It seems like the birds have decided that it is spring after all, despite the weather, singing from MISTLETHRUSH, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, COAL TIT, CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH, GOLDCREST and WREN were all heard early in my 3 hour full patch walk. Spring calls from LITTLE OWL,TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, GREAT and BLUE TIT, as well as drumming from a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER made it a much more pleasurable walk than yesterday. Nest building was observed from a Mistlethrush, over at the College Grounds, and a CANADA GOOSE appeared to be sitting on a nest over on an island at the lakes, where a COOT has reappeared, maybe the female is on a nest too? Just one pair of MALLARD and a few MOORHENS made up the water species, however, it seems I missed a pair of Goosanders that were seen on the lakes here yesterday, thanks for reporting them K & A :-) would have been a good addition for my March sightings!
With all this wet weather, there was much standing water on the fields at Migrant Alley, one puddle was large enough to prove attractive to 4 Mallards - more than were seen on the Lakes! The large flock of Gulls was still feeding here, I counted 157 of them, all were BLACK HEADED GULLS except 8 of them, 6 of those were COMMON GULLS and 2 were MEDITERRANEAN GULLS, which I manged to pick out now conditions are a bit more conducive :-)
SISKIN, YELLOWHAMMER, PIED WAGTAIL, STOCK DOVE, SKYLARK and 4 GREYLAG GEESE were notable flyovers as I walked the fields and paddocks, which held a dozen FIELDFARE and 2 REDWING of note. KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were the raptors seen today, making up a much better daylist than yesterday, 48 species in all, which is about right for March, nothing new for the year or months list though.
This afternoon I gave it a go at some garden photo's from my shed, but in the rain and dull conditions only this female Great Spotted Woodpecker was deemed acceptable to keep.
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
6 comments:
Lovely portraits Warren. Hopefully a few migrants for us this week!
Nice one on the Mandarins on the previous post mate!
I have just got back from 4 nights in Norfolk and there wasn't a sniff of a Wheatear there...I think it's gonna be a bit later on the patch for first dates this year
Marc,
looks like the weather is drying up as the week progresses, surely the chiffchaffs will arrive!
Hi Jase,
Yep, its another late spring Jase!
At least it was sounding quite springlike on your patch Warren. We had quite a fall of snow this morning, not much left now though thank goodness. Great pics again :-) Won't be long now before your life changes if I remember rightly.
Songbird,
You do indeed remember rightly :-)
Two more weeks to go! :-)
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