I couldn't even get 40 today and it was bitterly cold down there.
Warren, interesting to see the greenfinch has a band on its leg! Nice shot of the little fellow, and the woodpecker also...maybe it had vertigo?! Always love seeing shots of the tits. Better luck tomorrow w/ the count.
Wot no whitethroats - can't move for em up here...well there's been two so far!
Better luck tomorrow
Cheers
Davo
Hi Warren.
You worked hard for your 45 species today. I know what you mean about the weather, it really gets you down.
That's a great shot of the Greenfinch,their quite a stunning bird for a common species.
Nice to see Woody feeding on the ground, as you say, a rare sight.
I`d given up by early morning Warren. It was more akin to January than April.
Great photos btw.
Hi Warren,
You got very nice pictures.... it is really funny to see that while you observed 45 species, I just did a score of 25 even if big arrivals are noticed all around the country!! hope you will soon see the cuckoo.
Post a Comment