Friday 31 July 2015

As yesterday, there were some long sunny spells this morning, before cloud rolled in for much of the afternoon.

I made much effort to try and add another new species for the months list during todays patch visit, it being the last of the month, but alas, none were found, so the July tally stays on 64, which is only the joint 7th best July total out of 14 and is 3 short of the average July total for the previous five years. No new species species were added to the 14 year combined July list, which remains at 93. Species that have occurred in ten or more of the past 13 July's but not this July......Turtle Dove, Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Cuckoo, and Nightingale, this shows the sorry decline of our summer migrant species here.

Today's notable species, for my patch at least, were flyovers from GREY HERON and CORMORANT, plus a mixed gull flock, that circled over the Pub Field as the Wheat there was being harvested ( which will now make the footpath there accessible to me again) the flock consisting of mainly HERRING GULLS with smaller numbers of BLACK HEADED GULLS and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL.

Other noteworthy species were, the SPARROWHAWK which was seen being chased by at least 30 SWALLOWS as it flew over the Greenhouse Grounds where the two KESTREL young still live and thrive, at least two BUZZARDS that flew low over the Ashes Lane Field and a LITTLE OWL that called from the Small Holding area.

SWIFTS were very visible high in the sky, flocks of up to 30-40 birds flew over at intervals throughout the morning. There were 14 CANADA GEESE on the main lake, along with 9 MALLARDS, the other two smaller lakes had just a few MOORHENS present.

COAL TIT, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, JAY, STOCK DOVE, BULLFINCH, CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, plus SONGTHRUSH were all seen along with the common regular species during my walk, the only real surprise omission was Long Tailed Tit.


The WHITETHROAT family were again in their favoured area at the Greenhouse Grounds



I got a snapshot of this SPARROWHAWK this afternoon as it payed a visit to my garden feeding station.


I need say nothing more than this photo shows to show my disgust at the irresponsibility of some of the local dog owners here.

4 comments:

Marc Heath said...

You cannot argue with evidence like that with regards to the dogs. Thankfully not all dog owners are like this. Like the Sparrowhawk shot.

Derek Faulkner said...

Warren, we've had our spats about your criticism of dog walkers/owners but there is absolutely no excuse for what was going on in that photo and here on Sheppey there would be a very strong chance of those dogs being shot.

Warren Baker said...

Derek, Marc,
Its not an uncommon thing to see, some of the dog owners are a real nuisance here, be it to livestock or wildlife :-(

Pete Woodruff said...

That's a sorry list of declines you have had to put up here Warren, and yes, the mutts in your image are a disgusting illustration of owner ignorance.