Sunday 18 November 2012

A view of the College stream (actually the river Bourne)
The last remnants of yesterdays cloud cover delayed the sunshine first thing this morning, but by 08:15hrs the sky was bright, blue and sunny, staying that way right through to dusk - a real treat  :-)

Once the warmth of the sunshine started to come through the birds started to make themselves visible, not in great numbers, but more so than in recent visits. Amongst the days species tally of 44, were the SISKINS, a few flew over calling, but most were at the College stream, feeding in the Alder Trees, again about 60 birds were present. TREECREEPER, MISTLE THRUSH, SONGTHRUSH, GOLDFINCH, GREENFINCH, two female BULLFINCH and flyovers from LESSER REDPOLL, YELLOWHAMMER, FIELDFARE and REDWING were the more notable birds recorded as I walked the College Grounds.

Walking back over to Migrant Alley to get to the Pub Field and Tree Nursery was mostly a case of recording more flyover species, GREYLAG GOOSE was one, but I still havn't seen a Canada Goose yet this month - or a Stock Dove  :-( Two female PHEASANTS flew from the Tree Nursery, ive not seen many this Autumn, also here were the two MEADOW PIPITS and the usual three or four GREEN WOODPECKERS.

Over at the Lakes and Scrubby Woods it was an average affair, 3 MALLARDS and a dozen MOORHEN were the usual species on the water, but this morning a Greylag Goose had joined them. In the Adjacent Scrubby Woods, JAYS and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS called, as well as at least 3 more Bullfinch. I moved on to the Wet Woods quite quickly, and found a reasonable sized feeding flock, containing at least twelve LONG TAILED TITS, four GOLDCREST, two more Treecreeepers for the day, and two more Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a NUTHATCH also tagged along, as wells a few BLUE and GREAT TITS.

A short skywatch around 10:30hrs from my seat at Migrant Alley produced the usual HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULLS, but not the hoped for Common Gull, two BUZZARDS and a SPARROWHAWK went over, and the KESTREL pair were hunting over the Greenhouse Grounds/Tree Nursery.

Not a bad visit, a new species for the November list would have put some icing on the 5 hour walk though  :-)

I got some kind of photo's from the feeding flock in the Wet Woods, I was bit like a kid in a sweet shop, all those birds feeding just feet from me, I should of just followed one bird at a time, but kept changing to another, in the end I didn't get any photo's in the sunnier parts of the vegetation!

As well as the photo's below, I got a few from my garden this afternoon, where 19 species visited the feeders, but not one House sparrow or Starling was among them! I'll post the garden shots through this coming week  :-)
Long Tailed Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Goldcrest
Treecreeper

6 comments:

Marc Heath said...

It certainly was a fantastic day weather wise. Nice shots, if only the Goldcrest turned a bit more.

Alan Pavey said...

Nice pics mate, the Goldcrest is a stunner but as Marc says would have been nice if it turned ust a touch :-)

Warren Baker said...

Hi Marc,
That Goldcrest was just about to take off, the next two frames of it were just a blur of wings! :-)

Rohrerbot said...

Warren, I know what you mean. When there's too many birds at once, it's hard to concentrate....especially when you are trying to count and document!:) With that being said, you got some great closeups of the little bitties:) The Tree Creeper is a hard one to capture on the camera:)

ShySongbird said...

Lovely, golden lit photos Warren. I had everything set for a really close, nice photo of a Goldcrest yesterday and just as I started to press the button a woman and dog appeared :-( It keeps happening to me lately, so disappointing. As for the LTTs, they just wouldn't stay still long enough. Lots of Fieldfare and Redwings about but very mobile due to all the dog walkers.

Warren Baker said...

Hi Songbird,
It is annoying with all the dog walkers about, and you cant complain about them without getting abuse !

Its simple really, - Keep your dog to yourself please!