Sunday 30 January 2011

This morning was the last full patch visit of January, so I was on the lookout for that one species needed to set the January record. The day started promising, with the sun rising into some clear sky ( below)

However, that was as good as it got, and cloud soon streamed in on the cold NE wind, although later, as I was finishing my walk, the cloud cleared again and it became sunny - typical!

I went over to the Lakes first thing, as this is where I may well find that one new species I need, a Coot would do, or a Mandarin Duck, maybe even a Little Grebe if I was extremely lucky, but I wasn't !! Only 3 MALLARD and 4 MOORHEN were on the water, but a KINGFISHER broke the monotony of seeing the latter two species when one flew across the main lake.

I spent an hour searching the lake side habitat and Scrubby Wood area nearby, and came up with all the species that could be expected here, notably NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, TREECREPER, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, and BULLFINCH.

I left the lakes area and decided to search the wet Woods, maybe i'd get lucky with a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, but much scanning of the treetops didn't produce one, however, a feeding flock was located, most likely the one i've seen over the last few visits, the 6 Goldcrest were scrutinized carefully, but I couldn't turn one into a Firecrest. At least a dozen SISKIN were in the Alders here, and a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was drumming, the sound of geese had me searching the sky through the twiggy tree tops, and a pair of GREYLAG GEESE flew over low, only the second record this month.

After failing to find Firecrest and LS Woodpecker in the woods, I walked over to the rest of my patch. Migrant Alley had at least 250 FIELDFARE on the sheep pasture, with fewer REDWINGS, I gave up trying to find the Redwings amongst them, it was just too cold in that wind, but there were at least 30.

The College Sports pitch had 33 BLACK HEADED GULLS on it, and the rest of the grounds helped the daylist along, with SONGTHRUSH, GREENFINCH, MISTLE THRUSH, and a KESTREL.

In a last ditch attempt, to find a new species for the month, I returned to Migrant Alley for a skywatch, as any new species would be likely to be a flyover. I stuck out the cold wind for 40 minutes, and recorded flyovers by HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACK GULL, SPARROWHAWK, YELLOWHAMMER, REDPOLL, PIED WAGTAIL and STOCK DOVE, but that one new species eluded me, maybe my short afternoon visit tomorrow will turn it up :-)

As it was the RSPB big garden birdwatch today, I did my bit and spent the allotted hour counting the visitors to my garden feeders, the results were :

Blue Tit - 10. Great Tit - 4. Greenfinch - 4. Goldfinch - 3. Chaffinch - 6. House Sparrow - 5. Dunnock - 2. Collared Dove - 6. Robin - 2. Blackbird - 3. Starling - 1. Nuthatch - 1. Marsh Tit - 1. Wren - 1. and Goldcrest - 1.

After the alloted hour, 4 Siskin arrived, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Woodpigeon, and 3 Jackdaws.

Later in the afternoon I went out to photograph some of the garden birds as the sun was out, with the following results.


Robin.

Above and Below: Nuthatch



Blue Tit above, Great Tit Below


Chaffinch below

and lastly one of the 4 Siskins


11 comments:

Rohrerbot said...

Great pics!! Love the bird shots.

Marc Heath said...

Those photos are looking good again, like the Nuthatch shots in particular. Roll on the migrants

Warren Baker said...

Cheers rohrerbot :-)

Marc,
Pity I chopped the tail off the nuthatch !

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

I could spend a million hours in a million woods up here and find a firecrest or LSP - sand you totally stuffed me on the BGW, my Siskins were Long Tailed Tits!

Fingers double crossed for you tomorrow

Cheers

Davo

Phil and Mandy said...

you have some really good photos from the garden there Warren.

Bob Bushell said...

The sunrise is so radiant, and the the birds are beautiful.

Sharon said...

Love the garden bird pics Warren. I haven't seen a Great Tit around here for months, almost forgotten what they look like!

Anonymous said...

Bah !! Nuthatch on the feeder. Nice shots though Warren.

Alan Pavey said...

Good luck finding that 69th species today!! Great pics again :-)

ShySongbird said...

Good luck for today, I hope the persistence pays off :)

Lovely photos and you had a good garden bird count. After the brief visit from a GSW to my garden, I have my sights set on a Nuthatch but don't think it likely. What a shame the Siskins were too late for your count.

Paul said...

Hi Warren, some really nice shots there, especially that Nuthatch.