Pittswood Birds

2012-02-01T17:00:00.002Z

It was blowing a bitingly cold easterly today, making it easily the coldest day of the whole winter so far, but this was made up for by the wall to wall sunshine that accompanied it, and actually, out of that wind and in the sunshine it didn't feel too bad :-)

The early walk to work produced a few species for the February list, not quite light enough yet but getting there with everyday now. The ROBIN, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, WOODPIGEON, JACKDAW, CARRION CROW and ROOK kicked off the months list. The walk home from work was relatively poor, but with the icy wind blowing across the fields and paddocks it was to be expected, I did find HERRING GULLS and BLACK HEADED GULLS out on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley though, and in the shelter of the Greenhouse Grounds, DUNNOCK, CHAFFINCH, STARLING, WREN, BLUE TIT and KESTREL were seen.

As I ate a quick sandwich at home before setting off out over to the lakes, I watched the garden feeders and added GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, COLLARED DOVE, GREAT TIT, and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER to the February count, 20 already, only 47 more species to find to equal the February record, set in 2009 :-)

I visited the field just off Ashes lane where the local farmer has grown a 'wildbird crop' and it payed dividends for me, the flock of 30-40 YELLOWHAMMER were still present, and I also got the bonus of finding a REED BUNTING amongst them, I suspect there may be more, but getting close to the flock is very difficult. I carried on to the Lakes via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, adding GREEN WOODPECKER, MAGPIE, TREECREEPER, JAY, and COAL TIT as I went.

On the lakes I was pleased to see the pair of COOTS still around, a good species for February ( well any month really!) also a GREY HERON and 3 MOORHENS were there, as well as the ever present MALLARDS who's numbers had increased to 24. In and around the scrubby Woods a good selection of species were added to the months list, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, SISKIN, GOLDCREST, PHEASANT, and the star bird a WOODCOCK - fantastic sighting for here! :-)

I confess to cutting the visit a little short, as the wind was starting to chill me, so I went back home to see what would turn up at the feeders, which was not without some success, as the expected SPARROWHAWK came through, and four LONG TAILED TITS came in later on.

So, 39 species to get the month rolling, I was quite pleased with that, especially with the Reed Bunting, Coot and Woodcock. :-)
Photo's today come from the garden feeders - same old faces, but they brighten the page :-)

Coal Tit

Long Tailed Tit

Blue Tit

Great Spotted Woodpecker - still not quite sure whether to come out of hiding whilst I'm watching !

2012-01-31T17:02:00.000Z

I walked home from work today in rain/sleet, which had been falling all morning, and after getting home and having something to eat, it was still utterly miserable out, so I stayed in! Yes, I stayed indoors, despite it being the last day of the month, I dont think there was much going on out there in those conditions.

I pinned my hopes on maybe seeing a Brambling drop in at my garden feeders, or something different flying over the house, but neither happened, in fact the only birds seen flyover were JACKDAWS. I did have quite a few garden visitors though, with 19 species turning out in the 2 and a half hours I spent at the window.

The highlights of the garden watch were the GOLDCREST and the SONGTHRUSH, the latter a very scarce bird in my garden now. The down side of the watch ( apart from two attacks from the Sprawk) was the absence of a House Sparrow, and it is now confirmed that this month is the first in 121 months of recording in the garden, that a House Sparrow has not been seen :-(

Here's what turned up, and the peak number seen :-

GREENFICH...................................................15
GOLDFINCH................................................. 4
CHAFFINCH..................................................6
GREAT TIT......................................................4
BLUE TIT........................................................13
DUNNOCK....................................................1
ROBIN............................................................2
STARLING......................................................2
COLLARED DOVE........................................6
BLACKBIRD..................................................3
WOODPIGEON.............................................2
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.............3
NUTHATCH...................................................2
MAGPIE.........................................................1
COAL TIT.......................................................1
WREN............................................................1
GOLDCREST..................................................1
SONGTHRUSH..............................................1
SPARROWHAWK..........................................1

The total species to visit the garden this January is 22, two below the record set in both January 2009 and 2010, the mean number of species to visit over the eleven Januarys' is believe it or not 22 :-)

The patch stats for the end of this month, are as follows:-
This January I recorded 62 species, the joint fourth best total with 2008, this is 6 below the record Januarys' of 2009 and 2011, the 11 year mean for January is 60.5 species, so i just scraped past that mark! Its interesting to see the combined January list for the eleven years is now 82, I added Barnacle Goose and the good old COOT to that list this year, unbelievable that this month I had my first Coot for any January, with 3 turning up, which is a peak count for my patch!! :-)

2012-01-30T16:47:00.002Z

I had a relaxing couple of hours out on my patch this afternoon, it was a bit cooler than of late, and the sunless sky made it feel colder. I made my daily visit over to the lakes, but today I took a slightly longer route, along Ashes Lane in order to check out a field that has been sewn with a wildbird crop. Recent visits here on my full patch walks haven't turned up much out of the ordinary, but today there was a real change, as I scanned the crop, at least 30-40 YELLOWHAMMER flew up and scattered into the surrounding cover, one or two stayed in a nearby hedgerow, and looking down that hedgerow I spied my first two REED BUNTING (62) of the year. I was looking from quite a way off so there could have been more hiding up, I will have to investigate further tomorrow. When this field was last sewn, two years ago, a flock of 60+ Yellowhammer and 40+ Reed Bunting were recorded over the winter, to see one Reed Bunting on my patch is normally a rare occurrence, just goes to show how positive a bit of wildlife friendly management of the land can be :-)

Anyway, the rest of the walk was not quite so exciting, the Small Holding had the local CHAFFINCH and GREENFINCH population in it, along with at least 3 GREEN WOODPECKERS, as well as an unseen but heard TREECREEPER.The lakes were not as productive as recent visits, just two MALLARDS, and singles of COOT and MOORHEN, the latter were heard but not seen :-) The surrounding Scrubby Woods were mostly silent, but a pair of BULLFINCH showed briefly.

Some effort was made to look around the Tree Nursery and view the Pub Field, however, in the growing colder conditions, little was to be found apart from a few BLACK HEADED GULLS, plus the odd WREN, DUNNOCK, BLACKBIRD and Tit species. The only bird of note seen over at the Greenhouse Grounds shortly after, was the local KESTREL, with a HERRING GULL and Yellowhammer flying over. A good start petered out a bit today, but it was some good exercise for me at least :-)

2012-01-29T16:37:00.000Z

Four hours were spent out on my patch this morning, the last full patch visit of the month, and although a slightly better than average daylist of 44 species were seen, there was little change overall. The lakes continued with some interest, as two of the three COOTS were still present, the third may have been concealed somewhere, as could of been the Little Grebe, that was last seen on Friday. Also on the lakes were the 6 CANADA GEESE, four pairs of MALLARD three pairs of MOORHEN and a GREY HERON.

Highlights from other parts of the walk were, a flyover PEREGRINE FALCON, it went over the Pub Field, and over at the College Stream a flock of around twenty SISKIN with at least two LESSER REDPOLLS was a nice find. On the College sports pitch 3 COMMON GULLS were seen, a peak count in this, the 11th year of watching my patch :-)

Late on in the walk, as I watched the KESTREL over the Greenhouse Complex, a flock of 8 REDWING flew into the Greenhouse Copse, the most seen here for some weeks. A LESSER BLACKED BACKED GULL, that flew over with two HERRING GULLS made up four Gull species for the day, BLACK HEADED GULL being the yet unmentioned species.

Other than that, as I said earlier, it's not really changing much here at the moment :-) Maybe i'll get lucky with monday and Tuesdays shorter afternoon visits ??

With the day being very gloomy for most of the time, the camera saw little action, but I managed to snap this STARLING at the Garden feeders.

Starling

2012-01-28T16:09:00.003Z

A mix of cloudy and sunny periods this morning, however it was a bit cooler than of late as I started out, this didn't deter the early songsters of MISTLETHRUSH, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, ROBIN and DUNNOCK though, making for quite a lively dawn chorus :-)

I visited the lake area first thing, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, collecting all the regular common species, but again missing out on Little Owl for my year list. The Little Grebe wasn't seen on the water today, but it could have been hiding up as it often does. The three COOTS were very obvious though, and a GREY HERON fished from the shallows, once again a KINGFISHER surprised me, flying off as I approached its perching place, the six CANADA GEESE seen yesterday were still present with a few MALLARD and the MOORHENS had increased to eight birds, all tail flicking and posturing in readiness for the spring :-) In the surrounding Scrubby Woods, the likes of GOLDCREST, LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH and both GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER were all found.

The Pub Field and Tree Nursery didn't give me anything for the daylist, but crossing through the Greenhouse Complex and the associated small copse there, a dozen FIELDFARE were noted, as were the first GOLDFINCH and SISKIN of the day, another two Treecreepers were also seen well. Crossing Migrant Alley to get to the College Grounds, three HERRING GULLS, and two CORMORANTS were seen going over, and the KESTREL flew towards the Greenhouse Complex - its preferred hunting place :-)

The College Grounds gave me more Bullfinch, Siskin, Goldcrest and Coal Tit as well as the more common CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH, plus the BLUE and GREAT TITS in good numbers, my second Kingfisher of the day also showed up on one of the ponds.

The leisurely walk back homewards, added COMMON GULL to my days sightings as it flew over the Sports pitch with 20 or so BLACK HEADED GULLS, also a COMMON BUZZARD slowly circled over Migrant Alley. In all a very pleasant 3 hours out, with 44 species turning out for me, but still no additions to the year/months list. With just one more full patch walk to go, this months species total looks like going down as the fifth best for January, two more new species would take it to fourth, something to aim for :-)

Common Gull - My first flight shot of this species on my patch, one for my archives :-)

Common Gull

Great Tit

BLACKBIRD, Female This is probably the same bird as featured in yesterdays post


Blackbird, female

Lastly - A taste of spring. This was one of five Crocus' that were in bloom in my garden, defying the talk of some siberian weather headed for us for next month, I think nature knows better whats ahead weather wise than we do ;-)

2012-01-27T16:40:00.003Z

With long sunny spells, and little cloud or wind, it was a joy to be out this afternoon :-)
My walk over to the lakes started poorly, as there was disturbance in the small holding, the Wet Woods was a little better than of late, with TREECREEPER, SISKIN, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, plus the regular BLUE and GREAT TITS.

First thing I saw on the lakes as I arrived were 6 CANADA GEESE, the first here for some time, certainly the first on an afternoon visit, also the 3 COOTS remained, and the LITTLE GREBE was again seen. A GREY HERON dropped in, but flew off again after seeing me, and I got to withing 10m of a KINGFISHER, but didn't realise it, the bird flew off as I approached.....another chance of a photo missed! I did get a photo of one of the LONG TAILED TITS that moved through the surrounding Scrubby Woods, but the two GOLDCREST and the COAL TIT with them avoided the lens. A REDWING fed with a BLACKBIRD in a wild rose bush, grabbing at the bright red hips, that's the first Redwing here since Sunday. BULLFINCH were heard calling, and a few Siskin went over, but the hoped for Little or Tawny Owls didn't appear.

All was quiet over at the Pub Field, except for 6 BLACK HEADED GULLS, and the Tree Nursery was similarly very quiet, so I swiftly moved on to the Greenhouse Grounds, where the KESTREL was up hunting, a flock of a dozen or so GOLDFINCH fed in some Alders, and the usual mix of Blackbird, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN and PIED WAGTAIL were also seen. A 20 minute sit on my skywatching seat at Migrant Alley only produced a STOCK DOVE, and the numerous ROOKS, JACKDAWS, and WOODPIGEONS.

Hopefully the last two full patch visits of the month will turn up something for the year list this weekend :-)

Yet another Long Tailed Tit photo - but you cant just let them pass without snapping away at them!!

This female Blackbird fed on worms found in the Greenhouse Grounds

Blackbird, Female

2012-01-26T17:23:00.000Z

After some heavy morning rain, the clouds cleared for the afternoon, and some pleasant sunshine was had. The walk through the Small Holding and Wet Woods was a bit pointless however, as all the dog walkers were also making use of the fine weather, I met three on their way out of the woods as I was going in, needless to say nothing was seen apart from a few BLUE and GREAT TITS.

The lakes had the now long staying pair of COOTS, plus the lone one that was found yesterday, although I dont think this one will stay long, the LITTLE GREBE was still present, a CORMORANT, 8 MALLARD and 6 MOORHEN made up the balance here, quite a good day for these lakes!

Looking around the Scrubby Woods for something more to add to the year list, I came across a female SPARROWHAWK tucking into a WOODPIGEON, it flew off, so I hid myself behind a large tree, knowing that she would come back. After five minutes or so she flew in, and I watched her feeding on the head of the pigeon from just ten meters away, however as soon as I raised my camera she was off, too quick for me!! I moved on and left the Sprawk to come back undisturbed, but of course with her around most other birds were hiding up. I did hear SISKIN, BULLFINCH and distant LONG TAILED TITS, and a COAL TIT started to sing loudly, two GOLDCREST chased around a fir tree, and three SONGTHRUSH flew from beneath a bramble patch, that was about it.

Despite the warmish sunshine, the Tree Nursery had little to offer today, only MAGPIES, BLACKBIRDS, plus the odd ROBIN, WREN and DUNNOCK. As yesterday, the Pub Field was empty, so I moved on to my seat at Migrant Alley. There was a work crew out in the sheep pasture erecting fence lines, they flushed up a SKYLARK, the first seen for a while, but after 20 mins of watching the skies, and finding just one YELLOWHAMMER and a couple of BLACK HEADED GULL, I called it a day, I instead used the remaining light to get some garden bird photo's to brighten the blog :-) Four O'clock and it was still light!!

The blog brighteners for today are :-

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER - He wouldn't come out from behind the branch!

One of the four Long Tailed Tits that visited

One of the numerous Blue Tits - the old favourites!

2012-01-25T16:12:00.002Z

Another dull and overcast afternoon, but I had a pleasant enough 90 minute walk through the Small Holding, Wet Woods and then on to the lakes. Amongst the flock of GREENFINCH and CHAFFINCH in the Small holding was a TREECREEPER, and on the adjacent large lawn there were 3 GREEN WOODPECKERS, one's missing! I scanned around the area for my first Little Owl of the year, as this is a good place to find them, but they dont seem to be very active this month, or vocal - frustratingly!

In the Wet Woods, a MISTLE THRUSH was singing, and another gave its rattling call, a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER also called, and at least ten FIELDFARE flew over, the usual GREAT TITS made various calls, and another Treecreeper was seen.

Over on the lakes I was pleased to see the LITTLE GREBE again, plus the two COOTS, which amazingly ( for these lakes) has been joined by a third! Three is the peak count for Coot on my patch, it was also achieved in March last year :-) 4 pairs of MALLARD were found, and 6 MOORHENS, which were showing signs of pairing up. A short look around the surrounding Scrubby Woods was not all that exciting, a party of four LONG TAILED TITS with two GOLDCREST and my third Treecreeper of the afternoon was as good as it got.

I walked back home via the Tree Nursery, where both SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL were encountered, a SONGTHRUSH was flushed from one of the rows of shrubs as I looked for a Snipe, and the usual BLACKBIRDS, WRENS plus a few DUNNOCKS were seen, a flyover YELLOWHAMMER was heard, and two BLACK HEADED GULLS flew over. A peak through the boundary hedgerow at the Pub Field showed that it was completely empty. Just as I left, four GREY LAG GEESE went over, headed north.

Not a very enthralling post today, and no photo's left to brighten the page :-( roll on the weekend!

2012-01-24T17:03:00.000Z

What a load of rubbish the weather was today, rain for most of it, and a lowering mist to boot for the afternoon - yuk!

Nothing for it, but an afternoon with tea and biscuits and a few hours watching the garden bird feeders :-)

I'm glad to report that I had not one sighting of the Sparrowhawk, the weather was even too lousy for hunting ! As a consequence the garden was full of birds, although they were easily spooked. Most of the activity was down to the 20+ BLUE TITS, which whiz about from feeder to feeder, with them are the less numerous GREAT TITS, only about 5-7 of these are about, hard to count really as they come and go so quick, even more frequent in their foraging trips are the COAL TITS, just 2 of these were seen.

