Saturday, 21 January 2012

Sun up!
A mostly dull and overcast sky greeted me this morning, but there was the odd brief flash of sun every now and again. The 3 and a half hour visit produced the slightly less than average species total, for a January day, of 41, this without the likes of Pheasant, Skylark, Coal Tit, or any kind of winter thrush, all which should have been easy enough to find on a January visit.

There were some nice highlights amongst the species seen though, a group of 4 GREEN WOODPECKERS feeding on a large garden lawn adjacent to the Small holding was good to see, one allowing me a distant photo.

One of the four Green Woodpeckers
I enjoyed a better session than in recent times inside the Wet Woods, when a feeding flock of BLUE, GREAT, and LONG TAILED TITS were seen, with them were their normal allies the GOLDCREST, and the TREECREEPER, the latter staying still just long enough for a record photo.

Treecreeper
The next stop at the lakes and Scrubby Woods, was a mixed affair, just one MALLARD was seen on the water, but with it was the long staying COOT, better still the LITTLE GREBE was re-located, which in the dim light and at long distance, another record shot was obtained  :-)

Distant Little Grebe - Star bird  :-)
Over at Migrant Alley a little time later, there was Gull and Raptor action to be had, with 61 BLACK HEADED, 4 HERRING and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL being found out on the sheep pasture, while overhead the SPARROWHAWK had them all flying up and panicking, the KESTREL seen minutes later doesn't quite have the same effect, the Gulls know it is no threat to them  :-)  A YELLOWHAMMER was seen in the hedgerow that forms the boundary with the Greenhouse Complex, it stayed long enough for a half decent photo attempt, but the Redpoll flock seen here on recent afternoons had moved on.

Yellowhammer
The College grounds provided plenty of small passerines, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, Great and Blue Tit, Goldcrest, and a flash of the KINGFISHER over one of the ponds.

I spent the last half hour of the visit at my skywatching seat, at Migrant Alley, but nothing of note was seen going over, just a couple of PIED WAGTAIL, and lots of ROOKS, STARLINGS, WOODPIGEONS and JACKDAWS. The friendly ROBIN made it appearance, and gave me the best photo of the day  :-)

Photographers dream birds - the friendly Robin  :-)



10 comments:

Bob Bushell said...

The Tree Creeper, Green Woodpecker etc, are enough to wet my whistle, great photos.

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Nice yellow ha,,er Warren = what wouldn't I give for a green woody like that on a lawn round here!!!

Cheers

Davo

Jason K said...

Yellowhammer. A breediong bird at Shenstone yet I haven't managed to locate the winter flock yet this year.

Nice one on Little Grebe btw...I know how scarce it is on our respective patches

ShySongbird said...

Love that Yellowhammer Warren and the beautiful Robin of course!

Glad you found the Little Grebe again.

Re. Your reply yesterday, I really get that, it's as if they are interfering with 'your' place :-( What a pity you can't win the lottery or something then you could do a Johnny Kingdom (hope you've heard of him) and buy the land and turn it into your own Nature reserve :-)

Warren Baker said...

Songbird,
Johnny is a hero!! :-)

Marc Heath said...

Nice to hear the Little Grebe is still around. Sometimes the most precious of shots are the 'record' shots. I know some of mine are.

Rob said...

You've surpassed yourself with that sunrise, Warren - what a cracking winter photo!

Anonymous said...

At least you had a more productive day than i did, Warren.

Alan Pavey said...

Not too bad a session Warren, nice that the Little Grebe and Coot are staying around.

Millhouse Photography said...

What a lovely list and great shots too.