Monday 13 September 2010

Apart from a few bright spells early this morning, the day remained stubbornly grey and cloudy, with an increasing SW wind.

My walk into work proved unrewarding early this morning, it seems i'm too early for most of the passerines, only HERRING GULLS and ROOKS were about. On my way back home 5hrs later, I fared little better, the only birds of interest were the STARLINGS at Migrant Alley, numbers are now starting to increase as they flock together for the coming Winter. One thing I haven't been seeing so far this Autumn is the annual Crane fly hatching, or is that still to come ? It's this food bonanza that brings in the passage migrants to the fields.

My afternoon walk took me over to the Lakes and scrub area, where the only summer migrants seen were two BLACKCAPS and two CHIFFCHAFFS, I could have stayed at home and seen those, as they were both seen in my garden whilst I had lunch, they were tucking into the berries from my burgeoning Elder tree :-) ( These were the 32nd and 33rd species to visit my garden this year)

The lake held little of interest, although the GREY HERON that fished there is a welcome treat, other than that it was MALLARDS, two of ! ( see how lucky you are Dean with grebes and tufties)

Walking back, through the Wet Woods, a small mixed feeding flock was chanced upon, made up of COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER and the plentiful BLUE and GREAT TITS. A further visit to Migrant Alley proved very disappointing, with just the MEADOW PIPITS of any note.

More poor weather forecast for tomorrow, is it time to put the camera away for the winter ?

5 comments:

Greenie said...

Warren ,
There have been a few Crane Flies around , but not in the usual numbers , like many things this year .

Phil said...

Warren.
Funny you should mention Crane flies as they were all over the show in the Lake District but I haven't seen any down here yet. This is usually the time of year to be using imitation Daddy's for Trout fishing.

Warren Baker said...

Something to keep an eye on in the next week or so then ?

Derek Faulkner said...

Perhaps the ground is still too dry for the Daddy's to emerge yet. We're only just starting to get a few mushrooms on Sheppey at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Warren, i`d consider myself lucky if something else would turn up and join the Grebe & Tufties. It`s about time that a Pochard or two returned. Suppose that`d be another one to get you waving your fists at me ;-)