The finch's stayed around the sunflower feeders, peak counts of 10 GREENFINCH, 8 GOLDFINCH, and ten CHAFFINCH were noted, but a lone male BULLFINCH that visited was star bird of the day for me. A few STARLINGS, peaking at 5 birds came down for the fat blocks, and what was spilt onto the floor was taken by BLACKBIRDS, DUNNOCK, and ROBIN. The COLLARD DOVES always come in later in the afternoon, I watched a flock of 15 grab what seed they could, before quickly leaving again, a strategy evolved to outwit the Sparrowhawk attacks :-)

Other visitors like the WREN, WOODPIGEON, JACKDAW, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and of course the pair of NUTHATCH, made for an interesting and varied few hours, but there was still a species missing - the humble House Sparrow, of which there was not a sniff :-( Never has a month gone past when a House Sparrow has not been recorded from my garden not in 12 years, is this about to change ?

17 species came to the garden today, the January garden list now stands at 21, which is3 behind the best years of 2009 and 2010.

Despite the gloom I did point the camera, but the results were not that good. I'll post the rest of the photo's taken in last sundays sunshine first, followed by todays. The Bullfinch shots were taken at a distance of 9m, the Woodpecker at 5m.The camera was set at ISO 2000, aperture at 6.3 giving a shutter speed of only a160th.

Long Tailed Tit. They didn't visit today.

Long Tailed Tit

Great Tit

Todays efforts..........

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Male

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Bullfinch, Male

Bullfinch

2012-01-23T16:33:00.001Z

There was just enough light this morning at 07:20, to see a KINGFISHR zip along the college stream as I walked into work, cant get much better than that to start the working week :-)

After work, I was out for my usual afternoon foray over to the lakes, taking in the Small Holding and Wet Woods as I went. The Small Holding was again home to the GREENFINCH and CHAFFINCH flock, which spend their time being chased from my garden to this place, by the pair of Sparrowhawks, i'd seen the remains of a WOODPIGEON in my garden before leaving, no doubt this was the female's work! Anyway, also in the Small Holding were at least 4 GREEN WOODPECKERS, and numerous GREAT and BLUE TITS.

The Wet Woods was quiet, but as I walked through I heard the familiar ( or not so familiar this year!) ''chak chak chak' of FIELDFARE, I watched at least 30 flyover the tree tops. Once over at the lakes I gave them a good scan, and found the COOT, but today it had been joined by another, blimey, things are looking up, two Coots!! I wonder if this is the same pair that attempted to breed here last spring ? A CORMORANT, 4 MOORHEN, 5 pairs of MALLARD and a Kingfisher made up the interest on the water today - two Kingfishers on the same day! Very nice.

Looking round the surrounding Scrubby Woods I was pleased to see an ash tree full of REDWING, at least 20 were there, but my count got as far as 15, then a grey dart of a male SPARROWHAWK flashed past my right shoulder and put them all to flight, no Redwings for days, then when they do visit the Sprawk sees 'em off !

That was my que to move on, and a brief visit to the Pub Field and Tree Nursery followed, however, both habitats were very quiet, just a fly over YELLOWHAMMER and the KESTREL were seen, talking of which, the kindly folk over at the Greenhouse Complex have erected a box for it now :-)

Not a day for the camera, so i'll post some more of yesterdays garden bird photo's. More Nuthatch and Goldfinch i'm afraid, but I know there are some of you out there that admire the Nuthatch :-)
PS: Still not had a House Sparrow in my garden this year.

Nuthatch

Goldfinch

2012-01-22T16:32:00.001Z

The morning flattered to deceive, early sun gave way to mostly cloudy conditions, with a strong, cool westerly wind, making it difficult to hear any small passerines. By the end of the 3 hour full patch walk, just 40 species had been recorded, 3 or 4 down on what I would expect, the missing species being the likes of Skylark, Pheasant, Nuthatch, Coal Tit, plus the Fieldfares and Redwings, which have never been so scarce on my patch!

The highlights this morning were much the same as yesterday, the LITTLE GREBE was seen briefly, before doing its vanishing act, and the COOT remains into its twelfth day, the only other lake dwellers today were half a dozen MALLARD and 4 MOORHEN.

Early on in the walk, I heard the sound of approaching geese, which turned out to be CANADA GEESE, two flew over, then a few seconds later the paired couple, BARNACLE and Canada goose followed. Not much in the way of 'winter' species were noted this morning, just a small gathering of SISKIN along the College stream.

The mixed feeding flock of LONG TAILED, BLUE, and GREAT TITS again roamed the Wet Woods, with two GOLDCRESTS and two TREECREEPERS, I hung about for some time watching the tree tops for a possible Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, but it wasn't to be, I think it will be a long time before I record one of these again, to think they used to breed here :-(

So the weekend visits end without any additions to the Monthly / year list, and with just two more full patch walks to go this month, it looks like the record January species total of 68 total will be safe.

This afternoon, the cloud broke occasionally, allowing for some mixed fortunes with the camera at my garden feeders. I'll put a few shots up, and save the rest for tomorrows post :-) The first two species were additions to this mornings list :-)

COAL TIT

NUTHATCH

Nuthatch

GOLDFINCH

2012-01-21T16:27:00.000Z

Sun up!

A mostly dull and overcast sky greeted me this morning, but there was the odd brief flash of sun every now and again. The 3 and a half hour visit produced the slightly less than average species total, for a January day, of 41, this without the likes of Pheasant, Skylark, Coal Tit, or any kind of winter thrush, all which should have been easy enough to find on a January visit.

There were some nice highlights amongst the species seen though, a group of 4 GREEN WOODPECKERS feeding on a large garden lawn adjacent to the Small holding was good to see, one allowing me a distant photo.

One of the four Green Woodpeckers

I enjoyed a better session than in recent times inside the Wet Woods, when a feeding flock of BLUE, GREAT, and LONG TAILED TITS were seen, with them were their normal allies the GOLDCREST, and the TREECREEPER, the latter staying still just long enough for a record photo.

Treecreeper

The next stop at the lakes and Scrubby Woods, was a mixed affair, just one MALLARD was seen on the water, but with it was the long staying COOT, better still the LITTLE GREBE was re-located, which in the dim light and at long distance, another record shot was obtained :-)

Distant Little Grebe - Star bird :-)

Over at Migrant Alley a little time later, there was Gull and Raptor action to be had, with 61 BLACK HEADED, 4 HERRING and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL being found out on the sheep pasture, while overhead the SPARROWHAWK had them all flying up and panicking, the KESTREL seen minutes later doesn't quite have the same effect, the Gulls know it is no threat to them :-) A YELLOWHAMMER was seen in the hedgerow that forms the boundary with the Greenhouse Complex, it stayed long enough for a half decent photo attempt, but the Redpoll flock seen here on recent afternoons had moved on.

Yellowhammer

The College grounds provided plenty of small passerines, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, Great and Blue Tit, Goldcrest, and a flash of the KINGFISHER over one of the ponds.

I spent the last half hour of the visit at my skywatching seat, at Migrant Alley, but nothing of note was seen going over, just a couple of PIED WAGTAIL, and lots of ROOKS, STARLINGS, WOODPIGEONS and JACKDAWS. The friendly ROBIN made it appearance, and gave me the best photo of the day :-)

Photographers dream birds - the friendly Robin :-)

2012-01-20T17:05:00.001Z

Nothing much to say today ! I had just an hour out on my patch this afternoon, as I had to be back at three o'clock for an appointment. This meant there was just time for a hurried walk over to the lakes, and a hurried walk back again !

I needn't of worried about missing something on the lakes, although it's always nice to see the COOT, and CORMORANT there, they aren't normal 'lake fare' :-) The few MALLARD and MOORHEN are however. I couldn't re locate yesterdays Little Grebe, but these can be hard to find at times, and with time not on my side I may have missed it as it rested, concealed under the tangled overhang of the bankside tree branches. Nothing much more to note for the day, except a COMMON GULL on the sheep pasture, seen as I walked home from work, anything but a 'common' Gull here :-)

I'm looking forward to tomorrows full patch walk, there are still a few birds I might encounter for the January/year list, a Grey wagtail would be possible, as would Little Owl. At the moment the January list is on 61, which is the fifth best January, so I should improve on that.
Below are the species totals for all the January's. The first one in 2002 is pathetic! However, I only made 8 visits to the patch, as I was still in full time work then, plus I hadn't really got to grips with the habitat around my patch at that point :-)

Jan.2002. - 50 Species

Jan.2003. - 60 Species

Jan.2004. - 59 Species

Jan.2005. - 57 Species

Jan.2006. - 57 Species

Jan.2007. - 58.Species

Jan.2008. - 62 Species

Jan.2009. - 68 Species

Jan.2010. - 65 Species

Jan.2011. - 68 Species

Jan.2012. - 61 Species......and counting!
Mean total for Jan. 60.4 Species
Combined January total. 82 Species

2012-01-19T16:29:00.003Z

After a wet morning, the skies cleared a little for my afternoon patch visit, just 90 minutes were spent out, but it was quite eventful. The walk through the Small Holding was again notable for the GREENFINCH and CHAFFINCH'S there, which had grown in number to 30-40 birds, mostly chaffinch, also no fewer than 4 GREEN WOODPECKERS were feeding on a nearby large lawn, with another one in the old orchard. As I scanned through the finch's, up went the alarm call, and a couple of seconds later in came the SPARROWHAWK, it alighted briefly just 3-4 meters from me in a patch of sunlight, but it was off before I could get focused on it!! Just before entering the Wet Woods, a KESTREL flew purposely by.

The walk through the Wet Woods was uneventful, just calling GREAT TITS, the footpath from here to the lakes had a GOLDCREST feeding along it, and up above a COAL TIT sang from a large Oak tree. On reaching the lakes, the COOT was still pesent, but everything else all seemed as normal, a few MALLARD and MOORHEN moved around under the overhanging branches, but then as I scanned around the lake margins a movement caught my attention, as something dived below the surface of the water, i waited a few seconds and up popped a LITTLE GREBE (61), superb!! My first Little Grebe since November 2009, well, the almost daily lake visits have finally paid off :-) Little Grebe was first recorded on my patch in Feb. 2005, and then in the years of 2007, 2008, 2009, making this year just the 5th year out of the now eleven of recording that one has turned up, very pleased with that :-)

A grub around the surrounding Scrubby Woods had its moment of excitement too when a WOODCOCK flew up and then dropped further into the woods, always a good species to find here. Some of the more regular species were also found, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH and a small troop of LONG TAILED TITS, plus 3 female BULLFINCH'S that sat up in a blackthorn tree, eating the buds, they were just a couple of meters away from me, but the tangle of branches prevented any photo's being taken - shame.

After spending more time at the Lake area than normal, I had just enough time to visit the Tree Nursery and Pub Field. I was a bit disappointed to find that the 250 Lapwing with the Golden Plovers, seen yesterday, had left the Pub Field, it now being completely empty, although as I walked to work past the field early this morning I could hear the LAPWING calling in the darkness.

Only a few DUNNOCKS, WRENS, ROBINS, MAGPIES, BLACKBIRDS, with a couple of SONGTHRUSH were in the Tree Nursery, mind you thats more than there has been of late, no Meadow Pipits though. flyovers whilst there included a YELLOWHAMMER and the odd BLACK HEADED GULL, and surprise, surprise 10 FIELDFARE, just the second record of this species of the year! Not a bad visit again :-)

I just got the one photo opportunity, that was of a Chaffinch in the Small holding - better than nothing though :-)

Male Chaffinch

2012-01-18T16:31:00.000Z

What a turn around in the weather today, back to the damp, dull, drizzle! A patch visit was still made this afternoon however, and the usual winter walk to the lakes, via the Small holding and Wet Woods was not without some nice sightings.

The Small Holding had a flock of CHAFFINCH and GREENFINCH, about twenty five birds in all, they were no doubt the birds flushed from my garden feeders not far away, this is where they gather after the Sparrowhawk comes through my garden :-) Also in the Small Holding was a TREECREEPER, plus both a GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.

The Wet Woods was pretty still and quiet, it needs some more rain to fill the pools up, there isn't adequate water to hold a foraging Teal or Mandarin on them yet. A flurry of WOODPIGEON wings announced the fly through of a big female SPARROWHAWK, that really sealed the fate of the woods today, so I hurried down to the lakes. They were mostly thawed out now, and 9 MALLARD dozed under the tree overhang, I was pleased to refind the COOT, and just as pleased to hear a KINGFISHER, worth the visit here today :-) A party of LONG TAILED TITS with a BLUE TIT and a COAL TIT, plus sightings of BULLFINCH and GOLDCREST were as good as it got in the surrounding Scrubby Woods.

In the now growing gloom, I made my way over to the Tree Nursery, where again it was down to just a Green Woodpecker, a few Wrens, Dunnocks and Magpies, but another Goldcrest was a bit of a bonus here today. The local KESTREL flew over and started to hunt over at the Greenhouse Grounds. Looking through the gappy hedge and onto the Pub Field |I was surprised to see a large flock of LAPWING, at least 250 strong, as usual I scanned every one of them, and today came up trumps with two GOLDEN PLOVER, persistence pays off at last :-) Really good birds for my patch especially on the ground!

I finished off by checking the line of Alders over at the Greenhouse Grounds, where yesterday a dozen LESSER REDPOLL were found, they were still there, and I spent time checking each one for a possible Mealy Redpoll, but it wasn't to be ;-) So, after a gloomy old walk, I found some good patch birds today, Kingfisher, Coot, Lapwing, Golden Plover, I would have bitten your arm off had I been offered them ten days ago!

No camera outing today, so here's the last of the photo's I took in my garden on Sunday Afternoon, down to the Blue Tits now i'm afraid!!

Blue Tit

2012-01-17T17:10:00.000Z

There was another sharp overnight frost, and a mostly sunny day followed, but cloud did start to build by mid afternoon, heralding the end of the fine recent weather.

I didn't waste my time with the lake area today, knowing that they would still be frozen over, and instead had a walk around the Tree Nursery, Pub Field, Greenhouse Grounds and finally ending up on my seat at Migrant Alley for a skywatch.

On leaving the house, a COAL TIT flew into the tree above my head, allowing a quick photo, a good start :-) Entering the Tree Nursery, a GREEN WOODPECKER was seen feeding between the rows of bushes, as is usually the case, and the 3 MEADOW PIPITS that were seen yesterday were also still about. A couple of MAGPIES and both DUNNOCK and WREN made up all that was seen here.

Checking the Pub Field from the hedge dividing it from the Tree Nursery, I spied 5 LAPWING, with 11 BLACK HEADED GULL, and as I stood watching the run-stop-run feeding action of the Lapwing, the KESTREL glided in and alighted further down the hedge. Tracing my steps back to the Tree Nursery, I saw the Meadow Pipits fly up into a low shrub, and managed to sneak up to get a photograph, however, just as I was sneaking real close to them my old buddy the SPARROWHAWK came whizzing over, off went the Pipits, and up went the Lapwing and Gulls from the Pub field !!

Over at the Greenhouse Grounds, it was mainly down to the regulars of BLACKBIRD, Dunnock, a few BLUE and GREAT TITS, WRENS, CHAFFINCH and ROBINS, but a close up GOLDCREST was good to watch as it fed in the hedge, at one point finding itself a large caterpillar :-) A 30 minute sit on my seat produced little really, just a YELLOWHAMMER going over, and a few ROOKS, but as I got up to walk home in the dying light, a flock of a dozen or so LESSER REDPOLLS dropped into the line of Alder trees nearby, they allowed some photo's but the light was nearly non existent by now.

Quite nice visit today, despite not adding anything to the year list :-)

Coal Tit

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit - They knew the Sprawk was coming well before I did :-)

Lesser Redpoll - The sun was already below the horizon when I took these photo's, they aren't very good, but in the circumstances i'm surprised they came out this well, just goes to show how good modern camera's are!

Lesser Redpoll

2012-01-16T16:49:00.002Z

Day 3 of the bright, sunny and frosty weather, unfortunately it was back to work also! At least I got a two hour visit in this afternoon, and if I had been thinking straight I could have saved myself the walk over to the lakes, as they were obviously still frozen over! The walk to the lakes, through the Small Holding and Wet Woods, was a typical winters afternoon affair, with an assortment of Finch's, Tits, and a GREEN WOODPECKER in the Small Holding, and absolute silence in the Wet Woods, a pleasurable thing in itself on my patch!

