Monday 15 October 2012

I visited the Lakes and Scrubby Woods this afternoon, and was lucky enough to cross paths with a feeding flock of birds, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't of seen much at all! The flock was, as is normally the case, mostly LONG TAILED TITS, about a dozen in all, they were joined by a few BLUE and GREAT TITS, 2 COAL TITS, and a TREECREEPER, also, WREN, ROBIN and DUNNOCK were loosely associating with them, as was a lone SISKIN, but two BULLFINCH were certainly keeping themselves to themselves. The lakes had nothing of interest, just a pair of CANADA GEESE and a few MOORHENS.

I had time left to visit the Tree Nursery, where at least 5 MEADOW PIPITS flew up, a SPARROWHAWK went over and a KESTREL hunted along the hedgerow. I checked the old shack, as I always do, in the hope of finding a Barn owl, or some Owl pellets on the floor at least, but no sign of one, there was however a LITTLE OWL there,  it flew out and into a nearby tree, but I didn't have my camera on me today.

Half an hour on my sky watching seat over at Migrant Alley was of some interest, I watched a trickle of HOUSE MARTINS and SWALLOWS head south, these are later than the last seen in 2011, when the Swallows were last noted on the 9th, and the House Martins on the 12th, the latest record for these species is 22nd Oct for House Martin and 20thOct for Swallow. I also watched 5 SKYLARK head NW and heard a Lesser Redpoll go over plus a couple more SISKIN.
Talking of Siskin, here's the photo's from yesterday.
Siskin (Male)
Siskin
Siskin



10 comments:

Rohrerbot said...

Now that's a cool bird:) I hope to see it in the wild someday.

I'm back from a birding trek south and had a great time. No internet and lots of wonderful finds. Your post with the filtered light is beautiful. Hope you have a good week.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Nice shots of the Siskins .
Haven't noticed it before , but the Red Admiral on your header is unusual . I have flicked through the images of the species on the web , but can't find another one with white spots in the red bands . Going to get the Kent recorder to have a look , will let you know what he says .

Warren Baker said...

Greenie,
Well I never, you're quite right, white spots symmetrically opposed on the orange band, how on earth did you notice them!

Alan Pavey said...

Fantastic pics mate, great light as well :-)

Marc Heath said...

Nice lighting on the Siskin shots.

Anonymous said...

Ace shots mate.

Anonymous said...

Warren/Greenie - that Red Admiral is the commonest form of aberration within the species.

Gary Jones said...

Warren, I'm loving the Siskin shots.

ShySongbird said...

The Siskin photos are lovely Warren as were the ones of the Jay in flight on Sunday's post.

There are a couple of 'old shacks' around here which, like you, I always check in the hope of seeing at least a sign of a Barn Owl but never with any luck at all. Well done with your Little Owl!

Unknown said...

I am normally a few days behind your garden sightings Warren so hopefully I will have some Siskins this week. That will be early for me!