Friday 13 May 2016

Early cloud broke up to leave some more warm sunshine today.

A full patch walk was carried out this morning, in which a disappointing total of 44 bird species were recorded, although some of the missing species like Nuthatch and Jay have gone very quiet now they have young in nests.

It was good to see one of the LITTLE OWLS perched up in its usual tree at the Small Holding, over which 3 BUZZARDS circled briefly, calling all the while. The MISTLETHRUSH pair have re nested in the Wet Woods, better luck for them this time, but on the main lake a newly fledged party of 4 GREYLAG GOOSE Goslings were seen, just the third species to have successfully bred so far on my patch this spring.

The male KESTREL was hunting over the Ashes Lane Fields, where a SKYLARK was heard singing, but Migrant Alley was pretty poor today, although another gaggle of 14 Greylag Geese were on one of the paddocks early on. My sky watch produced just HERRING GULL passing through, but lots of SWALLOWS were about, unusually no Swifts appeared today though.

BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT and CHIFFCHAFF all sang from the Greenhouse Grounds and the associated Greenhouse Copse, but no sign of the Lesser Whitethroat today, or the garden warbler, or the Cuckoo......or a Turtle Dove....or a Spotted Flycatcher.............  :-(

I spent some time looking for Odonata in the Scrubby Woods, but found not one species! I had to wait until I arrived home to get some images of the Large Red Damselflies around my mini ponds. Cant be long now until the Beautiful Demoiselles emerge.


Male Large Red Damselfly



2 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Nice set of shots Warren and I await you finding those Demoiselles so I can make the annual pilgrimage to see you and the Odo's.

Warren Baker said...

marc,
I hope they turn up this year :-)