It was at least a little brighter at times this morning, and the increased light levels made it feel a bit more springlike, especially so when the likes of GREENFINCH, CHAFFINCH, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN and STOCK DOVE all were heard to sing as I left for my walk at 06:30hrs.
The first noteworthy sighting this morning was of at least 200 BLACK HEADED GULLS on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, with them were 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS, and 4 COMMON GULLS (48), a few HERRING GULLS flew low over, but the sighting of the day was a single MEDITERRANEAN GULL (49) found amongst the Black Headed Gulls after much searching, it was a real cracker too in full summer plumage :-) Five Gull species in one visit is extremely good going on my patch!
A GREYLAG GOOSE (50) flew over the College Grounds whilst I was there, bringing up the 50th March species, the College Grounds provided plenty to see today, GOLDCREST, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, MISTLETHRUSH, GREEN WOODPECKER, SISKIN, and HOUSE SPARROW were the more scarcer species recorded here.
Walking back out across Migrant Alley, at least 50 FIELDFARE had dropped onto the paddocks, above them a SKYLARK sang. SPARROWHAWK, BUZZARD and KESTREL were all seen as I walked the Pub Field and tree nursery, and the adjacent field of sheep pasture had another 60ish Fieldfare feeding on it, with just two REDWING, a MEADOW PIPIT (51) flew over calling, and joined the March species tally, not seen one on patch for a few weeks :-)
I arrived at the lakes later than usual, having been over to the College Grounds first, so it was not a surprise to see them very quiet, the were 3 pairs of MALLARD, the COOT pair, and a few MOORHENS, a CORMORANT surveyed the area from its favoured tree perch, but more exciting was the KINGFISHER (52), it skimmed over the water and alighted on a stump that rose no more than a foot out of the water, what photo it would have made, if A) I had the camera with me, B) there was some light, and C) I had a boat to get close enough!! :-)
The final part of my visit was spent in the Wet Woods, where the likes of TREECREEPER, Goldcrest, Siskin, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and Stock Dove were seen, but there was no sign of a Nuthatch, not seen one yet this month, not even at my garden feeders.
I tallied up exactly 50 species this morning, that surprised me, a very good daylist for early March. The five new species for the month takes that total to 52, still 4 more needed to equal the lowest March total though :-)
Just one photo today, I snapped this Great Spotted Woodpecker from my study window as it perched on the 'blog log'
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
8 comments:
That's a beauty and what a difference the sun makes.
Sunshine Marc ? I must have missed that then!
Song thrush giving it some serious welly here too at 06.30 this morning - sheer bliss to stand in the quiet stillness of an early Sunday morning and just enjoy the tune...epic experience.
And you got a Med - excellent!
Cheers
DaveyMan
Warren ,
Like you , I was very disappointed with the lack of sunshine today .
Give yourself a chance with the March total , it is only the 3rd after all .
That sunshine we had yesterday Warren...must have been a one off..because it was back to the usual grey clouds today :(
I was looking hard for Med Gull today but no luck. Great pic Warren.
Well done for seeing so many gull species, the last few times I've been to the lake on my patch I've only seen Black-headed Gulls recently. Very impressed that you've seen in excess of 50 species already this month, that's really good going. With some of the migrants coming in a few weeks, you could have a good tally going.
Oh and nice GSW photo too :)
Well done with the five gull species Warren especially the Med. Lovely photo of the GSW....all you need now is the Lesser Spotted, wouldn't that cause a stir ;-)
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