Wednesday 21 March 2012

A warm sunny afternoon was had for todays patch visit, and after a bite to eat I went straight over to the Tree Nursery, hoping for a 'drop in' migrant, but despite a good 40 minutes scouring the shrubs and young trees I didn't find any, not the the incoming spring ones anyway, but I did flush up 3 outgoing winter ones - MEADOW PIPITS, they dropped back down further into the field. I also re-found the RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE PAIR, they exploded up in front of me and dropped down into the field next door, so the scouring of the bushes wasn't a total let down  :-)

The rest of the afternoon visit was spent around Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Complex, again hoping for a 'drop in' migrant, and again getting a negative result, it is quite early yet though so I wont get too despondent! I spent a while doing a bit of Sky watching from my seat, the first Swallow is due any day now, if I had of found one today it would have been the earliest patch record by two days, but I didn't, tomorrow maybe! I did see a low flying BUZZARD though, always great to watch as they soar up and away.

It was a bit disappointing not to see any Butterflies, it certainly felt warm enough, but they will come, patience is the word...............

Only the regulars were photographed today, but some pleasing shots were obtained  :-)
Male HOUSE SPARROW, seen along Ashes Lane. Do you know, I still have just one record of this species from my garden this year  :-(


Male House Sparrow

Male BLACKBIRD seen in the Greenhouse Complex Grounds
Male Blackbird
Female Blackbird. This was probably the mate of the above bird, they were in the same vacinity
Female Blackbird

10 comments:

Millhouse Photography said...

Blackbirds are stunning and your first shot Warren really shows the lovely colours in the bird.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Those migrants are arriving , two Cuckoos yesterday .
Soon be here .
Thanks for the tip , but am already using the new Blogger format .

Warren Baker said...

Christian,
Thanks for the kind words :-)

Marc Heath said...

An overlooked bird, the Blackbird but nicely captured Warren. Bring on the sun!

Pete Woodruff said...

Your photographs are high class now Warren, always been good to see but even better now. Could reach the mid-teens centigrade tomorrow....phew!

Chris said...

Oh lucky you Warren to have these nice species in the sun ;-) The sparrow is very nice... I've been rarely out these days cause it is still cold!! But yesterday I happen to see harlequin in a very cold weather!

Rohrerbot said...

Hello there Warren! So sorry I haven't read your blog in two days. I was out on the hunt and hiking in some amazing areas. I found a bunch of birders who were really cool people. We traded secrets and went our separate ways...came back together again one last time and spoke of our adventures. There was some great laughing going on....a couple gave me a tip on herons and I gave them the tip on a Great Horned Owl. So it was a pretty amazing hike. Anyhow, I'm bummed and happy at the same time about your sparrow sighting. They are all over here waiting for me everyday to feed them and I happily oblige:) As for the butterflies, they're coming:) I cannot believe how many have just started waking up over the past 2 weeks here. Look forward to those shots.

Anonymous said...

"Hoping for drop in migrants". You & me both, Warren.

Another cracking set of shots, there.

Stringer said...

House sparrows are one of my favourite birds ! Cracking pics.....

ShySongbird said...

Lovely photos Warren. I think it's such a shame that many birders ignore our more common birds. To me that is not a true love of birds. Having said that, as you imply, the House Sparrow is not particularly common now anyway. As they say, you don't know what you have until you lose it!