I let the worst of the rain pass before going out this morning, which wasn't until gone 09:00hrs. I headed off over to the Greenhouse Grounds to re supply the finches first off, where waiting for their premium seed mix were around 20 CHAFFINCH, 15 GREENFINCH, 15 GOLDFINCH, 15-20 LESSER REDPOLLS and a few ROBIN, GREAT TIT, BLUE TIT, DUNNOCK and BLACKBIRDS. Only 2 SISKINS were seen in the nearby Alders, and just one YELLOWHAMMER was seen, that being a flyover.
A heavy shower passed through, so i headed off over to the lakes, seeing the female KESTREL over the Ashes Lane Fields en route, where the 3 -4 MEADOW PIPITS weren't too happy with her and gave chase for a short distance before returning to the fields. :-) The LITTLE OWL was again perched up in the dry of the nearby old shack, nice to see it staying around.
The lakes were again devoid of anything interesting, unless MALLARDS and MOORHENS are your thing! The adjacent Scrubby Woods had a party of LONG TAILED TITS moving through, with them were COAL TIT, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH and 2 GOLDCREST, the latter of which featured strongly today, with a further four being found in the Scrubby Woods, and another 3 in the Small Holding area, it was whilst checking through those for a possible Firecrest that a SPARROWHAWK alighted 30 meters from me up in an Ash Tree, sending all the local birds into frantic alarm calling :-)
A BUZZARD drifted over as I walked on, nice to see all the three resident raptor species on one visit. A return to the Greenhouse Grounds didn't add any of the scarcer birds like the Branbling, Grey Wagtail and Linnet that have been there recently, and a scan through the 100+ BLACK HEADED GULLS out on the sheep pasture of Migrant Alley didn't provide me with a med Gull, just a few HERRING GULLS, however a STARLING flock of around 300 birds had arrived during the time I had spent over in the woods.
A few images are still left in the 'blog Folder' mostly Redpolls, but that's better than no pics!
LESSER REDPOLLS. There were at least a dozen in my garden this afternoon
They are the most numerous species at the feeders now, usurping the Goldfinches of that accolade.
They are quite a feisty bird, chasing off all comers for the sumflower hearts, even the Nuthatches back down!
The Blue Tits just sit, watch and wait, then nip in to steal a seed before the Redpolls can react
8 comments:
Superb set of images today Warren, isn't sunshine wonderful!
Cheers
DaveyMan
Cheers Davyman,
Yes it is, could do with just a tiny bit more ? LoL
Nice sunny day forecast for tomorrow Warren.
I imagine that your pallet-sized bird table along the hedgerow must be feeding many of the game birds, rats and gawd knows what else as well as the enviable collection of finches.
You seem to be doing well with the Redpolls. Keep feeding and who knows what else might get sucked in during the cold winter months. A Hawfinch would be nice I would imagine.
Derek,
Indeed a sunny day is forecast, but we will see :-)
As for the bird seed, I only put a couple of KG's out at a time and it's gone in a few hours, not seen a pheasant around for a few days
Marc,
This is the best year ever for Redpolls here, but a Hawfinch record would be a first!
We are enjoying some lovely sunshine today after a long, long spell of grey and wet weather. But nothing as bad as what you have had. Hope you get more sun. Loved the fluffed up blue tit from yesterday's post.
Wilma,
our forecast is for a few hours sunshine tomorrow morning, hopefully I can get some more photo's :-)
Post a Comment