The final patch visit this afternoon was a bit of an anticlimax really, I'd hoped to maybe add just one more species to the February list or maybe even the year list, the likes of Reed Bunting, or maybe one of the local Peregrines, species that were seen last month, might have been anticipated, but it wasn't to be.
Very few birds were seen as I crossed the Tree Nursery, and adjacent field of sheep pasture on the way to the lakes, and the Lakes themselves were hosting just a couple of MOORHENS plus the COOT pair. It was obvious that the area had been heavily disturbed earlier in the day. The adjacent Scrubby Woods was good for a few REDWING and FIELDFARE, as well as 3 - 4 BULLFINCH, a lone GOLDCREST was the only noteworthy species seen as I walked back out through the Wet Woods then back onto the Tree Nursery, where a SPARROWHAWK and a KESTREL were up hunting, keeping the heads down of any bird life that may have been in the shrubs.
A quick look around the Greenhouse Grounds and the Greenhouse Copse proved fruitless, as a work party were littler picking the area. A large mixed flock of WOODPIGEON, ROOKS and JACKDAWS were flushed up from the fields at Migrant Alley by something, probably the constant explosion of gas cannons from the off patch rape field, not a good afternoon's visit :-(
February overall though has been a very good month species wise, the 70 species recorded is a new February record, beating the previous best tally by two :-) No less than five of those species were new to any February, those being, Wigeon, Gadwall, Barn owl, Med Gull and Waxwing, these five took the combined 12 year February list to 86.
The year list is higher at this point in the year (75) than at this time in any other year, giving some hope that I might find a hundred patch species in record time, the date to beat is May 17th .
I wonder what march will bring ? Certainly I would do well to reach 70 species :-)
No photo's taken today, in the poor conditions, but here's a few Long tailed Tit images from yesterday to brighten the page a bit.#
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| Long Tailed Tit |
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| Long Tailed Tit |
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| More Long Tailed Tits ;-) |
7 comments:
That's very good going Warren, will be interesting to see how the year progresses, great pics again Mate.
All to play for from tomorrow morning again Warren. Good hunting!
Cheers
DaveyMan
Those LTTs are entertaining little creatures, great photos of them Warren. You certainly did have a good February, wishing you a very good March too :-)
Thanks guys :-)
I'm looking forward to march, not only for the possible early migrants, but for some better weather ! :-)
Warren.
Well done with your new February record of 70. You knows this could be the year you have been waiting for.
Beautiful photos love your header
Well done on the new Feb total mate :)
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