The iced over lakes were devoid of anything but the MALLARDS, which stood out on the ice, making it creak and groan, at one point it sounded like the call of a Nuthatch! The surrounding Scrubby Woods were mostly inactive, just the odd call from GREAT, and COAL TIT. I didn't stay long and went for a look over the Pub Field from the Tree Nursery, the latter had 3 MEADOW PIPITS, back from wherever they had disappeared to over the weekend, also another Green Woodpecker fed between the rows of shrubs. The Pub Field had a nice flock of LAPWING on it, 25 in all, but no Golden Plover with them today, 14 BLACK HEADED GULLS patrolled restlessly up and down over the feeding Lapwings.

I ended up walking the Greenhouse Grounds and having a sit on my seat at Migrant Alley, the KESTREL was up hunting, and a YELLOWHAMMER flew over, but apart from the sounds of WRENS, ROBINS, BLACKBIRDS and the ever present Tits, it was in all an average sort of visit :-)

Nothing showed for the camera this afternoon, what a waste of good light!! So i'll put up the finch photo's I took in my garden yesterday. Talking of my garden, I still await the first House Sparrowof the year to visit!!

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

2012-01-15T17:17:00.005Z

Another cracking winters morning for my full patch walk today, with a hard frost, little wind and a clear blue sky, thats two nice mornings in a row now:-)

Another day dawns at Pittswood

Again I was out for about 3 and a half hours, finding one less species than yesterday, however this was compensated somewhat by finding a few more birds around, especially the BLUE TITS, GREAT TITS, LONG TAILED TITS, GOLDFINCH, and GREENFINCH, of which a nice flock of 17 dropped down into a large Lime tree over in the College Grounds. Some regularly seen species didn't turn up, such as Pheasant, Skylark, Bullfinch, plus any kind of Goose, also the winter thrushes, Fieldfare and Redwing are avoiding my patch still.

Again these omissions to the daylist were handsomely compensated for by the finding of 3 new species for the year list, the first being a COMMON GULL (58) that flew over the Greenhouse Complex, they are scarce enough here, but GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL are even more scarce, one flew over just minutes before the Common Gull, - not often I see the two in one visit :-)

I left the Greenhouse Grounds and associated copse, but not before finding a TREECREEPER, and a departing roost of SONGTHRUSHES. The walk across Migrant Alley was still and frosty, and not much bird activity was seen, but the wooded headland found to the north of it was noteworthy for two YELLOWHAMMER calling from an Ash tree there.

Onto the College Grounds, where activity was plenty, and despite flushing up a SPARROWWHAWK, which flew off with its kill, the likes of Goldfinch, Greeninch, CHAFFINCH, SISKIN, singing COAL TIT, singing GOLDCREST another Treecreeper, plus GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER all made themselves obvious. I left the area via adjacent the sports pitch, and went back across Migrant Alley, where I entered the Pub Filed, here the second new species for the year was seen, two LAPWING (59) were found out on the grass with 43 BLACK HEADED GULLS.

I headed home for a quick snack and drink, by way of the Tree Nursery, which was not very good today, but a KESTREL was seen flying low on its way the the Greenhouse Complex, it's favoured hunting ground, and a BUZZARD flew low over heading south.

I left the lakes till last today, as I knew they would be frozen over, and so they were, which limits the chance of finding waterfowl somewhat, although a few MALLARD and MOORHEN tucked themselves into the overhanging branches. The surrounding Scrubby Woods, were good for adding the likes of NUTHATCH, MISTLE THRUSH, and JAY, to the days list. 43 Lapwing flew over in disarray, before gathering again and flying off North, it was no doubt these birds that I found at the later end of my walk feeding in a Wheat field just off Ashes Lane, I counted over 100, with also, what proved to be the star birds of the day - no fewer than 8 GOLDEN PLOVER! (60) a very rare sight indeed to have even one on the ground at my patch :-)

The field of Lapwing, with one Golden Plover ( I have marked it for you !! )

Photo opportunities were limited, and apart from the above long range Golden Plover, I only managed to snap a DUNNOCK again, but this afternoon I took a few garden bird photo's, i'll put some up and save the rest for tomorrow :-)

Dunnock

Long Tailed Tits, Pity about the bars!

Long Taile Tit - free from 'jail' !

Again. Long Tailed Tit

2012-01-14T16:55:00.003Z

The first frost of the year greeted me this morning, everything looked very wintry, encased as it was in a thin coat of ice.

Frosty Start

The sun rose into a cloudless sky, making for probably the most pleasant walk of the winter, at least weatherwise. The birds were, however, not exactly thronging on my patch, with 42 species being found in 3 and a half hours, which is about average, but numbers of birds seen was low, with large parts of the walk completely birdless.

The early songsters, ROBIN and SONGTHRUSH, were singing loudly for the first half hour, further song from MISTLE THRUSH, DUNNOCK, WREN and GOLDCREST was also heard as the morning warmed up a bit, with COLLARED DOVE, STARLING, GREAT and BLUE TIT adding their bit to the now ever growing list of species that are sharpening up their voices for the spring. A song was also heard that I always enjoy hearing at this time of year, that of the SISKIN, a small flock fed in Alders at the College Grounds, where four BULLFINCH were a nice sight in the frosty conditions, especially the colourful males, the welcome sound of a calling LESSER REDPOLL (57) was heard as it flew low over, the year list creeps on!

Migrant Alley was home to a flock of 68 BLACK HEADED GULLS, plus the usual ROOKS, WOODPIGEONS, JACKDAWS, and CARRION CROWS, with flyovers from HERRING GULL, YELLOWHAMMER, PIED WAGTAIL and CANADA GOOSE 14 of which went north, with the feral BARNACLE GOOSE with them. I checked out the nearby Greenhouse Grounds, and the Greenhouse Copse, in the latter a TREECREEPER was seen well, but my old mate the SPARROWHAWK was hunting low around the Greenhouse Grounds sending anything that was there into deep cover. Making my way home for a quick drink, I passed the Tree Nursery and saw the KESTREL up hunting.

Next up was the lakes via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, both the GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS were seen in the Small Holding, and another Great Spotted drummed from the Wet Woods, where it was still really quiet for such a nice crisp day. On the lakes I was pleased to see the COOT again, as well as a CORMORANT and a GREY HERON, the resident MALLARDS were present in small numbers, as were the MOORHENS, but no other visitors today.

The surrounding Scrubby Woods held the expected species, JAY, NUTHATCH, LONG TAILED TIT, a couple more Bullfinch and Goldcrest, but no Coal tit today.

In all another average visit, but at least another species went onto the year list, which now stands at 57, equal to the total species recorded in the January of 2005 and 2006, this is the second lowest January total, but plenty of days remain to sort that out, back to it tomorrow, still a few species that might turn up yet!

Only two birds posed for the camera, a shame as the light was nice this morning.

Wren

Wren diving for cover!

Dunnock

2012-01-13T17:26:00.002Z

After yesterdays non visit, I was back out on patch this afternoon. The recent trouble will now hopefully be a thing of the past, as after being visited last night by the police, and again later this morning, when they talked to my missus, they have advised me to go back to walking my patch as normal and should now no longer have a problem, as they have spoken to the guy and it seems that if I don't bother him he wont bother me, they did give me a number to call however if things did take a turn for the worst again, but I don't think they will now!

Right, now I can get focused back on the birds!!

As I said, I was back out on patch this afternoon, and for once it was a proper winters day, cool and still, with some weak watery sunshine to accompany me through the Small Holding and Wet Woods. In the Small holding, there was, as have been for a few days now, a gang of CHAFFINCH and GREENFINCH, which I scanned for my first Brambling of the year, no luck there though, it's a species I think i'll struggle with at this end of the year at least, but one might just turn up at my garden feeders. Also in the Small Holding were two GREEN WOODPECKERS feeding under the old pear tree's, and a MISTLE THRUSH sat in the top most branch of one.

It was all pretty still in the Wet Woods, the recently half filled water ditches are again drying out quickly, limiting the chances of finding a Teal here, GREAT TITS were calling, and a strong drumming performance was heard by a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, which I picked out on an old decayed Oak branch, I thought I heard the call of a Treecreeper deep in the wood, but didn't hear enough to confirm.

All was quiet walking the footpath from the Wet Woods to the Lakes, but once at the lakes things livened up a bit, the COOT was still on the smallest of the lakes always a treat for me :-) and a KINGFISHER was hidden amongst the bankside vegetation of the main lake, well, as good as it could hide with those colours! There were also six pairs of MALLARD hidden under the tree overhang of that lake, and 4 MOORHENS chased about on the water - quite busy for here!

The surrounding Scrubby Woods was quite good today, with COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, SISKIN, NUTHATCH, singing GOLDCREST and a troop of LONG TAILED TITS being found, plus all the regulars like DUNNOCK, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, ROBIN, plus the tits, and finch's. No sign of any winter thrushes at all though :-(

Walking back the way I'd came, and then over to the Tree Nursery, didn't add much more to the day, the KESTREL was again up hunting, but again no winter thrushes were found, nor were the usual Meadow Pipit that frequent the shrubs and grass of the nursery. A short visit to my seat at Migrant Alley for a skywatch, produced 2 SKYLARK out in the pasture, but apart from a few BLACK HEADED GULLS and a flyover SPARROWHAWK not much else was of note.

Very frustratingly - despite the good light today, I didn't get a single photo!! Tomorrow looks a better day for that - providing any early fog clears quickly enough :-)

2012-01-12T16:51:00.003Z

No post today. After yesterdays trouble on t'patch, I promised my missus I wouldn't go out until i've seen the police this evening and sorted things out !! Spent the afternoon cleaning my feeders!! :-)

Normal sevice will be resumed tomorrow :-) until then here's a chirpy Robin :-)

Chirpy Robin

2012-01-11T17:07:00.002Z

At last some welcome sunshine was had today, although I only got an hour of it this afternoon as it had clouded over by 15:00hrs!! Still, thats better than none at all, and at last I could take the camera out too :-)

I went to lakes again, by way of the Small Holding, where the KESTREL was perched up at the very top of one of the old pear trees, but it soon flew off before I got a photo. Also here, were a flock of a 15 -20 CHAFFINCH and GREENFINCH, one of the former did hang about for a photo :-), in the Adjacent garden 2 GREEN WOODPECKERS were feeding on the large lawn.

Chaffinch at the Small Holding

I entered the Wet Woods and was straight away confronted with a small troop of LONG TAILED TITS, feeding along the sunlit edge, one of which stopped to check me out, giving me another chance of a photograph.

Long Tailed Tit

Further in the Wet Woods a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was tapping on an old decaying Oak limb high up the tree, and a MOORHEN croaked from deep inside the tangle of the wood, a SISKIN flew over calling, and a TREECREEPER also called, but went unseen.

Approaching the lakes, a CORMORANT was seen, which took of and alighted in a Silver Birch tree, just a MOORHEN and two MALLARD were on the Small lake, or so i had thought, as a second scan proved more fruitful, when from behind the small island a COOT (56) appeared! Always good to get this species on the year list, they can be hard to get here, and are rarely seen ( apart from last year when a pair tried to breed for the first time here) that cheered me up no end!

Cormorant

First Coot of the Year :-)

Another cheering sight was that of my first butterfly of the year, a Red Admiral , it fluttered past in the warm sunshine, probably having just come out of its hibernaculum in one of the nearby out buildings, time to start the butterfly spread sheet for 2012 :-) After a quick search of the surrounding area, 4 BULLFINCH, were about the most noteworthy sightings, and a couple of singing GOLDRESTS, then as I went to leave, an almighty scream was let out from nearby, sounded like a screaming baby, I listened to it for maybe 10-20 secs, then realised it was a Green woodpecker in it's death throws, having been caught by the Sprawk, I didn't see it but the noise was unmistakable!

A quick look around the Tree Nursery, didn't provide much, the sun had gone and it had turned dull and chilly, a MAGPIE and a few flyover BLACK HEADED GULLS were it. An even shorter look around the Greenhouse Grounds was made, short because another SPARROWHAWK had beat me there and scared everything off....time for home then!

Sprawk beats me to the Greenhouse Grounds!!

2012-01-10T16:53:00.001Z

The afternoon was a bit brighter for the short patch visit over to the lakes today, and as yesterday it was quite warm and springlike. The ''wee wee wee '' call of the NUTHATCH heard coming from the Wet Woods as I walked through the Tree Nursery. Just a few magpies were around in the Nursery, plus a GREEN WOODPECKER, but as I crossed over the boundary stile, I looked up and saw two COMMON BUZZARDS (55) circling high over the Greenhouse Complex / Migrant Alley, the first of 2012 :-)

Approaching the lakes, there were just 4 MALLARD hiding under the overhanging branches. As I followed the path, I saw a bird fly up from the undergrowth, it was a large female SPARROWHAWK, on reaching the place it had flown from I found the fresh body of a Woodpigeon, minus its head, which had been devoured already! A GREY HERON flew over the main lake, but declined the offer of the fish dinner there, and carried on its way, I didn't walk the Scrubby Woods, I didn't want to disturb the Woodcock twice on consecutive days ( if they were there) and instead listened from the path, where I heard SISKIN, BULLFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, COAL TIT, another Nuthatch and a really loud SONGTHRUSH.

On walking back out, I unfortunately forgot about the Sparrowhawk with it's kill and disturbed it again - I wasn't thinking straight! I headed out over to the Greenhouse Complex, and onto my seat at Migrant Alley, but apart from seeing the KESTREL for the first time since the 6th, and noting a flyover YELLOWHAMMER, not much was happening, I stayed long enough to see the first 15 PIED WAGTAILS come into roost on the Greenhouses, and watched the first 5 LINNETS drop into their pre roost tree in the Nursery as I walked home........a bit of a mixed fortunes day today!

2012-01-09T16:44:00.003Z

A large patch of blue sky appeared over to the west of Pittswood as I walked home from work today, so the sandwich was given a miss, and I just grabbed some crisps and gulped down some juice so as to get out in the anticipated sunshine :-)

I again headed over to the lakes, for a change I went via the Tree Nursery, where, with the blue sky almost overhead, the increasing light level encouraged a few songsters to perform, a MISTLETHRUSH could be heard all the way from the Wet Woods, as was a SONG THRUSH, nearby, GOLDCREST, DUNNOCK and WREN all tuned up from the shrubs, while in the background somewhere a GREAT TIT gave its spring call - it all felt very springlike :-)

Nearing the Lakes, a COAL TIT started singing, and another two Goldcrests called from a spruce tree, a ROBIN sang loudly from the adjacent Scrubby Woods, where BULLFINCH, GOLDFINCH, SISKIN and LONG TAILED TITS were all heard, - what a difference from yesterday! Three CORMORANTS left the main lake as I approach to scan it, and the MALLARDS had doubled in number - four were now present :-) Another two were on the small lake, but not one Moorhen was found, unusual.

After not finding any wildfowl for the year list, I moved on into the Scrubby Woods, where I watched yet another two GOLDCRESTS in the now brilliant sunshine :-) I set up the camera, and waited for the Goldcrest to come nearer and into view, and in that short space of time, maybe 3 -5 mins the cloud rolled in again, and all went dark.......god damn it, give us just one hours light!!!!!! I did get a photo, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped for had the sun stayed out :-)

Goldcrest

After that fifth Goldcrest encounter, I ventured further into the woods, finding at least 2 pairs of Bullfinch, at least two REDWING that flew out of a bramble patch with three Songthrush, and found the Long Tailed Tit flock that I had heard earlier, but then the sighting of the year so far, suddenly came up from in front of me - two WOODCOCK (54) a really good bird to get here, they are not seen very often, indeed they were only first recorded on my patch in 2009. Their arrival got me thinking about a piece of folklore, it was reckoned that the Goldcrests hitched a lift on the backs of Woodcock, as they weren't big enough to make the sea crossing from the continent unaided, and with the amount of Goldcrests seen this afternoon, it may have some credence! :-)

2012-01-08T16:46:00.002Z

I decided to visit the College Grounds first today, it's always a toss up between getting to the lakes, or the College Grounds first, before the rest of the world gets out and about :-) I was out a bit too early if anything, as it was still pre-dawn as I passed through the Greenhouse Complex and made my way around the NW boundary ditch, I only found the early songsters, those being ROBIN, SONGTHRUSH, and GREAT TIT, as well as the ever present BLACKBIRDS, DUNNOCKS, WRENS and Corvids.

