Thursday 26 January 2012

After some heavy morning rain, the clouds cleared for the afternoon, and some pleasant sunshine was had. The walk through the Small Holding and Wet Woods was a bit pointless however, as all the dog walkers were also making use of the fine weather, I met three on their way out of the woods as I was going in, needless to say nothing was seen apart from a few BLUE and GREAT TITS.

The lakes had the now long staying pair of COOTS, plus the lone one that was found yesterday, although I dont think this one will stay long, the LITTLE GREBE was still present, a CORMORANT, 8 MALLARD and 6 MOORHEN made up the balance here, quite a good day for these lakes!

Looking around the Scrubby Woods for something more to add to the year list, I came across a female SPARROWHAWK tucking into a WOODPIGEON, it flew off, so I hid myself  behind a large tree, knowing that she would come back. After five minutes or so she flew in, and I watched her feeding on the head of the pigeon from just ten meters away, however as soon as I raised my camera she was off, too quick for me!! I moved on and left the Sprawk to come back undisturbed, but of course with her around most other birds were hiding up. I did hear SISKIN, BULLFINCH and distant LONG TAILED TITS, and a COAL TIT started to sing loudly, two GOLDCREST chased around a fir tree, and three SONGTHRUSH flew from beneath a bramble patch, that was about it.

Despite the warmish sunshine, the Tree Nursery had little to offer today, only MAGPIES, BLACKBIRDS, plus the odd ROBIN, WREN and DUNNOCK. As yesterday, the Pub Field was empty, so I moved on to my seat at Migrant Alley. There was a work crew out in the sheep pasture erecting fence lines, they flushed up a SKYLARK, the first seen for a while, but after 20 mins of watching the skies, and finding just one YELLOWHAMMER and a couple of BLACK HEADED GULL, I called it a day, I instead used the remaining light to get some garden bird photo's to brighten the blog  :-)  Four O'clock and it was still light!!

The blog brighteners for today are :-

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER - He wouldn't come out from behind the branch!
One of the four Long Tailed Tits that visited
One of the numerous Blue Tits - the old favourites!

11 comments:

Jason K said...

Ha..That Great Spot didn't want to play ball then Warren...how rude of him!

ShySongbird said...

Lovely photos from your sunny garden, Warren. I loved the cheeky looking GSW peeking out from behind the branch.

Our garden faces north so not much good light for photos. It also means having the door open and letting all the heat out!

We have had rain since mid-afternoon, it was supposed to stay dry!

Marc Heath said...

Nice GSW shot, makes it even better in the shot that its hiding and it works well.

Warren Baker said...

Marc, Jase,
There is one particular male Great Spot that is almost tame, if I sit quietly it will come and feed on the peanuts just 3 meters away, one move and it's off though!!

Warren Baker said...

Hi Songbird,
My back garden faces south, but it has 6 foot high walls and fences around it, so the light doesn't reach most of my garden at this time of year. You may have realised most of my shots come from the higher parts of my Elder tree :-)

Greenie said...

Warren ,
That late afternoon sun certainly gave something to look forward to , longer days .

Bob Bushell said...

The birds were in a jovial mood, it's wonderful.

Phil said...

Marc's right Warren, much better when they are slightly obscured. That's why I always take my shots when there are a few twigs in front of the bird....:-)

Anonymous said...

Let`s hope this cold spell brings something for your year list, Warren.

Alan Pavey said...

That is a really nice GSW pic. Unfortunately my walk was a morning one under the grey clouds :-(

Kelly said...

...really nice photos today, Warren. Love the close-ups. Have a nice weekend!