Persistent, heavy rain fell from dawn till dusk today, preventing any patch visit apart from my walk home, which did, remarkably, coincide with a flyover of at least 20 GOLDEN PLOVER (57) as I walked up Ashes lane. There were also at least 40 BLACK HEADED GULLS at Migrant Alley on the sheep pasture, but I wasn't hanging around for an accurate count in the deluge!
The Golden Plover were an especially pleasing addition to the the 2011 list, because it took until Dec. to get this species on last years list, and then it was just one record of a single bird going over. The months list creeps up to 57 now, a January total shared by 2005 and 2006, and ahead of January 2002, putting this month into joint 7th place out of the ten January's, still 11 species behind the best total set in 2009 though.
I thought it would be a simple case of watching what came into the garden this afternoon, but attacks by both male and female SPARROWHAWKS were as persistent as the rain, their continued high speed fly-throughs kept everything away apart from the nimble BLUE and GREAT TITS, which would grab a seed from the feeders and immediately head for cover again. I ended up drifting of to sleep at my window seat!
This year is failing to catch alight somewhat, I need a sustained run of patch visits !!
10 comments:
Warren ,
That was one grim day .
You did well with the Golden Plover flyovers , I didn't get outside the door .
Greenie,
had I not had to go to work I wouldn't have got past the front door either!!
The weather is just 'pants' at the moment. I too spent a while in the rain this morning at Grove adding 16 Bewick's Swans. The weather does not look good for the next few days. The birds are there, you just got to find them.
Marc,
You're right, the birds are out there, I just need a better, more waterproof coat :-)
Superb weather today for me, not that I went out in it. But The Swale NNR has suffered this winter from gross lack of water and today, and others to come, will hopefully see water levels begin to rise at last.
Warren, for a bloke that is on his patch about 360 days a year, you're hardly short of visits.
Good to see your Golden Plover showing down there Warren, they seem to have gone AWOL in our area at least.
I am sorry to hear that it rained all day, never mind, it will be nice again in the about July, lol.
Lucky you Warren. The recent cold spell has pushed all the Goldies away from this area.
Take care of the golden plover mate, so that they will fly back over here ;-) Im stills tuck at 15 species over here and the weather is not gonna help... We are getting another storm for all the week end!
Nice one on the Golden Plover...another good bird to get early in the year
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