Monday 17 February 2014

A dry but cloudy patch visit this morning, i'll take that though, after all the rain and wind of late!  I manged to get to visit all parts of my patch, finding a good total of 45 species during the four and a half hours I was out, although none were new for the months or year lists.

The lakes once again had the GREY HERON visiting, it sat where it sat yesterday, in the fir tree, the water bodies didn't produce too much though, the COOT and MUTE SWAN pair remain, a few MALLARDS and MOORHEN were about, and three CANADA GEESE were also there, a KINGFISHER whizzed over the surface of the main lake, I wonder how long it will stay before moving off to breed elsewhere?

Only the Long tailed Tit went undetected this morning, all the other woodland birds were seen, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER being the the best of those.

Over on the fields it was good see a decent number of FIELDFARE, at least 70 were present in a field of pasture adjacent to the Greenhouse Copse, where the LITTLE OWL sat in it's favoured tree, with the Fieldfare were about 15 REDWING and 40-50 STARLINGS.

Only one gull species was seen as I had my end of walk sky watch from my seat overlooking Migrant Alley, that being HERRING GULL, but also seen or heard were; CORMORANT, SISKIN, GREYLAG GOOSE, a pair of BUZZARDS, a pair of STOCK DOVES, a few MEADOW PIPITS, 2 SKYLARK and at least 4 PIED WAGTAILS, quite a bit busier than recent sky watches  :-)
A view west from the Greenhouse Grounds
I took the above photo yesterday, it shows just how ''tidied up'' the farmland is here, the proper habitat in the foreground is in the Greenhouse Grounds, the double line of 'boxed' up hedgerows, conceals High House Lane, which is designated a 'quiet lane', and quiet it is, with absolutely nothing left habitat wise for bird or beast! The hill behind marks the edge of my patch, but little is seen here, there's not a blade of grass out of place!

Here's some other pics taken yesterday in the lovely sunshine  :-)
Female BLACKBIRD
She looked in peak physical condition...............
........ready to bring up a couple of broods in a few weeks  :-)
This WREN was belting out its song, loud and proud  :-)

4 comments:

Marc Heath said...

I'm after a decent Wren shot, would love to get singing early in the morning with the visible breath on a cold frosty morning.

Warren Baker said...

Marc, funny you should say that, my aim this winter was to get exactly that. Unfortunately, it's barely been cold enough even to condense Wrens breath!!

Alan Pavey said...

Nice Wren Warren, really tricky.

Warren Baker said...

Your right Alan, they skulk in all the dark places usually!