Friday 22 March 2013

Well spring isn't getting any nearer, a biting NE wind was blowing this afternoon, so the chance of an early Migrant was again very unlikely on todays patch visit.

I went over to the Greenhouse grounds and the small copse associated with them, but it was deathly quiet, just a few BLUE and GREAT TITS calling, with the odd WREN, luckily the LITTLE OWL pair were at home in the copse, and gave me these snaps  :-)
Little Owl. For such a small Owl it really does have some formidable talons!
Little Owl -big talons!
Little Owl - big furry talons  :-)
After the Owl encounter I decided to get out of the wind and sit behind a line of shrubs over at the Tree Nursery. I stayed for 40 minutes, seeing a few bits and pieces, flyovers from the following were seen ;  4 MEADOW PIPITS, a few local GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, and CHAFFINCH, two COLLARED DOVES, a flock of 16 STARLINGS, 1 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, 4 HERRING GULLS, 13 BLACK HEADED GULLS, 1 CORMORANT, 1 SPARROWHAWK and 1 KESTREL.

A pair of MALLARDS alighted on a large puddle 50m or so from my position, and my view across the sheep pasture in the adjacent field had me watching 141 WOOD PIGEON, 3 STOCK DOVES, 4 MAGPIES, 19 FIELDFARE, and a single REDWING. SONGTHRUSH, GREEN WOODPECKER, DUNNOCK, ROBIN and more WRENS were heard in the surrounding shrubs and vegetation, and another Little Owl called from its hiding place in a large garden on the other side of the sheep pasture. I soon felt the chill of the afternoon though, and called it a day, another all too brief visit, but little else would have be found. The weekend looks like a real taste of winter returning again, temperatures of 2 or 3 degrees Centigrade and a biting easterly wind - oh, and rain of course! Looks like another poor one!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great pics Warren. You wanna think yourself lucky you don`t live up here. We`ve had snow all day :(

Marc Heath said...

Nice Warren. Not sure about those twigs in the way. You wouldn't catch me posting shots like that!

Warren Baker said...

Hello Dean mate.
It's gonna be a horrible weekend for us too, rain, sleet, cold wind, the works ;-(

Totally fed up with it ;-/

Warren Baker said...

Marc,
Does look as though the owl got in the way of my stick shot dont it!!

Jason K said...

Great to hear that you still have a pair of Little Owl on your patch. I'm quite concerned about the Shenstone birds as their has been no sign as yet this year

Adam said...

great owl

ShySongbird said...

Lovely owl shots Warren, you are so lucky to have them on your patch. We have snow here again :-(

Pam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Fantastic Owl shots, I still haven't managed to find one around here...

Warren Baker said...

Songbird Snow here too, I guess you've seen todays post!

Warren Baker said...

Kieron,
I suspect you've got a pair there somewhere mate, keep looking!