I made the 10th and final full patch walk of the month this morning, my 70th in all so far this year, my aim, as in the past 13 years, is to carry out 120 full patch walks a year - ten a month :-). Anyway, today's walk yielded a rather average bird species tally of 44, but I did at least add a new species to the months list, when a REED BUNTING (64) flew over Migrant Alley, calling as it went. At 64, the months list is now joint with the July totals of 2006 and 2010, and is the 7th best of the 14 years.
Other notables today included flyovers from LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULL, plus YELLOWHAMMER, SKYLARK and BUZZARD, all f which passed over Migrant Alley. The two KESTREL young were at the Greenhouse Grounds, along with both adults, plus I also watched the WHITETHROAT family there and managed a few a few distant photo's of them.
There were 3 female MANDARIN DUCK on the main lake this morning, as I watched them, a party of 11 SWIFTS came in to drink, I cant recall seeing them take water from here before. The other two small lakes had 6 MALLARDS and 4 MOORHENS between them.
Most of the regular and common species were picked up along my route through the Small Holding, Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods, most from the latter habitat, where mixed feeding flock of LONG TAILED TIT, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, CHIFFCHAFF and CHAFFINCH were seen. Species not found today, but were out there somewhere, included Coal Tit, Treecreeper, Pheasant and Sparrowhawk.
Two of the Whitethroat family at the Greenhouse Grounds, of which there are 3.
It wasn't really a day for macro photo's given the wind and cloud, but I snapped this Speckled Wood Butterfly, a species that has been much scarcer here this year than in previous years
4 comments:
How can July possibly coming to an end? Nice shots of the whitethroats.
It's a brilliant Blog, Warren - fantastic photos - I like your Dragonfly blog as well
Time goes quick, a Wilma !
Thanks for that Phil :-)
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