Thursday 15 September 2011

Today's weather was perfect, a rare day indeed, not too hot, not too cold, and very little wind.   :-)

My walk into work in such conditions was worthy of something exciting, but a single YELLOW WAGTAIL was the only note worthy species, calling it's distinctive flight call as it flew over Migrant Alley.

Walking back through, on the way home from work, it was frustrating to see more dog walkers, and the work crew at Migrant Alley, so nothing was seen there, apart from in one of the hedges that borders one of the large gardens, the same LITTLE OWL that I saw at the weekend was sitting.

I went home, had some grub, and went back out with my camera over to Migrant Alley, I only went to see if I could get a photo of the Owl, which i did, it posed nicely for me, so I took some photo's and left it in peace.

Little Owl
I then walked, back through the Greenhouse Complex, finding a WHITETHROAT there, this is my second latest record by just one day, the average last sighting over the ten years is the 8th Sept.

I decided to give the Tree Nursery a look through, before going over to the lakes and Scrubby Woods, but all I came up with there was a couple of STOCK DOVES and a GREEN WOODPECKER.

The Scrubby Woods were quite lively again, with BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, BULLFINCH, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, and COAL TIT all being seen with the more common stuff, the sighting of the day though was finding a flyover SWIFT (68) it was heading south with a few dozen HOUSE MARTINS, this may well be my last Swift this year, the average last date for Swifts here is 26 Aug, and todays sighting was the second latest out of the ten years of recording.

I checked out the sunny glade where the Butterflies were yesterday, and once again found the Common Blue, Small Copper and Brown Argus ( Thanks to Greenie, Dean, and Jason for confirming its ID yesterday)

On the way home back through the Tree Nursery, both COMMON BUZZARD and SPARROWHAWK were seen up hunting, and a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was on a telephone pole along Ashes Lane.
Blackcap ( Female)


BLUE TIT


Common Blue

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always good to get Swift on the Sept list, Warren.

Tim James said...

Lovely work, Warren. The Little Owl and the Common Blue are particularly fine.

Bob Bushell said...

Well done Warren for getting the Little Owl, excellent photo.

Alan Pavey said...

More great pics Warren, I'll be pleased if I pick up Swift this month :-)

Rohrerbot said...

I think I've fallen in love with that cute Blue Tit. What an adorable bird! You keep excellent records and make such beautiful shots!