As it grew lighter, the College Grounds came to life, with all the regular species being found, LONG TAILED, and BLUE TIT, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, GOLDCREST TREECREEPER, GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, and COLLARED DOVES. On the ponds the usual MALLARD and MOORHEN were found, plus a GREY HERON, flyovers by MEADOW PIPIT, LINNET, HERRING GULL and PIED WAGTAIL made the list up to 33 species, quite good for this stage in the walk. Crossing Migrant Alley, to get to the Pub Field and Tree Nursery, 34 BLACK HEADED GULLS were seen feeding on the sheep pasture, nothing at all was out on the Pub Field, and in the Tree Nursery I fared not much better, just JAY and MISTLE THRUSH went into the notebook.

I arrived over at the lakes at 09:45, where things were desperate, just 1 pair of Mallard and two Moorhen were all the 3 water bodies could offer, and the only other bird added to the list was a SISKIN that alighted right at the top of an Alder tree, staying for less than 30 seconds!! Despite an hour long wandering of the Wet Woods and Small Holding, just one more species was added to the list - a singing STOCK DOVE. 38 species for the morning is 6 - 7 short of what I would expect for a January day, but this January and the December just gone, are proving to be extraordinary for the lack of birds in the area, when I look back at this date in 2009, 2010, and 2011, I was on respective year lists of 59, 56, and 58. Showing how poor this January's total of 53 is.........so far :-)

In the gloom of the afternoon, I watched the garden feeders for a couple of hours, hoping for the years first Brambling or Redpoll, they weren't forthcoming, but, in between SPARROWHAWK attacks, 17 other species did visit the feeders, the best of which were a pair of BULLFINCH'S, which I made sure weren't eaten by the Sprawk, I spooked it out of it's hiding place in the evergreen tree at the bottom of the garden 3 times! A GOLDCREST and 3 Long Tailed Tits made the years garden list up to 21 for the year, 3 behind the best January total achieved in both 2010 qnd 2011.

The Sprawk, as well as the visiting NUTHATCH and COAL TIT were added to the days list, as well as two flyover CORMORANTS, making it a little more respectable at 42 :-)

As I said, the afternoon was gloomy and dull, but I tried with the camera, and even with it set at an ISO of 3200, and the aperture wide open at f5.6, a shutter speed of 160 was the best I could obtain, no good really, but here's the results!

Collared Dove

Robin

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

2012-01-07T16:45:00.000Z

A four hour full patch walk from 07:30hrs, produced just about everything expected, but not anything unexpected unfortunately, with the tally of 43 species being just about the average for a January day - its been ''just about average'' for months now!

On the Lakes today, were 3 CORMORANTS, the most seen here since last March, also a GREY HERON, 18 MALLARDS and 6 MOORHENS were on view, quite busy for these small water bodies ! I spent an hour around the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, hoping something else would drop onto the lakes, and although a pair of CANADA GEESE flew low over, they didn't visit the water, the time was spent finding the woodland species that were around in ones and two's, the likes of BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, GOLDCREST, were found, along with the more regular BLACKBIRDS, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, CHAFFINCH, GOLDFINCH, and the Woodpeckers, GREEN and GREAT, but the highlight of the day was seeing, at last, some FIELDFARE (53) 14 flew over, but didn't stay.

As I made my way over, and then walked the Tree Nursery, Pub Field and Migrant Alley, I sporadically added to the days list, with the likes of singing MISTLE THRUSH, and flyovers of STOCK DOVE, YELLOWHAMMER, MEADOW PIPIT and a hunting SPARROWHAWK, two SKYLARKS in the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley were a good find.

What happened next was straight out of my worst nightmare, I went over to the College Grounds and found that a ''Dog Agility'' event had been staged for the morning - dogs everywhere, and even worse, people walking them all over the place, god It was horrible!!!!!!!! I quickly made a u-turn, leaving all that shouting and barking behind me :-(

I spent an hour sitting on my skywatching seat back over at Migrant Alley, hoping for something new to flyover, maybe a Lapwing, Golden Plover or a Mute Swan, but it was not not to be today, I made do with the WOOD PIGEONS, ROOKS, JACKDAWS and CARRION CROWS, and the only PIED WAGTAIL of the day, perhaps the lack of anything flying over was due to the Shotguns going of every few minutes in a field just off patch - I'm getting that ''do I want to carry on with this patch'' feeling again :-(

Just to confirm the worlds against me today, the sky was about 50/50 cloud and clear patches, but the sun spent virtually the whole time behind the clouds, making for poor photographic lighting, as shown in the only photo I took today.

Redwing

2012-01-06T16:50:00.001Z

At last, some half decent weather to get out in this afternoon, and with a few spells of sunshine the day lasted just that bit longer :-)

As usual, a visit was made to the lakes and Scrubby Woods area, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, the Small Holding had a flock of a dozen or so mixed CHAFFINCH and GREENFINCH, with a GREEN WOODPECKER feeding on the old orchard floor, which has two less tree in it now after yesterdays gale, a shame as these are ''proper'' pear trees, old and holey, there are just half a dozen left now :-( No doubt next week the orchard owner will be chopping the fallen trees up and burning them.........

The walk through the Wet Woods was pretty quiet, the mornings dog walkers will of seen off anything interesting that would of been on the now reforming pools of water, I did hear a couple of SISKIN up in the tops of the Alders, plus a couple of calls from a MOORHEN hidden out there somewhere.

Approaching the lakes, there was no sign of the idiot groundsman in the adjacent large garden, but who knows, he could of been there this morning, as nothing was seen on the ornamental pond belonging to that house. The main lake had three MOORHENS, 14 paired up MALLARDS, and a GREY HERON, which later flew to the top of a fir tree. A CORMORANT circled over, almost alighting on the main lake, but thought better of it, whilst the small lake had 12 more paired up Mallards.

A walk in the Scrubby Woods was good for BULLFINCH, at least 6 were in there, also 4 REDWING, plus the usual BLUE and GREAT TITS, DUNNOCKS, WRENS, ROBINS, BLACKBIRDS and SONGTHRUSHES. No sign of a Long Tailed Tit flock today, or Treecreeper or Nuthatch, two GOLDCREST showed well, I got within a meter of them but it was too dull in the thicket for a photograph.

A look over the Pub Field didn't produce the wanted Lapwing for the year list, and the search for a Snipe or Woodcock in the Tree Nursery was also a failure, but my short skywatch over on my seat at Migrant Alley, with the friendly ROBIN at my side, did produce a year tick, a GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL (52) that flew over heading SE. The only other birds going over were the KESTREL the SPARROWHAWK, and numerous JACKDAWS and WOODPIGEONS. Still no sign of any Fieldfares!

Friendly Robin skywatching with me :-)

Greenfinch at the small holding

Grey Heron over by the main lake

2012-01-05T16:30:00.000Z

Hopeless!! Thats what this afternoon was! A gale was blowing, and some hefty, but short lived showers sped by, not good for birding or much else really. I decided not to waste the afternoon, and took a new nest box over to the Greenhouse Grounds, putting it onto a tree trunk, where a Blue Tit family will no doubt get raised this spring :-)

I was all the while looking and listening for a Fieldfare, but it was pretty pointless in the conditions, I cant believe i've not recorded one this year yet! Once the box was up, I thought a quick visit to the lakes would be a good idea, this proved to be not the case though, bits of branches and twigs were coming down everywhere, and the wind through the trees sounded like an express train, it was a bit hair raising ( if I had any!) I got to the lakes to see two CORMORANTS leave, these lakes can normally be described as 'still as a mill pond' however today you could have sailed a dingy out there :-) Nothing else was seen on the water, apart from the MALLARDS, which I counted at 16, and as I did so, a troop of around 8 LONG TAILED TITS and a lone GOLDCREST filtered through the vegetation around me.

I soon left for home again, not noting anything much except BLACK HEADED GULLS flashing past on the wind. It's not quite the start to the year I had hoped for!

2012-01-04T16:23:00.002Z

Back to work today, so it's back to the shorter afternoon patch visits, which with the heavy cloud cover was down to just 90 minutes, as it was dusk by 15:30hrs. A quick visit to the Lakes was initially disappointing, nothing on the water, except MALLARDS, of which there were 22, however scanning the branches overhanging the waters edge, I spied a KINGFISHER (51), always a pleasure to get the first one of the year on the list :-)

In one of the other large gardens, the more wildlife friendly owners had refilled their feeders, these were visited by a few GOLDFINCH, GREENFINCH, CHAFFINCH, NUTHATCH, and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, plus in the nearby Alder trees a flock of six SISKIN were feeding, a GREEN WOODPECKER made up the interest as it fed on the lawn. Across the way, in the Scrubby Woods, a COAL TIT called, and several BULLFINCH were heard.

Next stop was the Tree Nursery and Pub Field, which were both devoid of any bird life at all, not really surprising in the now blustery and rainy conditions, a KESTREL did go over as I left to have a look around the Greenhouse Complex Grounds, and a last scan of the sky towards the lakes, provided me with views of two CORMORANT dropping in - the idiot groundsman must of gone home!

Unfortunately there was a work crew in the Greenhouse Grounds, so that was only good for seeing the likes of BLACKBIRDS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, WRENS and PIED WAGTAILS, however, I got chatting to the foreman there, and he tells me that they are likely to be taking over the Tree Nursery lease, which runs out for the present tenants in April. He reckons it will be used for arable for a couple of years, before being used to propagate plants, probably raspberries, this might be good news indeed for the butterflies, birds, and wildlife there at present, as it would at least not revert to sheep pasture! Another plus is that the field would be managed with the enviroment in mind, 5 meter wildflower margins and minimal mowing - excellent if it comes off :-)

That bit of news cheered me no end as I walked home, despite the rain and wind, it's the first positive thing thats happened in the area for years, fingers crossed!

Not a day for the camera again :-( so i'll put up the final few of my garden bird photo's taken on Monday just gone.

Great Spotted Woodpecker ( had 3 in the garden as I ate lunch today)

STARLING

BLUE TIT

2012-01-03T16:58:00.000Z

Well, the forecasted gales and torrential rain duly arrived this morning, making virtually the whole of my last days holiday a complete write off :-(

I didn't get out until 14:00hrs, even then it was just for an hour, as the clouds swept in again on the strong wind, threatening rain again. In that hour I walked the Tree Nursery, and went over to my seat at Migrant Alley, the Tree Nursery was pretty quiet, with just a KESTREL doing it's best to make up for the lost hunting time, while over at Migrant Alley, a few GOLDFINCH fed in the Alders that form the boundary with the Greenhouse Complex. Some big puddles had formed on the sheep pasture, and I scanned them all for a Snipe, with no luck though. I watched the sky for a while, hoping that a different Gull might have been blown inland by the gales, but although there were plenty of BLACK HEADED GULLS, and the odd HERRING GULL, no other species were forthcoming. The visit wasn't a total waste though, as one more species for the year list was added when a PEREGRINE FALCON (50) flew over the Tree Nursery as I walked home , an excellent bird to celebrate the 50th species for the year with !


Looking at this CHAFFINCH photo I took this afternoon,you would be deceived into thinking it was a beautiful day!

I took these Goldfinch photo's yesterday afternoon, at my garden feeders, helps brighten the blog!

Goldfinch

2012-01-02T16:24:00.004Z

It was good to see a rarity over my patch today - the Sun!! What a difference it makes to be able to see properly, mind you after the heavy and persistent overnight rain it was a bit wet underfoot, all good for filling up the lakes, also the pits in the Wet Woods, I might yet get a Teal in there before the end of the winter, dogs permitting!

The three and a half hour full patch walk gave me another 5 bird species for the year list, the first of those was a GREYLAG GOOSE (45) that flew over the Lakes, it wasn't tempted down by the CANADA GOOSE that was already there though. A CORMORANT flew from the lake as I arrived, and a GREY HERON dropped in whilst I was there, but nothing more exciting than that was on the water.

After finding the regular species around the lake edges and Scrubby Woods I moved on to the Tree Nursery, Pub Field, Migrant Alley and the College Grounds, it was quite hard going to find birds in any great numbers, but a flyover STOCK DOVE (46) was the second bird added to the year list as I approached the Tree Nursery, where three MEADOW PIPITS (47) got up from the grassland, calling as they plopped back down again deeper into the field, then both LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL (48) and SKYLARK (49) joined the year list as I walked the pasture and Paddocks at Migrant Alley, both flyovers.

I was entertained by SISKIN, GOLDFINCH, GREENFINCH, CHAFFINCH, GOLDCREST, LONG TAILED TIT, another Grey Heron, and 4 BULLFINCH, all in the College Grounds, those, with all the more common WRENS, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, BLACKBIRDS etc made this the most busy piece of habitat on my patch today, all down to the fact that the nearby Garden center and the College have been closed for the holidays :-)

On the way home a SPARROWHAWK flew over, making the list up to 42 species for the day, not too bad :-) Just one more day left, then it's back to work for Wednesday, and then the less productive afternoon walks, looking at tomorrow weather, it looks doubtful for an early patch visit - Rain and Gales forecast, I'll hopefully get out at some point though!

Photo's today are a bit of a mixed bag, despite the sunshine, the sun wasn't high enough to lighten the subjects as I would of liked, but at least they brighten the page :-)

The low sun made these Bullfinch look orange breasted! I also had to try to manually focus, as the auto focus wouldn't do the job through all the branches!

Bullfinch

Goldfinch

Good old Robin again!

2012-01-01T16:01:00.006Z

                             HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The start of a new year! This will be the 11th one spent recording the birds and other wildlife seen at Pittswood, and the fifth one recording everything via this blog. Many thanks to all who read and comment on my sightings ( and rantings!) I always enjoy reading your comments but seldom find the time to reply to everyone, so I'll thank you all - again :-)

As always, I was eager to get the year list off to a good start this morning, so at the late hour of 08:00hrs, when it had only just got light, I set off into the now usual weather conditions, that is, heavy cloud, wind and spits of rain! Funny, exactly the same weather as last year :-) The first bird on the list was a ROBIN, which if you were paying attention to yesterdays post, you'll remember was also the last species of 2011, and for you with elephant type memories was also the first bird of 2011   :-)

The first full patch walk lasted just a little over 3 hours, in which 42 species were seen ( see the 2012 list in the sidebar on the right) Highlights were few, but the feral BARNACLE GOOSE seen on one of the lakes, was a species not seen in any January before, taking the combined January species total to 81 now. The best January total, of 69 species, was achieved in both 2009 and 2011, so it would seem quite possible to beat those, looking at the combined January total, but it's never that easy, the weather has a big part to play, especially if it turns cold, this is when the likes of Brambling, Snipe, Woodcock, Green Sandpiper, visiting Ducks, and flyover waders help swell the months total, fingers crossed for a cold spell then!

As for the year list target, well last year I was trying to reach the average total achieved for the previous 3 years, ( when I started blogging) which was 109, I failed by 1 ! This year the average total for the previous 4 years is also 109, so that's what i'll be chasing in 2012! I'll also be trying to beat the record totals set in each individual month again, but that's now proving a difficult task, I only managed it in April and May last year. The average monthly species total seen throughout the year dropped for the first time last year, from the high of 70.25 in 2010, to 69.00, that's something else to try to improve upon :-)

Back to today, and by 11:00hrs the rain had set in, and is still coming down heavy now at 15:30hrs, even the garden birds stopped coming in by 14:00hrs, but a COAL TIT was picked out of the gloom, I didn't get one on the list this morning, also picked out in the grey skies as I peered out across the tops of the Wet Woods from my upstairs window, was a CORMORANT, no doubt going to visit the lakes, this brought the days sightings to 44 species, a reasonable start to 2012   :-)

Whilst on the subject of my garden birds, last year was quite a good year for species seen actually using it, in all, 36 species were recorded, which is the joint best total along with 2006 and 2010, although last year was the first that no new species were added to the garden list, that remains on 54. The best month was March, when 27 species came in, way over the monthly average of 22 species.

Nothing from the Camera today, the best shutter speed attained this afternoon was 20, I like to get at least 400 !!

2011-12-31T17:17:00.001Z

The final sunset of 2011

The final patch visit of 2011 was, as has been for much of the last two weeks, undertaken in overcast, dull but warm conditions, which again had me struggling to find much of note. Its has been very much a case of 'what ive got i'll keep' as the year fizzles out to a disappointing end.

