As Yesterday, I was on the lookout for the overdue summer migrants, Lesser Whitethroat, Turtle Dove, garden warbler and Swift, but again, despite a five hour morning visit and another two hours out this afternoon they were not forthcoming :-( Only one day left now this month to find some or all of them, only once out of the past eleven years have Lesser Whitethroat and Swift not turned up in April.
The long staying WHEATEAR pair were still on the Tree Nursery Field, which shall from now on be known as the Ashes lane field, so I hope you're paying attention :-) Whilst at the Scrubby Woods, not finding the mentioned summer migrants, I counted the singing BLACKCAPS which are on territories there, recording a minimum of six, I also counted three CHIFFCHAFFS singing, but I suspect some have stopped singing now their partners on on eggs.
The adjacent lakes had nothing new on them, unless I count the visiting GREY HERON, so I just checked the COOT family, finding them feeding three young, I also checked up on the sitting GREYLAG GOOSE, she must be close to hatching young out soon :-)
My visit to Migrant Alley again failed to turn up any of the summer migrants, so I had an hour long skywatch, which provided a few bits and pieces, single YELLOWHAMMER, SKYLARK, HOUSE MARTIN, LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL and 4 HERRING GULL, were of note, as well as the two local KESTRELS up hunting, plus a SPARROWHAWK and a BUZZARD. Whilst I sat watching the sky, a LITTLE OWL called from the Greenhouse Copse behind my seat, but better still was seeing my first Orange Tip butterfly of the year float by, can you believe my first sighting of this species last year was March 29th, a whole month earlier! Other flutters noted today were Peacock, Small White and Small Tortoiseshell.
Not much action for my camera today, just the Orange Tip and some ROOKS at Migrant Alley
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| My first Orange Tip of 2013. Not the best image, as I was using my 500mm lens! |
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| Rook |
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| Rook |
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| Rook |
7 comments:
Your 'not turned up' comment reflects the overall picture this spring Warren, and to be honest not looking good, more to the point....looking bleak.
Orange tip - sorted! Noticed a hedge garlic in flower this arvo...well a single flower on a whole swathe of the stuff...won't be long now I hope
Cheers
DaveyMan
Nice to see an Orange Tip Warren. A challenge for you, an Orange tip underwing shot. I should think about a few Rook shots myself.
nice rook
Warren ,
Well done with the Orange Tip .
Will be out looking for one myself today .
Nice to see the Orange Tip Warren (I've yet to see one this year on my patch) and I've been enjoying a catch up of all your recent posts which I've missed while I was away this past weekend :-) The Whitethroat photos from the 25th are superb and well done picking up a Yellow Wag the other day :-)
Well done on the Orange Tip Warren and on featuring the Rook. Too many people ignore the more common birds but just because we see them more often they are no less interesting. Glad the Coots are doing well so far.
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