Sunday 25 September 2016

Morning cloud dispersed by midday, leaving a sunny, but blustery afternoon.

I carried out a full patch walk today, finding an ok tally of 43 bird species, most of those were woodland birds, the farmland areas here hold little bird diversity now the hedges have been shattered by machinery, removing all the food and shelter in the process.

The Scrubby Woods provided most species, with GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, BULLFINCH, CHAFFINCH, CHIFFCHAFF, STOCK DOVE, JAY, GREEN WOODPECKER, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, SONGTHRUSH and MISTLETHRUSH being the most noteworthy, what a difference a bit of sympathetic woodland management makes!

KINGFISHER and GREY HERON were visiting the lakes, otherwise it was just the usual MALLARD and MOORHEN on them.

The Greenhouse grounds came up with a couple of nice species, a GREY WAGTAIL that was feeding around the water intake area, plus a REED BUNTING (69), the first on patch since April and just the second record this year!

SWALLOW and HOUSE MARTIN made up the Summer species seen today, while KESTREL and BUZZARD were the only raptors that showed up for todays count. 


6 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Getting harder for new birds now. Could be a challenging few months ahead.

Marc Heath said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Derek Faulkner said...

You guys want to try birdwatching on the Swale NNR, which at the moment resembles a bone dry, yellow desert, with hardly any water left in the ditches. And still no appreciable rain is forecast for the weeks ahead. The cattle are now eating the clubrush and phragmites in order to get something in their bellies.

Warren Baker said...

Derek it rained here this morning, I counted 218 rain drops :-) :-)

Warren Baker said...

Marc,
At least we can look forward to the winter thrushes arriving Marc !

Derek Faulkner said...

About a 100 more than us Warren.