The visit to the lakes first thing provided me with both a CORMORANT and GREY HERON, which is more than has been seen there of late, the usual MALLARD and MOORHENS were hidden away under the bankside vegetation too. A YELLOWHAMMER flew over the Scrubby Woods as I searched the undergrowth there, finding a GOLDCREST, nearby a TREECREEPER called and both GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS also called in quick succession. A NUTHATCH flew to the adjacent garden, and joined the GREEN, GOLD and CHAFFINCH'S that were already on the feeders there.

Walking over to the College Grounds, through the Tree Nursery, Pub Field, and Migrant Alley yielded few passerines, so it was down to picking out flyover species, which included HERRING GULLS, BLACK HEADED GULLS, and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, also the only winter thrush of the day, a lone FIELDFARE.

The College Grounds was a bit busier, with a LONG TAILED TIT flock being found, as well as COAL TIT, two more Goldcrest, a pair of BULLFINCH and a flyover calling LESSER REDPOLL, a KINGFISHER was seen to catch a fish, then batter it on a branch before swallowing it down, easily the highlight of the day :-)

So December ends on the lowest monthly count of the year, with a total of 61 species being found, 4 below the next lowest monthly total, which was set by February. The year list ended on 108, which is a good tally for my patch and the third best of the ten years, but this year was the first that I have not set a record tally, last years 113 species will take some beating!

I'm looking forward to next years challenge, I just hope the habitat degradation, dog walking, and shooting activities are curtailed, otherwise I feel that to carry on with this local patch could be a bit of a waste of my time, i'll have to see how it pans out.

Hopefully, all the readers of these pages will have a great new year celebration, I wish you all the best for the new year, :-) I'll leave you with a final photo - the last bird recorded here of 2011, of course, a ROBIN!

Last bird recorded in 2011.....Robin

2011-12-30T17:02:00.002Z

Sunrise through the Wet Woods - all ten minutes of it!!

Yet more grey, damp and overcast skies spilled in from the south west, blotting out the ten minutes of sunshine that was had first thing this morning, it really has been an incredible run of dull days this Christmas!

The birds don't perform so well in these conditions, as is only to be expected, but this mornings 41 species wasn't too bad a show. Nothing new for the month/year list was encountered, but a distant view of 6 Ducks flying away from me over the Wet Woods whilst I was at the College Grounds, were probably Goosander by the looks of them, frustrating !

It was the College Grounds that gave me most interest for the visit today, where I watched 4 LESSER REDPOLL feeding with 3 BULLFINCH, I had taken the camera out with my smaller 300mm lens to try and gather more light, but the photo's I got of them were rubbish, and I deleted them! Also in the College Grounds were quite a few finch's, more GREENFINCH and CHAFFINCH than GOLDFINCH, but an increase in all from recent visits. The third TREECREEPER of the morning was with a flock of LONG TAILED TITS, and a pair of GOLDCREST that joined them were closely examined to try and turn them into Firecrsets :-)

The sheep pasture at Migrant Alley had 67 BLACKHEADED GULLS, and with them today was a COMMON GULL, only the second one recorded this month. A SPARROWHAWK over the Greenhouse Complex, and a KESTREL over the Tree Nursery were the only raptors of the day, and just one REDWING and one FIELFARE, both in the Small Holding, were all I saw of the winter thrushes.

Still nothing of note on any of the lakes, but the surrounding Scrubby Woods had the usual species in small numbers, NUTHATCH, Treecreeper, Bullfinch, COAL TIT, GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER...etc..

Later in the day, as I watched the garden feeders, there was not one Sprawk visit :-) , as a consequence the feeders were inundated with birds! I recorded 20 species using my garden, including peak counts of 22 Geenfinch, 9 Chaffinch, and 7 Goldfinch, 23 BLUE TITS, and 11 COLLARED DOVES, best of all though, was my first Lesser Redpoll for the garden since March, the 24th species to visit this month. Not as good as the cold Decembers of 2009 and 2010, when a total of 27 and 29 were recorded respectively, but this December is still the fourth best out of ten, in terms of species visiting.

I took some pretty poor photo's, but considering the poor light, and rain spattered windows I shot through, I'm surprised the images were as clear as they are!!

No more room at the feeder! The blur to the bottom right was a Blue Tit :-)

This Great Tit came out slightly better, it wasn't raining at this point

Lesser Redpoll - Typical it should arrive in such rubbish weather, that said, this is the best photo I have of a Lesser Redpoll!

or is this the best photo I have of one ;-)

2011-12-29T18:00:00.001Z

For a bit of a change today I didn't visit my patch at all, ( I know - it's unheard of!) instead I went the short distance to the Geoffrey Harrison wildlife reserve over at Sevenoaks, where a friend and I spent a pleasant 4 hours, despite the poor weather!

We spent time in all the various hides, as well as walking the trails, and managed to find 56 bird species, nothing majorly exciting amongst them, but at least I got to remind myself what the various Duck species look like :-) I immediately recognised the MALLARDS :-) and on seeing the TUFTED DUCKS, TEAL, WIGEON, GADWALL, SHOVELER, POCHARD, RUDDY DUCK, plus the COOT, GREAT CRESTED GREBE, and LITTLE GREBE, it all came flooding back to me what these species look like :-)

Also on the water were MOORHEN, MUTE SWAN, CANADA, GREYLAG and EGYPTIAN GEESE, with the odd HERON and a LITTLE EGRET thrown in. Watching and listening to the 300 odd LAPWING was treat, as was seeing CORMORANTS that don't fly off as soon as they see you - like they do here!! the Bittern was missed by minutes, and a flyover Buzzard eluded us but was seen by others. A KINGFISHER, a RING NECKED PARAKEET, and plenty of SNIPE kept us interested, and finding the likes of TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH, GOLDCREST, LESSER REDPOLL, SISKIN, REED BUNTING, and LONG TAILED TIT proved a challenge in the blustery and sometimes wet weather.

Although we saw the likes of STOCK DOVE, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH, CHAFFINCH, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, PIED WAGTAIL, STARLING, PHEASANT, as well as the other common regular resident species like BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, ROBIN,WOOD PIGEON, and WREN, there were still a few common species not seen, namely the Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, and House Sparrow. Winter Thrushes were represented by just one REDWING, Fieldfare's were totally absent! So with the missing 'easy' species a day total of 60+ should of been reached really, we got an over wintering CHIFFCHAFF that was a bonus bird however :-)

Apart from the Gulls, HERRING, COMMON, and BLACK HEADED, plus the corvids CARRION CROW, JACKDAW, MAGPIE and JAY I think I've mentioned all that was seen, oh I forgot the GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, and how could I have forgotten the SPARROWHAWK!!!! :-)

Back on the patch tomorrow! :-)

2011-12-28T16:54:00.000Z

It looked like another damp and dull walk this morning, as first thing the wind blew drizzle into my face, but by 09:30 the cloud began to break, and some very welcome sunshine was had, it only lasted for a couple of hours, but welcome none-the-less!

The sunshine brought out a few more bird species than have been seen of late, with 41 being recorded, this included a couple of small REDWING gatherings, one in the large garden adjacent to the lakes, the other in the College Grounds, where it was quite busy today birdwise. A well berried Rowan tree had 4 BULLFINCH feeding in it, and one of the small ponds had a KINGFISHER perched in the bankside vegetation, also a flock of 8 LONG TAILED TITS, with two GOLDCRESTS moved through the gardens, and a group of 5 SISKINS fed in a clump of Alders.

A single LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL flew over Migrant Alley, as did a group of 8 HERRING GULL, whilst on the pasture 94 BLACK HEADED GULLS were feeding, a good count here. Three SKYLARK were also out on the pasture, not seen any of these on my patch for a few days now, only one each of YELLOWHAMMER and MEADOW PIPIT flew over. Two raptor species were encountered today, a KESTREL hunting over the Greenhouse Complex and a BUZZARD that flew low over the NW patch boundary.

Most of the regular woodland species were located as I walked through the Small Holding, Wet Woods, and Scrubby Woods, including the likes of NUTHATCH, GREEN WOODPECKER, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JAY, more Bullfinch's and a singing STOCK DOVE. The lakes were once again home to a few MALLARD and MOORHEN, nothing more exciting :-(

A subsequent afternoon visit was made today, with a friend, where we manged to add a FIELDFARE to the days list, yes just one!! Also the first few LINNETS were seen coming into roost at the Tree Nursery, making the day total up to 43, which is bang on the average for a December day :-)

2011-12-27T16:29:00.003Z

Another exceptionally mild day, but still very grey, damp and dreary, ive not seen the sun here since the 22nd December, apart from a very brief spell early on the 23rd, - it's enough to drive you insane!!

With all this stagnant mild air over us, bird movement is at a minimum, there was certainly no influx of winter species for this mornings walk, in fact not a winter species was recorded, no Fieldfare, Redwing, Siskin, Redpoll, and no Brambling, Snipe or Woodcock thats for sure!

Just 37 of the regular resident species were found, although a bit of a surprise at the lakes was had, when amongst 15 CANADA GEESE, the feral BARNACLE GOOSE was seen, this bird has paired up with one of the Canada Geese ( as it did last year) and is the third year ive recorded it on my patch.

With nothing else to report out of the unusual, and with no wintering flocks of birds to count or resident feeding flocks to scan through, the patch walking now seems to be resigned to recording the first tentative signs of spring, today the GREAT TIT was heard giving its spring, tee-cher, tee-cher call, and a COAL TIT was singing from the Scrubby Woods.

I await the first singing Chiffchaff!!

In an attempt to brighten the page up a bit, I tried to get some garden bird photo's whilst dinner was cooking this afternoon, I got a couple, but the light is awful - I had the ISO up to 3200, and the aperture wide open, just to get a shutter speed of 160! Oh well, things can only improve from here.......hopefully.
Here's the garden pics :-)

Thank god for the colourful BLUE TITS! Thats one nutty feast it's got there :-)

Also, the just as colourful GOLDFINCH :-)

2011-12-26T16:26:00.001Z

The sun going down over the Wet Woods - just as the sky starts to clear, typical!!

My boxing day walk took place in some very dark and dull conditions this morming, with just a slight SW wind, which continues to blow in the above average temperatures for this time of year.

It was a real struggle to find anything of interest in the 3 hour visit, the 41 species found were all the regular resident species, but at least now some of them have started to sing! The most audible were the MISTLE THRUSHES, 5 of which sang from various parts of my patch, ROBINS seem to be singing from every piece of cover available, they obviously had a good breeding season this year. DUNNOCKS are becoming more visible now, chasing around in three's and fours, wing flicking all the while, with one or two giving their pleasant song, GOLDCREST, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, CHAFFINCH, and even a WOODPIGEON all sang, making for a sneak preview of the dawn chorus that will be in fulll swing in a few weeks time :-)

The only reminder that the spring proper, is still a few weeks away yet, was the sighting of a group of three SISKINS in the College Grounds, no other winter species were found, I don't think I've gone out on a Boxing Day patch visit and never found a Fieldfare or Redwing!

Flyover species were few, and for the most part the uniform grey sky remained empty, but for singles of YELLOWHAMMER, PIED WAGTAIL, STOCK DOVE, and two small groups of HERRING GULLS. The only other Gull species seen today were the BLACK HEADED GULLS, 72 were on the sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley, Raptor species were represented by the KESTREL hunting over the Greenhouse Grounds, and a BUZZARD that flew from the Greenhouse Copse, calling as it did so.

A pleasant enough visit, but with nothing added to the month or year list it lacked a bit of excitement :-) December looks like it could well have the lowest monthly species total of the year, it still being 4 species behind the 65 species seen in February and July, these two months having the honour of the lowest monthly totals thus far, but things can change!

2011-12-25T11:36:00.001Z

Fresh in from my Christmas morning walk, and its an early post for the day, as i'll be making merry with the family this afternoon :-)

I always enjoy my Christmas morning walk, as hardly a soul is seen, giving me the place to myself :-) and it was thus so for 3 hours this morning. The low cloud meant the camera stayed at home, so no pics today, however, the morning was exceptionally mild, if a bit breezy, not good really if i'm trying to find a Woodcock, Snipe, or a flyover wader for the months/year list, if this unseasonal weather continues into the new year, i'll have a problem finding even the quite common winter species for the 2012 year list!

Nothing was added to the December list this morning, but a reasonable 42 species were found, even without the likes of Skylark, Pheasant, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, Treecreeper, - all of which are regulars normally, plus the Lapwing flock on the Pub Field hadn't arrived, they usually turn up late morning.

A KINGFISHER was probably the highlight for the morning, one flew across the Small lake, but little else was on the lakes today, just 12 MALLARD and 3 MOORHEN. Another good bird to see on my patch was the BUZZARD, it flew from the Greenhouse Complex, this is the second year running that Buzzard has been recorded in every month, something that i would not have believed if you have told me this back in 2002 when I started on my patch :-) Two other raptor species were seen, KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK, and the list was bulked up a bit by the sighting of 3 Gull species, HERRING, LESSER BLACK BACKED and BLACK HEADED, the latter of which gathered on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, 60-70 birds in all.

Not much else really notable was seen, a small group of four LESSER REDPOLL fed in a silver birch over at the College Grounds, a CORMORANT flew over the GREENHOUSES and 3 separate YELLOWHAMMERS called as they went high over, in an enjoyable Christmas day walk :-)

2011-12-24T16:25:00.002Z

Once again the weather turns, and a bright Christmas eve morning welcomed me today. Most of the regular species turned out for the full patch walk, with good total of 46 species seen in all, a bit better than average for a December day.

A GREYLAG GOOSE flew over early in the walk, only the third sighting of one this month, also a few LINNETS were seen leaving their roost around the Greenhouse Complex, where the KESTREL was up hunting. Migrant Alley was full of ROOKS, JACKDAWS and WOODPIGEONS, as well as BLACK HEADED GULLS, 60 of which were spread over the sheep pasture and paddocks. The College Grounds and gardens were quite busy, with GREENFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, GOLDFINCH, SISKIN, PIED WAGTAIL seen, as well as the ever present BLUE and GREAT TITS. I heard a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER drumming, marking out his territory for the forthcoming spring, which I think will be early this season, if the singing TREECREEPER and the already blooming Snowdrops are anything to go by.

Snowdrop - Early spring ?

Along the the stream behind the College Grounds, a KINGFISHER was seen, and the only two FIELDFARE of the visit were also found here, below is the dawn as seen from the field next to the Stream

Sunrise over the field by the College Stream

I walked back towards home, via the Pub Field and Tree Nursery, the former had the now almost resident LAPWING flock on it, although the flock numbers does fluctuate, at least 100 were there today, the Tree Nursery had at least 8 MEADOW PIPIT, but nothing more exciting.
After a quick drink at home, I set of for the lakes and Scrubby woods, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, a SPARROWHAWK sped through, and a BUZZARD slowly drifted over the Small Holding, while the Wet Woods held little to detain me. On the lakes just MALLARD were again seen, but the place had already been disturbed, although a GREY HERON dropped in to the smallest of the lakes whilst I was there. The habitat around the Lakes, and the Scrubby Woods provided me with NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, GREEN WOODPECKER, PHEASANT, MISTLE THRUSH and JAY to add to the days list, but there were no Redwing here today. The last bird on the list was a flyover STOCK DOVE, the first ive seen for a week or so :-)

Not a bad walk, considering the amount of disturbance around today, but it's that time of year now, everyones on holiday, and with the dawn being so late, I cant get out before everyone else! Talking of holidays, i'll take the opportunity now to wish all the readers of my blog a very enjoyable Christmas - whatever you're doing :-) Have fun!!!

2011-12-23T16:19:00.002Z

All change again with the weather, gone was yesterdays springlike sunshine, and back was Wednesdays wind, rain and gloom! I only got halfway round my patch walk, before calling it a day, with just 30 species found in the 2 hours I was out, those being the regular common species, and in small numbers. Normally I can enjoy the walk for it's own sake, even if little is seen, but today was just 'orrible!! Tomorrow looks like it may be all change again - lets hope so!

