Thursday 29 September 2011

Another hot and sunny day today, but there was a little more of note to be seen than yesterday. Early this morning as I walked into work across Migrant Alley, first a HOBBY, then a YELLOW WAGTAIL flew over, both good birds for the end of September.

After work this afternoon, I waited until the worst of the heat had gone from the day before venturing out. This proved quite good, as my visit to the drilled and seeded Pub Field gave me my first LAPWING (73) of the month, also on the field were 32 BLACKHEADED, and 6 HERRING GULL, along with a few WOODPIGEONS, ROOKS and JACKDAWS. The run off pool adjacent, had a flock of 8 LONG TAILED TITS, with them was a CHIFFCHAFF, these are the only summer species left on my patch, as for the second day in a row there were no Swallows or House Martins seen.

A walk around the fields and paddocks of Migrant Alley, didn't produce any passage migrants, but there were a party of 9 GOLDFINCH feeding on whats left of the thistle heads, while nearby, in one of the paddocks, the 22 strong LINNET flock fed on dandelion seeds, another paddock had a good flock of around 85 STARLINGS feeding in it.

The Greenhouse Complex Grounds had a few ROBINS, DUNNOCKS, WRENS, PIED WAGTAILS, BLACKBIRDS and a SONG THRUSH, the first ive seen for a few days, the Tall Hedge that borders Migrant Alley had half a dozen BLUE AND GREAT TITS as well as one of the 3 Chiffchaffs seen today.

Goldfinch On Thistle Heads At Migrant Alley


Goldfinch On Thistle Heads At Migrant Alley


Long Tailed Tit - They weren't too co-operative with the camera today  :-)

8 comments:

Bob Bushell said...

The Goldfinch is beautiful and, on thistles as well.

Anonymous said...

Classic shot, that first one, Warren. Superbly captured.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
LTTs don't co-operate with my camera , period .
Got to agree with Dean's Goldfinch comment .

Jason K said...

Nice one on picking up Lapwing for your month list Warren

P.s. those Goldfinch shots are superb mate!

Chris said...

I still love this long-tailed tit picture even if it was not cooperative... it is a cool one... 73 species for the month! Wow well done Warren...
I'm reaching 85 for the year in Iceland which makes it the thrid best year, but I still miss some guys such as the red crossbill which at least I should see. Let's hope some rarities will end up over ehre soon ;-)

Tim James said...

I agree with everyone else Warren – really nice Goldfinch shot. Have you edited the shot? If not, it looks like you did really well to capture the finch with everything else moving so much. Lovely work.

Warren Baker said...

Tim I just cropped and sharpened the shot up slightly.

By the way I'm having trouble commenting on your site :-(

Tim James said...

Hi Warren. Sorry to hear that – I thought the whole blogosphere had gone quiet on me! Very few comments recently. What seems to be the problem? – Tim