Saturday 7 May 2016

Warm sunshine and light winds continued for most of today, very nice  :-)

I carried out a four and a half hour full patch walk this morning, finding a reasonable tally of 47 bird species, in which Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper and Long tailed Tit went unrecorded, unusually. There was just one addition to the May list, when during my hours sky watch at Migrant Alley, two BLACK HEADED GULLS (59) flew over with a few HERRING GULLS and a lone LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL. My sky watch also provided views of KESTREL, BUZZARD and SPARROWHAWK as they hunted over the area, a probable Hobby was also seen, but views were distant and brief, as were possible Swift and House Martin, the latter still has yet to be recorded this month.

Other noteworthy bits were a GREY HERON and male MANDARIN DUCK on the main lake, plus the two LITTLE OWLS sat together in their favoured tree at the Small Holding. It was disappointing however to record just 4 summer species, CHIFFCHFF, BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT and SWALLOW.


LINNET, a pair were seen along the drainage ditch at the ashes Lane Fields.

2 comments:

Simian said...

Cracking Linnet picture Warren....!..
Plants...yes....bit of a puzzle to me mostly, I know a few...but it soon becomes a mystery to me...easier to see if others know then try to remember! mind you, I should really have known the plantain one, I can recognise plantain so I should have used my noggin and just added the water bit...doh!
as for the wiggly puddle thing, someone else suggested mayfly nymph which is more likely as they are recent acquisitions and the number is reducing reasonably quickly, though I put that down initially to the puddle reducing but I guess they are doing their crazy thing....and when I saw the grey wag with food...looked like mayflies...it all adds up....easy when you get loads of help from others...!
my knowledge is but small and I have so much to learn....
talking of which, im up to 89 species, don't think there can be any more to come for the year for the site and everything is expected on the list, apart from goosander....I suppose you never know, something might appear...how are you getting along...

The Hairy Birder said...

That's a lovely shot of a Linnet Warren! Top birds!