I thought I'd spend the afternoon watching the garden feeders to see what dropped in, but continued attacks from the SPARROWHAWK, kept all but the fleet winged GREAT and BLUE TITS away, I went out and scared off the Sprawk from it's hiding place 4 or 5 times in the space of 2 hours, eventually I gave up, a decision I felt a bit guilty and annoyed about, because the female BULLFINCH dropped in to the tray of sunflower hearts, and even as I watched it through my bins, whoosh! It was gone, clenched in the talons of the Sprawk :-(

It's particularly gutting to see a scarce garden bird get predated, in fact they are a scarce bird full stop really, so i'm back debating whats the best thing to do, to stop feeding, and let the birds ( finch's especially) take their chances out on the surrounding impoverished farmland, or continue to feed and watch the finch's get picked off :-( I suppose it's a problem ive caused really, as it's not natural for so many birds, of so many species to gather in one small place, as they do in my garden, but the fact that they do, means they have too, and thats another debate!

Anyway, here's the photo's of the unfortunate Bullfinch I took yesterday, I suppose it at least didn't die of starvation!!

Ex - Bullfinch

Also, a photo of the GREAT TIT, these birds are normally far too quick for the Sprawk! :-)

Great Tit

2011-12-22T15:50:00.001Z

Looking west across the Tree Nursery

The weather for my patch walk this morning couldn't have been more different from yesterdays, with virtually wall to wall sunshine all day, making it feel warm and springlike :-)

The birds were a bit more active in the pleasant conditions, and the total of 44 species for the 4 hours I was out is about average for this time of year. The winter thrushes remain thin on the ground though, with just two FIELDFARE seen, and not a single Redwing. SISKINS were few as well, only two parties of three birds were seen, one in the College Grounds and one in the boundary separating Migrant Alley from the Greenhouse Complex. On the other hand, spring seems to be in the mind of some species already, both TREECREEPER and CHAFFINCH were heard to sing, along with the more expected SONGTHRUSH, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, MISTLETHRUSH, WREN, and GOLDCREST.

It's still a bit disappointing over on the lakes, only 11 MALLARD and a MOORHEN were seen, Whilst over at the lakes I at least did see my first CANADA GEESE (61) of the month, when two flew over, a HERON and a single GREYLAG GOOSE also flew over but didn't drop in to visit.

Some of the LAPWINGS have returned to the Pub Field, with 60+ seen , while both the KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were up hunting, after resting up in yesterdays gloomy weather. A pair of SKYLARK in the sheep pasture was nice treat, there haven't been any here for a while now.

Despite the sunshine, I didn't get any bird photo's, one of those days! However, I did depend some time in my garden this afternoon and took a few shots of the GREAT SPOTTED WODPECKERS that came in, no less than FOUR came in together! The female bullfinch also came in again, always a special bird to have in the garden, i'll put those photo's on tomorrows post. A bigger surprise was seeing a Comma Butterfly come in to my ivy, now that is early!

Great Spotted Woodpecker

2011-12-21T15:29:00.001Z

The first of my Xmas holiday walks was a real test of my determination! The weather was particularly gloomy, with steady rain accompanying heavy mist. It seemed the birds were more sensible than I, and the majority stayed hidden away from the elements, only 35 species were seen in the 3 and a half hour walk, with 12 of those only involving flyovers or single birds, it really was dire out there!!

There were still one or two highlights for the walk however, one of those was a BUZZARD that flew out from the Greenhouse Copse, also, good views were had of the PEREGRINE as it hunted over the Wet Woods and Tree Nursery, but there was no sign of either a Sparrowhawk or Kestrel today. A gathering of finch's on the edge of the wooded headland to the north of Migrant Alley comprised of 12 CHAFFINCH and 14 GREENFINCH, finch flocks are something of a rarity here, ( apart from at my garden feeders) they seemed to be feeding on fallen seeds of Field Maple.

That really was just about it for this morning, the LAPWING at the Pub Field were down to just 2 birds, and other than three FIELDFARE flying over, there was little to indicate that we're are in the depth of winter, with no other ''winter'' visitors about.

Back at it tomorrow though!!! :-)

2011-12-20T16:13:00.000Z

Hooray! This morning was my last at work until the 4 January :-) That means plenty of birding until then. As it was the last day, I got home a bit earlier, allowing me a spell in the garden with the camera, but it soon clouded over and the only photo I got was of this NUTHATCH.

Nuthatch

A visit to the lakes a bit later proved disastrous, as just about everyone is off work now, the warmer weather tempting out just about every local dog walker, there were dog walkers everywhere :-( Not a single bird was seen on any of the lakes, not even a Moorhen. I quickly moved on, and visited the Pub Field, at least it was quieter here, allowing me to see at least 100 LAPWING, with 25 BLACK HEADED GULLS. After scanning the Lapwing flock, and finding no Golden Plover ( as usual!), I moved off to Migrant Alley, via the Tree Nursery, the latter had 10 MEADOW PIPITS, a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS, a flyover SPARROWHAWK, plus the usual WRENS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, BLACKBIRDS, and MAGPIES.

At Migrant Alley, I saw a couple of SKYLARK drop down into the sheep pasture, whilst in the Alder trees bordering the Greenhouse Complex were a group of a dozen GOLDFINCH, with three SISKIN. Looking out across the paddocks there were around 150 WOODPIGEONS, 60 JACKDAWS, and at least 100 ROOKS, 25 STARLINGS lined up on a fence rail, and I heard a lone LESSER REDPOLL go over. I have befriended another Robin from the nearby tall hedge, it follows where I walk, and picks up any disturbed insects, at times it came so close my camera wouldn't focus on it :-)

Friendly Robin

I had a short skywatch from my seat whilst at Migrant Alley, but the sky remained empty most of the time, just pigeons and Corvids going over, but after seeing the Lapwing flock get spooked up over at the pub filed, I scanned the sky around them and found a PEREGRINE (60), the first sighting of one this month, hopefully it is one of the local birds from the tower, and all the work going on there hasn't forced them to move elsewhere yet.

With 11 days left of the month ( and the year!) I hope to be out on full patch walks for most of them, and so add some species to the months list, which is still only in fifth place out of the ten Decembers recorded so far. Surely I'll find a Canada Goose, a species found in all previous months this year!

2011-12-19T16:54:00.000Z

By the time I had finished work this afternoon, the weather had taken a turn for the worse - not that it was that good to begin with! Rain fell as I walked home, and a thick mist set in, however as I trudged home in the gloom I did see a flock of LAPWING fly up from the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, 28 in all, and the KESTREL was up hunting over the Greenhouse Complex, better still the first two GRAYLAG GEESE (59) of the month flew over, a welcome addition to the December list, taking it to joint fifth place with 2006 in the top ten rankings :-)

Once home, a cup of tea and a seat by the window to watch the garden feeders seemed the best way to spend the last 90 mins of remaining daylight. I watched 15 species come and go, by far the most numerous were the BLUE TITS, which peaked at 25 minimum, they flew around like flies on ripe fruit, dashing from the sunflower hearts, to the fat feeders and then the peanuts, Blue Tits everywhere!! Just 4 GREAT TITS were with them, and two COAL TITS.

The finch's were well represented, with peak counts of 7 CHAFFINCH, 7 GOLDFINCH and six GREENFINCH. On the floor, a gang of 22 STARLINGS fought over the fat pellets that I sprinkled on the lawn, and both ROBIN and DUNNOCK made dashes from cover to retrieve one or two for themselves, a trick that two BLACKBIRDS learnt to emulate :-)

11 COLLARED DOVES crammed on to the seed tray, at times excluding everything else, 2 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS flashed their spotted wings at each other, as they span round on the large peanut feeder, and a third fed on the sunflower hearts. It was a bit disappointing to see just one HOUSE SPARROW, this species is now outnumbered by the NUTHATCH'S ! Of course not a half hour goes past without a SPARROWHAWK attack, and I witnessed 3 failed attempts by a male, thwarted by the sheer number of ever alert eyes, and the prompt ''alarm call'' of the Blue and Great Tits :-)

Not a bad way to spend 90 mins!

2011-12-18T15:57:00.000Z

Sunrise over Migrant Alley - showing off the rather poor excuse of a hedgerow!

Once again it was a cold, clear and frosty start to the day, but cloud soon encroached as the morning wore on, giving a few light showers around noon.

Much of the visit went as I expected, although with slightly higher species total than yesterday, 42 in all were recorded in the 3 hour visit. Species seen today, but not yesterday were, PHEASANT seen in the Tree Nursery, LINNET, two flew over the Greenhouse Complex, probably the last of the fifty or so to leave the roost thats here, plus both LONG TAILED TIT and GREY HERON that were seen over at the lakes and Scrubby Woods area. Another species not seen yesterday, in fact a first for the month, was a flight of BARNACLE GEESE (58), a species not seen in any December before, bringing the 10 year combined December list to 89, I know I was expecting a Goose species at some point this month, but not 47 Barnacles!

As I said, not much else had changed since yesterdays visit, but it was good to see so many BULLFINCH'S about, with 14 being counted over the whole of my walk, also it was nice to find the SISKINS dropping in to feed on the various Alder tree's around the patch, instead of flying straight over. The KESTREL was the only raptor to show today and a flyover CORMORANT is always a bonus bird here.

I took some photo's in the ever dwindling light, but none were of any quality - I'll post them anyway, as a record for the day :-)

Barnacle Geese ! Ive had the odd feral bird turn up over the last couple of years, but this is the first encounter of multiple birds

47 Barnacle Geese, I wonder if they are feral birds ?

Siskin - talking of which, I had the first one of the season at my garden feeders today

CHAFFINCH

GREENFINCH

2011-12-17T15:55:00.000Z

Dawn - as seen from the College Grounds

Cold, clear, and frosty this morning, and the sun seemed to take an age to rise above the horizon, as it does at this time of year, the above photo was taken at 08:15, an hour into my walk!

The first bird was on the list at 07:20 as I left my house, a pair REDWING, they flew over calling, these were swiftly followed by a calling GOLDCREST as I walked along Ashes Lane. The likes of BLACKBIRD, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, CARRION CROW and SONGTHRUSH all made themselves heard, but unseen, in the pre-dawn light. Making my way through the Greenhouse Complex, I heard a MISTLE THRUSH singing in the distance, and the call of the first WREN of the day came from nearby.

I followed the drainage ditch along the NW boundary of Migrant Alley, in the hope of flushing up a Snipe, but no luck today, so made my way to the College Grounds, where a few more regular patch birds, like GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, BULLFINCH, LONG TAILED TIT, HOUSE SPARROW, and COLLARED DOVE were found for the days list.

The Pub Field was my next destination, and in the growing light I could see at least 100 LAPWING out there, along with 9 BLACK HEADED GULLS, a CORMORANT flew over as I walked the hedgeline towards the Tree Nursery, and here 11 MEADOW PIPITS had returned to the cover of the shrubs.

The second part of the walk took me through the Small Holding, Wet Woods and round to the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, the Small Holding added KESTREL and GREEN WOODPECKER to the mornings list, while in the Wet Woods the likes of JAY, MOORHEN, and the mornings first GREAT TIT were added. At the lakes it was a familiar story, just 6 MALLARDS on the main lake, and two on the small lake, and two on the ornamental lake. A KINGFISHER flashed by as I returned past the main lake, and walking over to the Scrubby Woods a NUTHATCH called, and then was seen to perch at the very top of a conifer - too high for a photo! In the Scrubby Woods it was cold, and still quite dark, as the sun still hadn't risen high enough to light the place, as a consequence little was noted, but above me the SPARROWHAWK circled over, and above that a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL flew north.

I finished the walk by going back over the Tree Nursery, and Greenhouse Grounds, but only added PIED WAGTAIL and YELLOWHAMMER to the mornings tally, which ended on a reasonable, but below average total of 40 species. Nothing added to the months list - where have all the geese gone I wonder ?

Female Blackbird feeding on Haws

A seasons favourite - Robin

News from the garden this afternoon was of this female Bullfinch, no sign of the males today though.

Bullfinch

2011-12-16T16:49:00.002Z

Half past three - and sunset already :-(

This afternoon I was back out making a patch visit for the first time since Tuesday. There was just enough time to visit the lakes, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, then finishing with the Tree Nursery and Pub Field.

In the Small Holding a few CHAFFINCH had gathered, and a GREEN WOODPECKER was on the lawn of a nearby garden, BLUE and GREAT TITS flitted about in the old orchard, then overhead, 11 FIELDFARE flew over looking for a place to settle and feed, nowhere for them here though.

With the recent rain we've been getting here, the Wet Woods have a few small patches of water appearing now, these were being taken advantage of by three MOORHENS ( probably more in there though!) other than that all was quiet.

When I arrived at the lakes, the main lake had a CORMORANT fishing on it, and a KINGFISHER was perched up in the thick overhanging branches, but only two pairs of MALLARDS were seen, tucked away under the cover of the trees. On the small lake another 3 pairs of Mallard were seen plus a lone Moorhen.

In the adjacent Scrubby Woods, a few birds were about, these being REDWING, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, and a loose feeding flock comprising of LONG TAILED TITS, Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinch, and a couple of GREENFINCH, on the way out a pair of GOLDCREST were also seen.

A check of the Pub Field revealed only 60 LAPWING today, but there could have been more earlier, as they get flushed by dog walkers quite often, and not all of them return. 23 BLACK HEADED GULLS fed with the Lapwing, the Golden plover however, are still avoiding the months list :-)

Not much at all was in the Tree Nursery, the Meadow Pipits have moved on, and just a JAY, two MAGPIES and a hunting KESTREL were recorded here.

I'm looking forward to getting out early for tomorrows full patch walk, but cant really see anything new appearing for the months list, although I've not seen any Geese this month, so there is a bit of hope there maybe!

2011-12-15T17:48:00.000Z

With the kiddies xmas school party taking place this dinner time, I was, as expected late getting home ( No Greenie, I wasn't dressed as father Christmas!!) making a patch visit a bit pointless in the hour of light I had left. So, as I said yesterday, i'll put up a few of the stats thrown up by this year so far. :-)

This year my patch has been visited by 108 species thus far, this is the third highest total for the ten years of recording, and the fourth year to have passed 100 species, I consider I have done well when I reach 100 species on my patch, as the average annual species total is 99.6.

Of the 108 species this year, just 42 of them successfully bred, another 3 species were found to have probably bred successfully, with evidence found, but no fledged young seen, they were PHEASANT, SWIFT, and TREECREEPER, a further 3 species probably bred but no evidence at all was found to confirm this, they were LITTLE OWL, CUCKOO and STOCK DOVE. One species unsuccessfully made a breeding attempt, that was the COOT, which layed eggs, but deserted the nest for some reason, these were the first Coot to have nested on my patch. In all 49 species, not that bad really.

Looking back at my end of month totals, in only two months did I set a record species count, those being April and May, with the total for January equalling that months record total. Next year will prove to be very difficult to set a record total for any month, and I've probable reached a plateau there ! Its interesting to compare my first five years average monthly totals, with the second five years, as this shows the value of increasing the visits to my patch. From 2002 to 2006 I was finding 59.5 species on average every month, this is when I didn't do so many afternoon patch visits, and was working full time. Then from 2007 to 2011 the average species total found per month jumps to 67.7, so more visits does equal more species found!!

Back to this year though, and the patch list was incremented by 3 species, I left it late to add anything this year, but they were all brilliant species to find, first a GRASSHOPPER Warbler turned up at Migrant Alley one September morning, then on the same day in October, ( 26th) I recorded 2 CROSSBILL flyover the Greenhouse Complex, then just half hour later a GREAT SKUA was seen going over Migrant Alley - bird of the year for me!

I always try, and have so far succeeded, to do 120 full patch walks a year - give or take 2 , and record the percentage of walks that every species has been seen on. I can see that for species like YELLOWHAMMER, the news isn't good, with 86% of full patch walks in 2002 having this species recorded, but this year just 36% of full patch walks produced a Yellowhammer. Overall, 15 species were recorded on every visit, and 17 were recored just once.

I could pick out stats all day but will leave it here for now :-) and brighten the page with some more common garden bird stuff I photographed this afternoon, in fading light.

BLUE TIT

Great Tit

CHAFFINCH ( Female) the bird here was lit by the sun reflecting off my window, it was in fact perched in an otherwise shady corner, interesting light!

2011-12-14T17:31:00.001Z

I was late back from work today, so didn't get out on my patch this afternoon, and tomorrow i'm staying late to help out with the Xmas party, so again it's unlikely i'll be able to do a patch visit tomorrow, given that the dusk arrives so early now.

However, when I did get get home today, I saw the lovely male BULLFINCH on the sunflower heart feeder, and despite the poor light, managed some photo's of it, a shot I wouldn't have got out on my patch!

