Thursday 22 March 2012

Again, it was another cracking day, considering it's only March. This does have a few drawbacks though, the sunny warm weather brings out just about every dog owner, so my walk over to the Lakes this afternoon was a very quiet one, with all the wildlife flushed off well before I got out. Only this Daffodil caught my eye  :-)
Stunning spring Daf!


Over at the lakes, it is less disturbed, as most of it is private, a look over the water gave me views of the regular CANADA GEESE, 8 were seen, as well as the mixed pair of Canada/BARNACLE GOOSE, there were also 4 MOORHEN, two drake MALLARD and a female Mallard sitting on a nest on the far bank, the COOT pair were still around too  :-)

Looking around the surrounding Scrubby Woods, it was evident more CHIFFCHAFFS have arrived here, 4 were heard singing, but little else sang, just ROBIN, WREN and DUNNOCK.  BULLFINCH were heard though, and a single REDWING was seen, along with a pair of GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS. A KESTREL hunted overhead, the first ive seen of it for 3 days. A look at the nearby garden feeders proved fruitless, the reason being a SPARROWHAWK was sitting in the tree the feeders hang from! Two Comma Butterflies sat and posed for a photo, my 500mm lens struggles with the macro shots, but here's the results.........
Comma
Comma
Next stop was Migrant Alley, but along the way I saw 5 FIELDFARE in the Tree Nursery, didn't expect those today. once at Migrant Alley I did my usual circuit of the horse paddocks, scanning all the fence lines and post as I went, all to no avail though, not a sniff of a Wheatear yet  :-)  A few dozen ROOKS, WOOD PIGEONS, JACKDAWS, and half a dozen STARLINGS with two GREEN WOODPECKERS was about it.  A look through the Greenhouse Grounds was had, where the friendly Robin was seen, along with a couple of Wrens, a PIED WAGTAIL, and 4 GREAT TITS, the latter of which were chased all the way over to the Greenhouse Copse some 50 meters away by a large female Sparrowhawk, the Tits easily managing to out manoeuvre the hawk and reached the relative safety of cover  :-)
Great Tit - before being harried by the Sprawk  :-)
Whilst sitting watching the sky, I heard this Rabbit, worth a photo, thats how quite the skywatching was, I resorted to photographing Rabbits!

7 comments:

kirstallcreatures said...

Great to see the butterlfies appearing, nicepic of the Comma, L

Warren Baker said...

Thank you Linda :-)
Orange Tips will be out soon, my favourites!

Rohrerbot said...

Great shots Warren. Sounds like a fantastic day out and about. I love your shot of the rabbit...reminds me of Watership Down. It's pretty exciting to see butterflies in your posts again:) Hope you have another great day tomorrow. Chris

Anonymous said...

You`re having about as much luck as i am with the Spring migrants, Warren. Surely something different`s got to turn up soon.

Jason K said...

Great set of photos (as always) Warren. I particularly love the rabbit shot...yes I know its a rabbit and they are ten a penny but it kinda works.

P.s. I've not seen a Comma yet this year

Magia da Inês said...

Passei para uma visitinha.
Fotografias maravilhosas... incríveis.
Um lindo dia para você.
Beijinhos.
Brasil
°º♫
°º
•*• ♫° ·.

ShySongbird said...

It must be horrible to be a tiny bird pursued by a Sprawk! Amazing though that instinct tells them which birds are a threat.

Lovely to see the Comma and the beautiful, cheerful Daffodil.

Any idea whether those Coots have got their act together and are nesting yet, Warren?