Just two short visits to my patch were had today, but it remained very quiet, the most noteworthy thing was the wind again, strong and blustery, making for any flyover bird calls difficult to pick out whilst over at Migrant Alley. Around 200 BLACK HEADED GULLS were still using the sheep pasture to feed and shelter on, as well as a single HERRING GULL and 3 COMMON GULLS, two LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS also flew over whilst I was there.
A KESTREL was switching between hunting at the Greenhouse complex grounds and the Tree Nursery, while a mixed flock of REDWING and FIELDFARE numbering 48 birds, mostly Fieldfare, flew over. The bright spot of my short walk was seeing two SKYLARK (53) flying over low, headed SW, about time they availed themselves for the February list :-)
A walk over to the lake and woody scrub area was a particularly dull, and birdless affair, a LESSER REDPOLL was seen around the Lake edge, but just two CANADA GEESE and 1 pair of MALLARD were on the lakes, a couple of MOORHEN called, but went unseen.
The birdlife has certainly moved on from my patch over the last few days, but it's not unexpected, looking back at my previous years blog posts, it seems to be the norm, and later this month things should improve again.
The months target of 67 looks a long way off, and shows that the February of 2009, when it was achieved, was a remarkable one, last February I totalled 60 species, but more encouragingly I am just one species behind Feb. 2010 at this time in the month, despite not having a full patch walk done yet.
The COLLARD DOVE in the photo, looks a bit fed up! The garden was almost as birdless the rest of my patch this afternoon, the birds are very nervous at the best of times, due to the Sparrowhawk, but the blustery wind spooked them more so, and the only birds that visited and stayed for any time were the Collared doves.Hopefully, tomorrow I can get back into the groove, and get back focused on my patch watching!
7 comments:
Warren ,
'Difficult' was an understatement on that wind today .
Roll on 'later this month' .
Hi Greenie,
It always gets frustrating at this time of year, what with the spring being tantalisingly close !
Glad you are feeling better Warren :)
The wind here has been even worse today :(
I thought I was going to get a decent shot of the Brambling today (although through the window), I just had it lined up in the right spot and the chap next door slammed his van door :(
I hope you will have a full walk and watch tomorrow but I really envy you with this number of species, some of them I do not even dream to see them here ;-)
Glad to hear you're almost normal again :)
Just as windy over here too but that doesn't seem to bother the Lesser Redpolls in our garden!
Nice that you got the Skylarks :)
Windy up here in't north Warren too, so windy I buggered off back home soon after reaching the coast having nearly been blown over twice....reckon nothing to it!
Excellent day tomorrow but make the best of it as it's a one off thing.
Level pegging again, then Warren. I better get out there and get my nose in front again ;-)
Good to hear you`re over the virus.
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