With no visit to my patch today, I had time to go through this years bird stats, i'll post these tomorrow, till then, here's the Bullfinch, with a JACKDAW tagging along too :-)

Bullfinch

Jackdaw

2011-12-13T17:15:00.001Z

Heavy overnight rain ceased before dawn today, and the strong winds abated somewhat, leaving a gusty and partially cloudy afternoon for my patch visit. The stormy weather seems to have blown what few birds were being seen, elsewhere! Remarkably few passerines were seen, making it eerily quiet through the Small Holding and Wet Woods, just a JAY and a GREEN WOODPECKER broke the quietness.

On reaching the lakes, the usual MALLARD were seen, some of which had ventured out from the overhanging branches, the first time in a while I've seen them at ease, I counted twelve on the main lake and 4 on the small lake, but once again the ornamental lake was empty.. A GREY HERON dropped in whilst I was scanning the main lake for a Kingfisher, and up above a SPARROWHAWK circled over. The Scrubby Woods didn't hold much at all, no feeding flock was seen today and it was down to a few REDWING, BLACKBIRDS and SONGTHRUSHES to fly up in front of me, making out to be a Woodcock :-) I left a bit disappointed at the lack of birdlife, and tried my luck over at the Tree Nursery and Pub field, the former had 10 MEADOW PIPITS, and a hunting KESTREL, but little else, although the tail end of a fox was seen disappearing into the shrubs. The Pub Field had far fewer LAPWING today, just 15 were counted, they had probably been flushed earlier in the day, 10 BLACK HEADED GULLS criss-crossed the field, and as I left for home a CORMORANT flew over towards the lake area. Not a very exciting visit, to say the least!

2011-12-12T16:12:00.000Z

When I leave for work on these dark winter mornings at 07:00hrs, I always stop at the back door and listed for Owls, well today was one of the few times I got lucky, a TAWNY OWL (57) was hooting from the direction of the Wet Woods. That keeps the December list ticking over, and puts this month at joint 6th spot with December 2004 and 2005.

After work, the usual trip to the lakes was had, but despite some lovely winter sunshine (for an hour!) very few small passerines were noted, a few CHAFFINCH and GREAT TIT were in the Small Holding and a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER in the Wet Woods, which was virtually ''drumming'' the earliest one I've ever heard drumming here. On the lakes just a few MALLARD were hiding under the tree overhang, the area had obviously been disturbed, as is often the case by the time I get to them for the afternoon visits. The adjacent Scrubby Woods had a small gathering of LONG TAILED TITS, with a few BLUE and Great Tits, plus TREECREEPER, and GOLDCREST, also here, were a few REDWINGS, BULLFINCH, and an assortment of the common stuff, WRENS, ROBINS, DUNNOCKS, BLACKBIRDS etc.

I once again went over to the Pub Field to see if the LAPWING were there, and I wasn't disappointed, I counted 362, but there were a few more I must have missed, hidden in the dips of the field, overall more than 400 birds I suspect. 15 BLACK HEADED GULLS fed with them, but unfortunately, no Golden Plover :-(

There was just time to have a quick wander through the Tree Nursery, where 8 MEADOW PIPITS were seen, two GREEN WOODPECKERS and the first 10 LINNETS of the evening dropped down to their pre-roost tree. I could see the big black clouds rolling in from the west, heralding a storm that's due to hit later this evening and over night, hopefully it wont be too bad, and will have blown itself out by tomorrow!

Just the one chance of a photo this afternoon, an obliging Blue Tit :-)

Blue Tit

2011-12-11T16:12:00.001Z

This morning the weather had returned to default mode, that is, wet, dull, and misty ! The rain was light but steady, giving me a good wetting as I walked over to the Lakes for an early look around, too early in fact, as it was still dark as I entered the Wet Woods! The only birds seen or heard before I got to the lakes were CARRION CROW, WREN, COLLARED DOVE, GOLDCREST, WOODPIGEON, SONGTHRUSH, MAGPIE, BLACKBIRD and GREEN WOODPECKER, how different to a late April day when three times that would be recorded!

The early visit to the 3 lakes didn't pay dividends though, just 4 MALLARDS on the main lake and two on the small lake were seen, with once again the ornamental lake completely empty, a GREY HERON did drop in as I sheltered in one of the outbuildings, and I also watched a few BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS drift over. Four REDWINGS called as they flew out from the Scrubby Woods, where BULLFINCH, NUTHATCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, SISKIN and JAY were added to my meagre list. The rain came on heavier, so I decided to cut short the full patch walk, and made my way back home through the Tree Nursery, all was very still here, very depressing, but then, just before I slit my wrists, the months first COMMON GULL (55) flew over, that cheered me up a bit :-) in fact it was the first Common Gull since October.

Just after noon, the rain stopped and the sky turned less grey, so i went out again, I wanted to check the Pub Field for LAPWINGS, and found around 200 out there, but much scanning didn't find a Golden Plover amongst them, a KESTREL came over and spooked the flock, sending most to a field to the south of my patch, leaving 30-40 to settle back down again. Whilst out I made a quick circuit of the fields at Migrant Alley, and saw a BUZZARD fly low over, always nice to see them :-) I added MEADOW PIPIT, PHEASANT, FIELDFARE and ROOK to the days findings, but then, scanning the nearby Greenhouse Copse I saw not one, but two LITTLE OWLS (56) perched up in an old ash tree, ending the day on a more creditable but less than average 39 species. The Little Owls take the December list to 56 now, which is the joint lowest December total, the same tally as 2002 and 2003. No chance of any photo's today!!

2011-12-10T15:43:00.001Z

A view through the Wet Woods

A moderate frost greeted me this morning, and the sunshine that accompanied it lasted throughout the 3 and half hour full patch walk. A slightly below average 41 species was recorded for the morning, but it included some good patch species, the best being a flight of 13 MANDARIN DUCK (54) that flew over the Small Holding early in the visit, they may well have been flushed from the lakes. Other early birds seen there were a KESTREL, and two GREEN WOODPECKERS, while in the distance a MISTLETHRUSH was singing loud and clear.

On the Lakes today, ice was covering parts of them, but 8 MALLARD and a GREY HERON were on the open part of the main lake, and 10 Mallards and three MOORHEN were on the small lake, nothing was on the ornamental lake. A look around the adjacent Scrubby Woods was an average affair, with NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, SISKIN, GOLDCREST, and a couple of flyover FIELDFARE, the only winter thrushes seen today.

Making my way over to the Tree Nursery and Pub Field, a CORMORANT flew over, and a SPARROWHAWK was watched as it flew over the Greenhouse Complex. Just 2 MEADOW PIPIT were of any note in the Tree Nursery, and the first LAPWINGS were arriving on the Pub Field, 26 dropped in to join the 18 BLACK HEADED GULLS already there.

My next stop was at Migrant Alley, here two SKYLARKS were out on the sheep pasture, along with the usual crowd of ROOKS and JACKDAWS, plus a few more Black headed Gulls. Flyovers by HERRING GULL, YELLOWHAMMER and PIED WAGTAIL were also noted here.

The College Grounds were visited next, and the usual haul of regular species were seen here, a flock of LONG TAILED TITS gave me my only bird photo's of the visit, and the likes of DUNNOCK, GREENFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, and HOUSE SPARROW were found for the daylist.

Long Tailed Tit

I spent some time watching and photographing the birds at my garden feeders this afternoon, where I was amused to see two male Sparrowhawks almost collide as they sped through the garden from opposite ends!

Greenfinch

Great Spotted Woodpecker

COLLARED DOVE

GREAT TIT

2011-12-09T15:45:00.001Z

I was glad to get out on my patch this afternoon, the cold virus I had been suffering from earlier in the week had almost cleared, and the weather had improved markedly, however, the clear skies lasted only until I set foot out of the door, then the cloud started to roll in !!

Walking through the Small holding, I saw a KESTREL up hunting over the old orchard there, and a few finch's were about, mainly CHAFFINCH, but it was good to see two GREENFINCH'S as well. The Wet Woods still isn't very wet at all, and only the sound of first a MAGPIE, and then a JAY, echoed through the otherwise quiet wood. As I walked the path between the two large gardens to get to the Lake, and as expected the only things on any of the 3 water bodies were 4 MALLARD, which hid under the overhanging tree branches, will I ever record any visiting ducks here again with that tosser groundsman about!? A little later a CORMORANT circled round, looking to drop down, but by then the groundsman had a chainsaw going, so it flew off again.

I made my way round the adjacent Scrubby Woods, and found a few birds, about a dozen REDWINGS were feeding on the last of the damsons, with at least one SONTHRUSH and a couple of BLACKBIRDS. A pair of TREECREEPERS gave me the run around, they were scampering through an Elder tree, but never kept still enough for the chance of a photo! Both a GOLDCREST and a COAL TIT were heard and then located amongst a dense thicket of Bramble, as I watched them, two LESSER REDPOLL flew over also calling.

The last of the light was made use of by a walk over to the Pub Field to see if the Lapwing were still there, and were they! At least 450 were feeding out on the seedling grass, along with the ever present BLACK HEADED GULLS, I counted as many as I could from the Tree Nursery, looking through the hedgerow so as not to flush them, but that job was done for me by a female SPARROWHAWK, and trying to count the mass of LAPWING that flew up and split into two groups was not easy! I'd hoped for a Golden Plover to be out there with them, but none was seen. So I made my way home, dusk already! Finding five MEADOW PIPITS in the Tree Nursery and the vanguard of the roosting LINNET flock dropping in to their pre roost tree was the last action of the afternoon.

The only photo I took was a distant shot of part of the Lapwing flock as they split to avoid the Sprawk

Reckon there was at least 200-250 in this part of the flock

2011-12-08T17:22:00.001Z

Due to high winds and driving rain this afternoon, no patch visit was made. Although, whilst walking home from work in the teeth of the gale, I stopped off at the Pub Field to count the LAPWINGS, I got to 294, but considering the conditions I probably missed a few !!

2011-12-07T16:06:00.001Z

Still relatively little to be seen here birdwise, I did my usual winter walk this afternoon, over to the lakes via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, then onto the Pub Field and Tree Nursery. A KINGFISHER was seen on the far side of the main lake, sitting amongst the cover of the overhanging trees, I only saw it as I scanned the bank to count the MOORHENS, of which just 3 were seen. Four pairs of MALLARD were also on the main lake, with 3 pairs on the small lake, but not a thing was on the Ornamental lake. A few BULLFINCH, REDWING, SONGTHRUSH and BLACKBIRDS were in the Scrubby Woods, and 8 FIELDFARE flew over whilst I was in there, a COAL TIT called from an Oak tree but I couldn't see it.

The Pub Field provided the only other piece of interest this afternoon, when a huge ( for my patch) flock of LAPWING were seen on it, I counted over 300, but I was scanning through the hedgerow, so as not to put them to flight, therefore not all the field was viewable and some birds were probably missed. With them were 18 BLACK HEADED GULLS, but no sign of a Common Gull for the month.

With only 24 days left until the end of the year, I don't think the record year list of 113 species, set last year, is in any danger of falling, and the months list is already stalling too, however, Ive got lots of holiday towards the end of the month, and who knows with a change in the weather and more early morning visits, that could all change :-)

2011-12-06T16:29:00.001Z

Greenfinch

No patch visit was made today, i've come down with a cold virus, and didn't feel too good, so I stayed at home. At least I got to watch the garden feeders, and scan the sky from the house for a lot of the day. I even got some photo's early on when the sun was out :-)

One of the first species of the 19 to visit the garden was the SPARROWHAWK, but it soon realised there was nothing about for breakfast, and went off elsewhere, thankfully it wasn't seen again for the remainder of the day.

Sparrowhawk

Gradually, the BLUE and GREAT TITS came in, up to 20 Blue Tits at one time whizzed to and fro, but just 5 Great Tits were seen at any one time. Finch's were a bit down on what I would expect at this time of year, with peak counts of 6 CHAFFINCH, 5 GOLDFINCH and also 5 GREENFINCH.

Greenfinch, Great Tit, Goldfinch and Blue Tit ( going anticlockwise from top left)

The COLLARED DOVES arrived in groups, the largest group was of 7 birds, the same could be said of the STARLINGS, with small groups visiting the fat blocks throughout the day, 5 was the most seen at one time. Singles of DUNNOCK and WREN scurried about under the shrubs, where a couple of BLACKBIRDS were also feeding, and 2 ROBINS dashed to and fro, from fat feeders to the sunflower hearts. Just two HOUSE SPARROWS visited, a sign of the times, as numbers continue to fall in my garden.

Two NUTHATCH, two COAL TITS, a JACKDAW, a WOODPIGEON and 3 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS came in, the latter having a peanut feeder each to themselves, but the birds of the day for me, were the two male BULLFINCH that came to the Sunflower hearts - beautiful birds! These represented the 22nd species to visit the feeders this month :-)

One of the Bullfinch's, pity I had to take the shot through the double glazing!

In all, not a bad selection of garden birds, but the day was made even better when I spotted a COMMON BUZZARD (53) over the Wet Woods, one more for the months list!

Below are a few other photos I took, mainly of the Coal Tits :-)

Coal Tit

Great Tit

2011-12-05T17:01:00.001Z

WOODPIGEON

I had some pleasant company for this afternoons patch visit, I'd had a request from a reader of this blog to see part of my patch, and so I showed him round a few places. Thanks for your company Grant, its always nice to chat to someone about photography and birds, especially when they are more knowledgeable than I !

We set off through the Small Holding, finding a KESTREL out hunting on the edge of the Wet Woods, and a GREEN WOODPECKER feeding on some windfall apples, a few CHAFFINCH had gathered in the old orchard and the second of four Green Woodpeckers seen this afternoon was on a large lawn of a nearby garden. Passing through the Wet Woods ( which are still dry, despite the recent rain!) all was rather quiet, we filled the gap chatting about birds and photography, until reaching the three water bodies, here we were not blessed with much to see, as it the case most of the time, just a few MALLARD and the odd MOORHEN. The feeders of a nearby house had a few visitors, that included a nice NUTHATCH, another was heard calling from the Scrubby Woods,but there was little else to keep us here.

We made our way back out through the Wet Woods and across to the Pub Field, an adjacent garden had a GOLDCREST calling from an apple tree, whilst at the Pub Field at least 80 LAPWING were feeding, along with 20 or so BLACK HEADED GULLS, we scanned them to try and find a Common gull to add to the months list, but none were found.

All was quite in the Tree Nursery, but two LESSER REDPOLLS flew over calling. We swiftly moved on to the Greenhouse Complex, seeing the two other Green Woodpeckers fly up, but apart from the usual WRENS and DUNNOCKS calling, it was all rather still and quite here as well, a stop off at my Sky watching seat at Migrant Alley for a chat and a look at the skyscape, only gave us a SPARROWHAWK going over, plus a few more Black Headed Gulls over on the sheep pasture. I 'd hoped to see a Canada or Greylag Goose fly over, to add to the December list, but none were seen today.

Despite not seeing much in particular, and adding nothing to the months list, it was an enjoyable walk this afternoon, and nice to have some company, thank you Grant! Next time we'll have to chat less and look a bit harder for those birds ;-)

As well as the Woodpigeon at the top of the post I took the following garden bird photo's before going out this afternoon, just to brighten the page up!

Chaffinch

BLUE TIT

2011-12-04T15:54:00.001Z

Last nights dusk

A difficult morning today, in overcast and dull conditions birding was not easy, in fact the visit was more beneficial as a bit of exercise than anything else :-) In the 4 hour visit, just 38 species were found, well down on what I would expect, species such as Great Spotted Woodpecker, Skylark, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Coal Tit, plus the lack of any Raptor species, all which should have been easily found, were not!

There were a couple of scarcer species found though, a KINGFISHER (52) on the main lake joined the December list, and the RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE was found on the Pub Field today, it flew up as I passed and headed to the Greenhouse Complex Grounds.

Not much is moving to or from my patch at the moment, two flocks of FIELDFARE, one of 24 and one of 18, a flock ( if you can call it that) of 4 REDWING, plus singles of LESSER REDPOLL and YELOWHAMMER were just about the only clue that it is actually now winter.

At least my garden feeders have become a little busier, this afternoon I sat and watched them for a couple of hours, and didn't have the Sparrowhawk in at all ( hence busy feeders!) Some of the missing species arrived to feed, including two GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, 5 GREENFINCH and 6 GOLDFINCH. It was good to see a WREN amongst the shrubs, and a GOLDCREST in the Elder, two NUTHATCH came in together and both BLUE and GREAT TIT have increased in numbers, with 15 and 6 respectively, even two HOUSE SPARROWS turned up, the first for a fortnight! I did try to get some photo's, but the light was shocking, the only one I didn't 'bin' was of this ROBIN.

