Sunday 12 December 2010

TREECREEPER
A cold frosty start to the patch visit today, but with clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine, it was a pleasure to be out. My first destination was to the drainage ditch where yesterdays Teal was seen, no Teal today, but there was a SNIPE, which took off and went over to the Greenhouses. A pair of YELLOWHAMMERS flew over, headed west, as did a LESSER REDPOLL a few moments later, both good birds to find for the day.
The College Grounds had its fair share of birds today, mostly common resident species though, WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH, COLLARED DOVE, JAY all were seen along with the BLUE TITS, GREAT TITS, CHAFFINCH'S and GREENFINCH, the latter of which I didn't find yesterday. As I left, 8 BLACK HEADED GULLS were seen on the Sports Pitch, with a flyover COMMON GULL. Other flyovers seen whilst walking towards the Pub Field across Migrant Alley were a SPARROWHAWK, 3 SKYLARK and 4 groups of HERRING GULLS numbering 56 birds in all.
As I reached the Pub Field, my list was only made up of mostly 'usual' species, but that changed when I heard, then got onto, my first GOLDEN PLOVER (111,62) of the year, I have been anticipating this species flyover since early November, and at last have managed to get it on the year list, extending the record tally even further -excellent!
The second half of my walk found the lakes back into frozen solid mode, if this frosty weather keeps up ive no chance of adding any wildfowl to the months list, and it will severely hamper the chances of reaching a record December total.
At least in the Wet Woods there was plenty of activity, a large feeding flock of mixed species was observed, amongst them were 2 TREECREEPER, 3 NUTHATCH, 8 LONG TAILED TITS, 2 GOLDCRESTS, a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and the MARSH TIT. I stood and waited for a good 15 minutes to try to get some photo's, but just when the birds were getting used to my presence, an ignorant dog walker came stomping past me, he had all the woods, to walk through ( not that he should of been off the footpath -I have permission to be there), but no, he had to come my way, bloody ignorant.
Anyway rant over, I at least got one Treecreeper photo. On leaving the woods and walking through the Tree Nursery I was pleased to see both the PEREGRINES from the tower soaring over the Greenhouse Complex, and whilst walking home along Ashes Lane a third raptor for the day was seen when a Kestrel flew past me.
A day of mixed fortunes, but on the whole a good weekends birding, back to the afternoon visits tomorrow !

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice shot of the Treecreeper.

Adam said...

It just gets better! Well done

Adam

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Freakin dogs - who'd have one!!! Get one and throw away the rule book...
Mine nearly had me up to the 'unmentionables on a public forum' in a freezing Irish Sea this arvo - AND I ddn't see the TWO puple sands nor the offshore black throated diver...bally dogs!!!

Warren Baker said...

Dave,

If everybody did their ''thing'' without impinging on others, everone would be happy!

Respect - something that's severley lacking in todays society.

Marc Heath said...

Nice shot of the Treecreeper, well done.

Caroline said...

Warren,
I see your comments on Jann's blog, she and I live about 50 miles from one another, and sometimes see the same things with our cameras!
Love your treecreeper, we have brown creepers here in the Hills of SD, they sure look like the same creature. I have never gotten a picture of one, they are so well camouflaged, they are easy to miss.

Phil said...

All the ones puts you ten up on me Warren! If I catch you up i'll play the bagpipes in a kilt in my local Tesco's!

Kelly said...

...it's always so disappointing when you've been still and quiet for so long that the birds start to get used to you...and then someone comes along to destroy it. At least you got a beautiful photo of the treecreeper. That is worth it all to me. I love those birds and they are few and far between here (Brown Creepers for us).

Anonymous said...

Can you manage a repeat performance next year, Warren ? This one`s been an excellent year for you.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Like Dean , I think you are making hard work for yourself next year .
But I'm sure you'll still be going for it though .

ShySongbird said...

What an excellent weekend Warren! I missed commenting on Saturday's post :( but see you had a really good day with the 4 new month's additions and then the Golden Plover on Sunday, well done!

Great Treecreeper photo too :)

Jann said...

Real nice treecreeper shot, I've only seen two brown creepers (very similar) and yet to get a decent shot of the busy buggars.