Sunday 19 September 2010

Early sunny spells gave way to progressively increasing cloud cover this morning, but it remained dry for the four hour patch walk.

Most of the bird activity was again centred around Migrant Alley today, the 100+ HOUSE MARTIN, which have been present all week in large numbers, were again whizzing about in the sheep pasture, along with the local SWALLOWS, 20-30 MEADOW PIPITS and 2 YELLOW WAGTAILS. A Skein of 19 GREYLAG GEESE went high over, the first Geese seen this month whilst on a full patch walk.

CHIFFCHAFFS were present in good numbers, the remnants of yesterdays invasion I suspect, 3 were in the Maize crop in the Pub Field, 2 were in the College Grounds, and singles were heard from cover in the Small Holding and Lakeside Scrub. The only other summer migrants left on my patch were 4 BLACKCAPS, 1 female was in a large garden on Ashes Lane, and a pair were seen along the College Stream.

The lack of Raptors, only the SPARROWHAWK was seen today, and Gull species, just the HERRING GULL was recorded, as well as not finding the likes of Treecreeper, Mistle Thrush and Pheasant, kept the daylist down to 43 species, but this is around average for a September day.

The Wet Woods and Lakeside Scrub area had the usual nice species, NUTHATCH, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, MARSH TIT and at least 6 BULLFINCH . Despite not finding anything new for the months list, it was still an enjoyable visit, not least for the number of Migrant Hawker Dragonflies that were on the wing.

Photo's today, A CARRION CROW on the fence line at Migrant Alley, not the best replacement for a Whinchat or Wheatear :-)

Below is a Cock HOUSE SPARROW

Lastly one of the many Migrant hawker Dragonflies that were around today




4 comments:

ShySongbird said...

It's been more like November here today :(

That is a very striking photo of a Crow and it's always nice to see a little Sparrow :)

Pete Woodruff said...

Forty three species in a day list of just four hours seems quite good in my book Warren.

Anonymous said...

"Wet Woods"
Everything was wet up here Warren. We`re in for a few better days now, but the wind is swinging to a southerly. No good at all....

Kelly said...

...crows are such cool-looking birds--and you have a wonderful capture of him! Everything is parched, burnt, dead and dying here. We've had no soaking rains since July 23. It's very strange. On the autumn equinox it's supposed to be 90 degrees F! Summer holds on with a vengeance.