I decided on a full patch walk as the weather was conducive, where I found a total of 44 species, not too bad a tally, but there were some notable absences, with the likes of Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Bullfinch,Treecreeper and Sparrowhawk not seen, so 50 species could have been possible with better luck :-)
On the other hand, there were also a few nice species found, top of the list being a pair of superb STONECHATS (101,68), a year tick! They were using the border hedgerow between the Greenhouse Grounds / Migrant Alley, the only hedge that had not been flailed to bits, as it's mostly on the Greenhouse side. A couple of CHIFFCHAFFS and a BLACKCAP were also at the Greenhouse Grounds, where as usual the female KESTREL also was seen.
Other hedges were not spared though.......this is before the battering....
This is after. Very sad, as you can see there were no access problems, or sight lines impeded, this was just done for tidiness.
Anyway, back to the birds, another nice sighting was a HOBBY speeding over the pasture at Migrant Alley, it was chasing the SWALLOWS and HOUSE MARTINS that are still passing through in decent numbers, although not on the scale of yesterday. A kingfisher was heard but not seen at the lakes, where a GREY HERON fished. In the adjacent Scrubby Woods 2 more Blackcaps, plus a couple more Chiffchaffs represented the few summer species left now.
Grey Heron
The other more interesting species seen today were fly overs, seen on my sky watch from my seat at Migrant Alley, these included GREY WAGTAIL, LINNET, MEADOW PIPIT (7 min), a skein of 21 GREYLAG GEESE, 2 MISTLETHRUSHES, lots of SISKIN, plus 4 BUZZARDS up soaring together.
Bird of the day though............Stonechat, a very nice addition to my patch year list, it is by no means an annual species here :-)
I got some record shots, a bit distant in poor light, but not too bad considering :-)
The sun came out just in time for this shot, I would have loved to have got a bit closer though !
6 comments:
Very nice Stonechat photos Warren. Today was just lovely wasn't it? More of this weather please....... next weekend will do!
It was a nice day indeed Marc, just wish i could of spent more time out! Tomorrow looks fine at first..........just hope the fog doesn't appear!
Nice day out there Warren.
Why do they do that to hedges????? Drives me nuts!!! Talking of which there's none left they tw*ts have hacked them all off and we wonder why many species of farmland wildlife aren't doing to well
Cheers
DaveyMan
Money in the 'keep it tidy' bank account for hacking the hedges to bits.
Stonechats....they even made me happy looking at them in your pics Warren.
Davyman,
the only species the hedge hacking benefits are the Magpies, they pick over all the late nesting bird nests and insect larva.
Pete,
The local farmers will always tell me they have no time or money for environmental schemes, plenty of it for needless tidying though. I tell them them i have no money to buy local produce!
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