Saturday 26 March 2011

I cant believe that todays full patch walk was already the penultimate one ! Tomorrow will be the months 8th full patch visit, thats the minimum number that I do in any month.

The lovely sunny weather had gone today, leaving it grey and somewhat misty, with poor visibility, and this may have contributed to the only thinly distributed bird song heard during the 6 hour walk

Of the 48 species recorded, song was heard from BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH, MISTLE THRUSH, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH, LINNET, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, STOCK DOVE and CHIFFCHAFF, of which I counted 9. That sounds like a lot, but it was spread over the whole of my patch, and over the 6 hours!

I see by the comments on my posts that migrants are now arriving, but I didn't find any new ones today, my patch is mainly made up of secondary habitats, and the early arrivals go for the best habitat first, so they always visit me a little later. :-)

There were some birds of note still, despite the non arrival of the spring migrants, a REDWING was seen in the College gardens, and 5 MEADOW PIPITS flew over Migrant Alley, where there were 3 YELLOWHAMMERS on the new paddock. Flyovers by LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULL, as well as GREYLAG GOOSE and CORMORANT added some interest to the day list.

The COOTS remain on the lake, and with them were 6 MALLARD, 2 CANADA GEESE and 2 MOORHENS. Raptors today were represented by both KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK.

No butterflies were recorded in todays cooler, and duller conditions, and the task of recording them this summer has taken a devastating blow, as the small area that held so many of them last year, that was beside the Pub Field, went under the plough yesterday. An absolute disgrace ! All in the name of keeping things tidy! This area was left last year, so why plough it now? The college own it, and they are not exactly struggling to make ends meet, how much maize can you get from a tennis court sized area ? Not a lot, and certainly not worth the fuel the tractor used to plough it!!

Anyway, .......Photo's were few and far between today, but I thought you might be interested to see this Rabbit, it's half white and half normal, an attractive ''smokey'' colour :-)
Below is my first ''Ladies Smock'' flower. This wildflower is food for the larvae of Orange Tip butterfly, but its rare on my patch, it's only found in my garden ! A well managed area indeed :-)

This BRAMBLING visited my garden this afternoon, a nice looking male. That, along with the MARSH TIT that also visited, took the daylist to 50.




11 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Hi Warren :) What a shame about the butterfly area!

It has felt cold here today, very different from the last few days.

Forty eight species sounded good to me! I still haven't heard a Chiffchaff yet.

I love Ladies Smock and really must plant some in my garden. I am trying to introduce more and more wild flowers. Yours seems to be flowering quite early, I wouldn't expect to see it for some weeks yet.

Lovely to see the Brambling, I can't be sure but think mine may have moved on now.

Warren Baker said...

Ladies smock like a nice wet patch Songbird, dig up that lawn and put some in :-)

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

What is going on with this tidying up m'larky? Seems to be getting worse. If only they'd used the field to teach the students the benefits of uncultivated corners and the grants and subsidies they could attract...drives me mad...what IS the point of this senseless 'tidyness'

Cheers

Davo

Warren Baker said...

Dave,
Ive been over there and put those very points to them! Its a long story and gets very political. There are 3 parts to the College - Horses, Students and Farm. They all seem to hate each other !!

Marc Heath said...

Nice Brambling shot. I can't believe its nearly april already. Let's hope there is a good arrival in the next few days.

Bob Bushell said...

Lovely pictures. The good weather may have disappeared for the moment, but it'll be back.

Kelly said...

...such a pretty flower, Ladies Smock...I loved the photo. I can't wait until we start seeing flowers around here!

Glad to hear you went over and tried to talk some sense into the college about leaving the land untouched. Too bad they didn't listen. In today's world of conservation you would think anyone working with the land would understand the need to preserve areas. Hopefully they wake up one of these days.

ShySongbird said...

Yes, I remember looking for them near streams when I was little.

Hee hee, you can't call mine lawn. It's just 'the grass' and most of that is weeds! Can't dig it up though, there are some lovely self set Cowslips which come up every year :)

Paul said...

Hi Warren, nice garden Brambling shot there mate, and the unusual colouration on that bunny looks all ready for Easter.

Jann said...

Butterflies?! Are you kidding?! We got 3-4" of snow yesterday/today! Yes I'm jealous, ha! Love that bunny shot esp., too cute. Despite the cruddy weather we do have our spring migrants arriving here. The robins are back, I almost didn't notice! Plus the house sparrows, and the wood ducks at the local lake.

Anonymous said...

Cool looking Rabbit, Warren. Sorry, no pun intended :-)