I stuck it out for a little over 3 hours, and although it got a little brighter, the birding was not as exciting as recent visits, nothing was added to the April or year list, and a mediocre 44 species were found :-(
A FIELDFARE that flew over Migrant Alley, now becomes the latest of this species recorded here, a few SISKIN were also heard going over at various places during my walk, but they represented the only winter species seen this morning.
Of the Summer birds, it was great to here two singing WILLOW WARBLERS, only a passage species here nowadays, one was at the run off pool at the end of the Tree Nursery, the other was singing from the bankside vegetation over at the lakes. CHIFFCHAFFS were much quieter in the conditions, just 2 at the College Grounds, one at the Wooded Headlands and two at the Scrubby Woods were in song. 3 SWALLOWS were now at the Stables opposite my home, but no increase from 4 birds were at the College Stables. Just 2 BLACKCAPS were heard, in muted song, one of those was at the College Gardens, the other in the Scrubby Woods. There was no sign of yesterdays Whitethroat today though.
At the lakes this morning there were 4 GREYLAG GEESE, 8 CANADA GEESE, 2 MALLARDS, a scattering of MOORHEN and the COOT family.
Not much else to excite from this morning really, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, LINNET, SONGTHRUSH, MISTLETHRUSH and BLACKBIRD were the best songsters today :-)
At about 14:00hrs, the sun came out, so I made another trip to the Scrubby Woods, adding a KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK to my day list as I went. I was looking for butterflies in the Scrubby Woods more than birds, as the sun felt warm enough to bring a few out, but as I looked up into a patch of blue sky ( the rarest thing seen today!) I caught sight of a BUZZARD, then two, then three and then four! All low down and circling over, but I had my butterfly lens on the camera :-(
I did eventually discover a tatty Comma Butterfly, and practiced using my new extension tube with my 300mm lens - a bit of time needed yet to perfect my technique! I also had a good time chasing Bee flies, all good practice :-)
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| Comma - a bit tatty, but not too bad considering the long winter it has been through. |
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| Bee Fly |
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| Bee Fly |
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| Just as I got home, closing the back door behind me, this Sparrowhawk came in, it's one of two terrorizing the garden feeders at the moment, so much so I have removed the feeders for a while. I had to use the 300mm lens through the double glazed back door, so not the best image :-) |
8 comments:
The weekend looks good at the moment. Get those batteries charged for plenty of migrant shots.
Hi Marc,
Need the sun early, not late, as the case has been the last two days. Then I can get out before the rest of the world does :-)
No chance of bee flies up here Warren winter seems to have returned, its howling a hooley outside and the fire is lit again :-(
Great shots of the little fella btw
Cheers
DaveyMan
Daveyman,
will this wind ever calm down ?
Inverts! may they keep coming mate!
That is one tatty Comma Warrren, but good to see nevertheless :-) The Bee-flies are great too, with the black wing markings nice and clear :-)
Hi Warren :-) How lovely to see butterflies appearing on blogs, they seem to have been a long time coming this year. With the Bee-Fly as well it is starting to look like the year is moving on at last. Having said that it's horrible here, heavy downpours and that persistent high wind which seems to have been with us forever!
Hope the Sprawk/s move on soon so you can put the feeders out again.
Horrible here too Songbird, high winds have ruined the day :-(
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