Friday 22 October 2010

Everything has settled into its place on my patch now, what I've got is what I'll keep, until the next change in the weather and wind direction.

My walk over to the lake this afternoon was brightened by seeing no less than four GREEN WOODPECKERS feeding on a large lawn on one of the gardens adjacent to the Small Holding, one of which was just about close enough for a photo.

I passed through the Wet Woods, which, by the way, are almost bone dry, limiting the chances of finding a Teal here. There was nothing at all seen or heard in fact, which is very unusual, but as I came out the other side of the woods and headed for the lake, the SPARROWHAWK (below) floated overhead - that explains the lack of birds in the woods!

The lake had MOORHENS and MALLARDS on it, no surprise there, but each had increased in numbers since yesterday with 11 of the former and 18 of the latter, something might just turn up with them soon :-)
The KESTREL was again hunting around the nearby garden, and was seen to fly off with a small mammal, but not much else was seen with all that Raptor action around.
I headed for the Tree Nursery, and sat down on a stile for half an hour, watching and listening, with the result of seeing a few of the resident species, WRENS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, BLACKBIRDS, SONGTHRUSH with MAGPIE, WOODPIGEON and 8 Hen PHEASANTS. Two JAYS and a BLACK HEADED GULL were best of the flyovers.
In all, a pleasant enough 90 min walk, but i'm looking forward to getting out for a morning visit - despite the rainy forecast!

Above one of the Hen Pheasants

There was still enough light when I got home to take a photo or two of the garden visitors - below are a couple of GOLDFINCH photo's


11 comments:

Dave Jordan said...

Hi Warren
Some nice pic's, your patch certainly does have a variety of birds, were you aware of this fact when you moved there or were you lucky?
Kind regards
Dave

Warren Baker said...

Dave,
I just got lucky !

Fraser Simpson said...

The light on the first Goldfinch photography is really nice!

Bob Bushell said...

A nice selection of birds you had.

ShySongbird said...

That was a good question from Dave J, I have always wondered if you picked the patch before the house and if poor 'Mrs Warren' didn't have much choice :)

Nice to see the woodpecker and I too liked the light on the first Goldfinch.

I noticed you have your cheeky head on again this evening but you see when you are only 21 it's not so very long since childhood! :)

Marc Heath said...

A nice Sparrowhawk photo, good stuff

ShySongbird said...

I meant to say I liked the light in both the goldie photos.

Jann said...

Your green woodpecker is sure a nifty fellow...and that's a nice shot of the sparrowhawk, even if they are a nuisance. Another nice post.

Anonymous said...

Warren, that opening line just about sums my patch up as well.
Roll on some cold northerlies.

Unknown said...

Nice capture of the Sparrowhawk and Green Woodpecker, you certainly get a good selection of birds to photograph.

Ken. said...

Hi Warren.
Excuse the late comment.
Talk about in the right place at the right time, or maybe you knew it was in the area, anyway love the photo of the Sparrowhawk. Have a good weekend.