Friday 27 July 2012

The fine weather finally came to an end this morning, low cloud, a bit of rain, greeted me as I left at 05:45hrs.
All change with the weather this morning
The rain eased away during the 5 hour visit, and it became warm and humid under the cloud cover, but once again it was a good day for finding the birds, another very good tally of 51 species was seen today, nothing new for the month, but the sighting of a lone MISTLE THRUSH, then two, as they flew over was a sign that things are moving around, as was the sighting of a group of 6 CORMORANT, they flew north, followed later by a single one, all passed over Migrant Alley, where a dozen GREYLAG GEESE were again on a paddock, and today they had the female MALLARD tagging along again.

It was a good day again for seeing the Raptor species as well, four species turned up, only the Buzzard avoided detection, although there probably was one up high that I missed! I didn't miss the HOBBY though, it whizzed through stopping only to chase a few of the 40 SWALLOWS that were over Migrant Alley, where I also saw the PEREGRINE pair in synchronized flight, then there was the SPARROWHAWK that put in an appearance at the College Grounds, but only one KESTREL was seen, perched on the Greenhouses, the family looks to have dispersed now, nice to have a good outcome for them :-)
Kestrel on the Greenhouses
At the College Grounds there was much activity, family parties of CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT, COAL TIT, and the SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS were all found, as well as young BLACKBIRDS, SONG THRUSHES, ROBINS, WRENS and DUNNOCKS.
Chiffchaff
This Chiffchaff was feeding the two below  :-)
Hungry Fledgling Chiffy
Another hungry Chiffy  :-)
Flyovers were much the same as yesterday, as well as the mentioned Cormorants, GREY HERON, HERRING GULL, BLACK HEADED GULL, and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL all went over in ones and two's, plus a few SWIFTS were about.
One of the two recently fledged Spotted Flycatchers
The lakes and Scrubby Woods area provided all that I would expect, with TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, LONG TAILED TIT, GOLDCREST, more Coal Tits and a pair of BULLFINCH all being found.






8 comments:

Rohrerbot said...

Nice shots of the Chiffchaff. Another nice walk....maybe it's the olympics:)

Warren Baker said...

Hi Rohrerbot,
Is it time for the Olympics then ? :-)

Rohrerbot said...

One other thing I was going to add, here in the desert after a rain or before, the critters come out in droves and we see things that we normally wouldn't with the sun. I don't know how it works elsewhere but the rain is great for bringing out the wildlife....just not so much with photography:) The lighting is terrible.

Phil said...

We've had a juvenile chiffy in our garden for most of the week Warren. It was acting very unchiffy like. Hopping around on the patio, in and out of the bird bath and even on one of my feeders, pecking at it inquisitively. That's a first!

Rohrerbot said...

Yes....I'm afraid so. Olympics abound...opening ceremonies tomorrow or tonight.

Warren Baker said...

The lighting here is normally pretty iffy Rohrerbot, its best in the evenings or early morning........if the suns out!

ShySongbird said...

Lovely photos throughout Warren and great to see the young ones especially the SF :-)

Lovely weather again here until about 7pm when it went much cooler and dull, it was much nicer than forecast :-)

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Good to see some of the youngsters have made it through difficult conditions .
Sounds like we're back to mixed weather again next week .