Wednesday 29 October 2014

A very different day weatherwise today, with rain, heavy dark clouds and murky conditions prevailing throughout.

I did manage to get out for a couple of hours though, but very little was seen. A KINGFISHER was again present at the lakes, where there was an increase in MALLARD numbers, 18 being seen in all, but there was no sign of the Little Grebe today. A LESSER REDPOLL called continuously whilst flying over the Scrubby Woods, where only a few BULLFINCH and GOLDCREST were of any note.

The Male KESTREL was hunting around the Greenhouse Grounds / Ashes Lane Fields and two MEADOW PIPITS flew from the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley. The best bird seen today was a BLACKCAP, a female was seen in the pile of old raspberry canes at the Greenhouse Grounds.

Later in the morning and into the afternoon I decided to see what my garden was attracting, the Sparrowhawk hasn't been around for two days now and the birds are pouring back to the feeders  ;-)

Here's a lsit of what was seen today, with peak counts :-

2 Woodpigeon
2 Magpie
1 Jackdaw
3 Great spotted Woodpeckers
2 Nuthatch
1 Treecreeper ( the second one to visit this year)
12 Collared Doves
22 Starlings
2 Blackbirds
2 House Sparrows
2 Dunnocks
2 Robins
1 Wren
1 Coal Tit
4 GreatTit
14 Blue Tit
1 Long Tailed Tit
4 Greenfinch
19 Goldfinch
6 Chaffinch

20 species in all, the Treecreeper takes the October garden tally to 25 species, which is the joint second best October count, joint with 2007 and 2012  :-)

Ive got a few images from the garden, I took these during the last few days......

Blue Tit

Coal tit

Chaffinch

4 comments:

Marc Heath said...

I need glasses for that Blue Tit image, thats a class shot mate.

Warren Baker said...

Thank god for Blue Tits Marc ! :-)

Mike H said...

Impressive garden numbers Warren. I get all of those except treecreeper and Nuthatch, would dearly love one!

Warren Baker said...

I only get Treecreeper once in a blue moon Mike :-)