Looking at the weather it seems a brief cold spell is coming into the NW of England, maybe that will force a few species down here, a Snipe or Woodcock would be nice :-)

Robin

2011-12-03T15:14:00.001Z

The first full patch walk of December began with rain, making it a rather late start, plus it didn't get light till 07:30hrs. Around 09:45hrs that rain cleared and some sunny spells developed, making it a rather warm December day, but just look what it was like on this date last year!!

Ashes Lane on the Morning of Dec. 3rd last year

I was out for a little over 3 hours, recording 43 species in that time, which is just about average for a December day. The first species that was added to the months list today was the HOUSE SPARROW (44) half a dozen were in the hedgerow along Ashes Lane. Nothing much out of the ordinary was seen as I walked over to the lakes, through the Small Holding and Wet Woods, just ones and two's of BLUE and GREAT TITS, CHAFFINCH, BLACKBIRDS, COLLARD DOVES and ROBINS, plus all the Corvid, MAGPIE, JACKDAW, CARRION CROW and JAY.

A LESSER REDPOLL was sat at the very top of a fir tree, calling and singing, as I entered the Lake area, where song was also heard from WREN, DUNNOCK, Robin, MISTLETHRUSH, TREECREEPER and SONGTHRUSH. On the 3 water bodies, nothing more exciting than the MALLARD and MOORHEN were seen, as is the case 90% of the time, but as I watched and waited, a CORMORANT circled over, but didn't come in, also noted going over was the second new species for the month - FIELDFARE (45) five of which called, and dropped down into the Scrubby Woods, my walk round here provided me with the familiar species of BULLFINCH, the first GREENFINCH (46) of the month, PHEASANT, LONG TAILED TIT and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.

Making my way over to the Tree Nursery, Pub Field, and Migrant Alley, all was pretty quiet really, numbers of birds being very small, but I added a flyover YELLOWHAMMER (47) and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL (48) to the December tally, as well as SKYLARK (49), two flew up from the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley. The fiftieth monthly species was a good bird to get here, and the first to be recorded in any December - yes, it was another sighting of the RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE (50) as it flew into the Greenhouse Complex Grounds :-)

It was now a bit late for walking the College Grounds, too many people were about by now, but I did it anyway, finding GOLDCREST, MEADOW PIPIT, GOLDFINCH, PIED WAGTAIL and the only Raptor today KESTREL, also one more for the months list when a STOCK DOVE (51) flew over, the months list moves on to 51, still 5 behind the lowest total achieved for the ten years, hopefully, that will be passed in tomorrows visit!

Despite some good sunny spells I didn't get any photographic chances, so here's another snowy scene from this day last year - this was from my garden.

10 inches of snow on the garden this time last year!

2011-12-02T16:12:00.001Z

A bright moon in the blue sky

Despite it being almost dark as I walked into work this morning, I still managed to pick out a GREY WAGTAIL (31) as I crossed the stream that runs through the College grounds, a good species for December, although it appears in 9 of the now ten Decembers that I've been watching my patch, 2004 was the year it didn't get recorded.

I didn't record anything new for the month on the way home from work, but as I sat at home eating my rushed sandwich, I noticed a COAL TIT (32) at the feeders, one of the few birds that are to be seen here now, such is the effect of the Sparrowhwk attacks, indeed, as I left for my afternoon walk, the sprawk came through the garden, scattering the few BLUE and GREAT TITS that were there, and making this GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER below, ''freeze'' to the tree trunk - which allowed me a photograph, I took my shots and left it, still pretending to be invisible :-)

''I'm not here'' :-)

Making my way over to the Lakes, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, few birds were to be found, but it was good to find three LESSER REDPOLL (33) high in the tree tops in the Small Holding, while in the Wet woods a TREECREEPER (34) gave away it's presence with its piercing high pitched call.

At the Lakes today, all I could find were 26 MALLARD and just 3 MOORHEN on the water, with the adjacent Scrubby Woods supplying me with a MISTLE THRUSH (35) for the December list. I didn't stay here too long, as I wanted to cover the Tree Nursery and Pub Field before it got too dark, and as I walked out into the open fields to get there, I saw a GREY HERON (36) slowly flap its way over. Scouring the Tree Nursery, I flushed up my first PHEASANT (37) of the month, and at last saw the months first DUNNOCK (38) :-) . The adjacent Pub Field was given a good looking over through the boundary hedgerow, and I was pleased to see 18 LAPWING (39) feeding out there, along with 23 BLACK HEADED GULLS, and a PIED WAGTAIL (40) bringing up forty species for the month.

I just had enough time to pay a quick visit to the Greenhouse Complex Grounds and the tall hedge that divides it from Migrant Alley, where in the growing gloom of dusk I saw at least five SISKIN (41) with 3 GOLDFINCH feeding in an alder, as I headed home a tight group of 6 HERRING GULLS (42) went over, and in the hedge at Ashes Lane a party of at least 14 LONG TAILED TITS (43) were seen, I tried for some photo's of them but it was so dark that even with the camera set at 1000 ISO, a shutter speed of just 30 was obtained, below is about the best I could do with that!!

Not too bad an afternoon, with the December list now on 43, just 30 behind the best Decembers tally :-(

Long Tailed Tit

2011-12-01T16:44:00.001Z

December is here! The final month of the year, and a new months list begins, I wonder what excitement and frustration it will bring ? One thing is for sure, trying to set a new December record will be a very difficult affair, the huge tally of 73 (set back in 2008) is unlikely to be bettered, but I will try!!

The new list got off to a start of sorts, the walk into work, in semi darkness, saw only the very early rising birds about, they included just 8 species. The first was a SONGTHRUSH, cheering the dark morning with its repetitive song phrases, a ROBIN sang moments later, a softer sound, but just as welcome on a dark morning, a BLACKBIRD gave an alarm call, and I could just make out the shadows of two CARRION CROWS flying low over. As I crossed Migrant Alley an unseen REDWING called as it went over, and the ROOKS were gathering on the power lines. WREN, and WOODPIGEON were the only species recorded as I walked through the College grounds.

Nothing was recorded on the way home, as it was raining hard and I got a lift home! Once home I quickly made a sandwich, and watched the garden feeders, but I had barely warmed the seat when a SPARROWHAWK sped through, nothing but BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and COLLARED DOVE were seen in the remaining time it took to finish my sandwich!

I made my way to the lakes and Scrubby Woods area, via the Tree Nursery next, in light rain and dismal light I manged to add just GREEN WOODPECKER and MEADOW PIPIT from the Tree Nursery. I looked through the boundary hedge across to the Pub Filed hoping that the Lapwing and Gulls were about still, but no, the field was empty, I just hope they come back later in the month, Lapwing is a good December tick here :-)

Approaching the Lakes, all was quiet, the chainsaw gang wasn't in the large garden today, lets hope they've finished, there was a couple of JACKDAWS on the lawn though, and a MAGPIE on the roof of the large house. Between the 3 water bodies, just the normal MALLARDS and MOORHENS were seen, while a short walk around the Scrubby Woods, in heavier rain, only produced JAY, BULLFINCH, GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, and CHAFFINCH, not much of a haul! As I was leaving the area, I saw a CORMORANT flyover and circle the lakes, dropping down finally onto the main lake.

I made my way over to Migrant Alley and the Tall hedge boundary, and added KESTREL, BLACK HEADED GULL, GOLDFINCH, and STARLING to the months tally, but the rain started to come on real heavy by 15:00hrs, and the visit was cut a bit short, I did add LINNET as I walked along Ashes lane though, the last and 30th species of the day, quite a poor start really, but that leaves plenty of common stuff for tomorrow, when apparently the weather will cheer up a bit - that remains to be seen though!

2011-11-30T15:57:00.001Z

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday, there was a fault on the telephone line and I lost my broadband, things are just not going my my this month!! I didn't get out yesterday afternoon as I was checking my home wiring, thinking the problem was in my home, but eventually contacted BT through a mind boggling automated phone system and got the fault reported, fair play to them though, in less than 24 hours they had the line repaired. :-)

Back to today, and I was off work, not feeling to good, and most of my birding was done from the house, but a short visit over to the Tree Nursery, Pub Field and Migrant Alley was made around 11:00hrs. I didn't do the lakes as I could hear the chainsaws still chopping away in the garden next to them. I was only out for 90 mins, in some warm and sunny conditions, which makes for poor birding at this time of year, I cant remember a November with so few birds on my patch! I did see 30+ LAPWING and 20+ BLACK HEADED GULLS on the Pub Field, a couple of MEADOW PIPITS in the Tree Nursery, and at Migrant Alley a YELLOWHAMMER was good to see, along with a GREY WAGTAIL that flew from the nearby Greenhouse Complex, flyovers from KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were noted. However, my half hour skywatch didn't give me a fly over species that was new for the month, Mute Swan or Little Egret would have done ;-)

So the month ends on 66 species, the joint second best tally for November, which is not too shabby considering the unseasonable weather, and some of the disturbance I have had here. The combined ten year November list now stands at 85, it was incremented by the Crossbill and Red Legged Partridge, which suggests that this month list could have been higher, but the average November total for the last 5 years is 64, so I cant be too disappointed :-)

The afternoon garden watch was a bit better than of late, I didn't see any Sprawk attacks whilst I watched, which encouraged 17 species to come to the feeders, although there is a huge drop in numbers birds visiting, probably due to the mild weather, especially finch's, only a peak count of 4 GOLDFINCH, 2 GREENFINCH, and 4 CHAFFINCH were made, the visitors which did turn up in any numbers were the BLUE TITS, at least 20 were zipping in and out, with 3-4 GREAT TITS and a single COAL TIT.. Singles of JACKDAW, MAGPIE, BLACKBIRD, DUNNOCK, WREN, and GOLDCREST, were also seen, along with 2 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, 2 NUTHATCH and 2 ROBINS. COLLARED DOVES and STARLINGS were the other two species to visit, both with a peak of 7 coming in.

Here's some of todays photo's :-)

Yellowhammer at Migrant Alley

Yellowhammer again

One of the ever present Blue Tits from my garden

Garden Great Tit

2011-11-28T16:12:00.001Z

Clear skies produced an overnight frost, but the cloud soon rolled in to leave a chilly, overcast day. I was still looking forward to getting out this afternoon after work though, however, as I neared home, I could hear the sound of chainsaws coming from the Lake area, never a good thing!

I made the visit to the lakes anyway, passing through the Small Holding, only to find that it was being ''tidied up'' and a bonfire raging away. The Wet Woods were filled with drifting smoke, and the noise of chainsaws was much louder. I arrived at the Lakes to find the nearby large house, was having its Oak trees ''Lollipoped'' this is the third winter running that this has been going on :-( . Needless to say, with the noise of the chainsaws, and the even noisier chipping machine that was being fed the limbs of the Oaks, nothing at all was seen on any of the lakes, so i hastily made my way to the Tree Nursery and Pub Field.

Just a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS and a MEADOW PIPIT were in the nursery, but the Pub Field had 45 BLACK HEADED GULLS and the best part of the 150 odd LAPWING flock that were here yesterday. A look around the Greenhouse Complex, and its hedgerow that borders Migrant Alley, only produced the likes of WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, PIED WAGTAIL, and BLACKBIRD, plus five GOLDFINCH and a lone SISKIN that were feeding in an Alder tree, while overhead the only notable was 3 FIELDFARE. Thats just about all there was time for this afternoon, 15:30 and dusk was rolling in!

In all a very frustrating visit, the chainsaw gang could be around for days, making the likelyhood of finding anything new for the month, ( the lakes are the most likely source of something different) very long odds :-( Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow, you never know, something might turn up elsewhere :-)

2011-11-27T15:53:00.001Z

Red Fox

The last full patch walk of November took place this morning in overcast and windy conditions, with some squally showers thrown in, but by 10:00hrs the clouds parted and it became sunny and mild.

Early on in the walk, in near darkness the above Fox was seen hunting in the Small Holding, I had not too much hope of a decent photo, but by ratcheting up the ISO to 3200 on the camera I was surprised at just how bright the image is, shame I chopped a bit of its tail off!

As I was photographing the fox, a flock of 60+ FIELDFARE dropped in to the tallest trees around the Small Holding, stopping briefly before moving on again. I also moved on, to the Lake area, where 24 MALLARD and 5 MOORHEN were the only residents today, whilst in the Scrubby Woods the strong wind made it difficult to hear much, except a singing MISTLE THRUSH, and a singing SONGTHRUSH, a BULLFINCH was glimpsed, and a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER called from the top of a fir tree, but that was about it for the area, a very poor visit indeed, with so few birds about.

The second half of my walk over to the College Grounds, via the Tree Nursery, Pub Field, and Migrant Alley was a pretty grim affair birdwise, despite the brightening conditions, just 10 more species were added to the daylist, making for one of the poorest November tallies ever, just 35 species! The best of those were the BUZZARD that flew low over, plus the 6 CORMORANT that also flew over, and apart from a couple of SISKIN seen in the College Grounds, nothing more noteworthy was seen. There were many regular and common species that weren't seen, the most alarming was the House Sparrow, today was the first full patch walk in the whole of the ten years of recording that not one was seen, that's just under 1,200 full patch walks!

I was feeling pretty despondent with the mornings efforts, and so had another visit this afternoon, little had changed, but I was very pleased to see a flock of LAPWING wheeling over the Pub Field, I estimated around 150 birds in all, I made my way over and found the Lapwings were on the seedling grass, feeding, so I made a count and got 141, but probably missed one or two in the dips of the field :-)

I made my way back through the Tree Nursery, then on through the Greenhouse Grounds, where the day took a big turn for the better when I flushed up my first RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE (108, 66) of the year ! In fact it was the first one since February 2009, not the most exciting of species, but it made my day :-) On the way back home I watched the LINNETS coming into roost, but these only took the day list to 38, still at least 7 species down from an average November walk.

The year list now moves on to 108, which is the 3rd best year out of the ten so far, whilst the months list moves onto 66 which is now the joint second best November with 2008, I wonder if I can find just two more species in the three short afternoon visit left this month, that would equal the record November tally :-)

Photo's were hard to come by today, but it was indicative of the topsy turvey weather this year, when this Bumble Bee was seen on the last remaining flower on my Buddleia this afternoon, I also had a Red Admiral Butterfly go through a little later.

Bee On Buddleia

Last of all, a poor record shot of the Red Legged Partridge - very welcome it was too :-)

Red Legged Partridge

2011-11-26T15:25:00.001Z

A promising Dawn

As you can see from the above photo, the day dawned with a bit of promise with the sun just peeking above the horizon, however it never really got going, and the cloud soon thickened up, making the camera redundant for the rest of the visit.

Today was the penultimate full patch walk of the month, and I was hoping to get another new species for the November list, but the 43 species that turned out were all pretty regular ones, however, the likes of Skylark, Pheasant, and Greenfinch which are normally easily found were missing today.

The four hour visit produced few highlights, as so often happens on November days, but it was still disappointing to find so few birds about. Of the 43 species seen, ten were flyovers, which were : LINNET, LESSER REDPOLL, YELLOWHAMMER, HERRING GULL, BLACK HEADED GULL, FIELDFARE, REDWING, MISTLE THRUSH, PIED WAGTAIL, GREY HERON.

A KINGFISHER seen on one of the small ponds in the College Grounds caused some early cheer, only my second one this month, and the LAPWING on the Pub Field numbered 6 today, I always enjoy seeing them. Raptors were represented by SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL, which were both seen hunting around the Tree Nursery, upsetting the 4 MEADOW PIPITS that have returned after a two day absence.

Over on the Lakes 18 MALLARD and 4 MOORHEN were on the water, with 6 CANADA GEESE that left as soon as I arrived, while in the adjacent Scrubby Woods, numbers of birds were few, but the likes of TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS plus GOLDCREST were all found.

During the afternoon, the wind began to pick up, maybe at last heralding the end of this pattern of weather that has been with us for months now.

Below are a couple of garden bird photo's, but given the poor light, they are nothing to get excited about !

Great Spotted Woodpecker

GREAT TIT. Not often I get photo's of these, they are very quick around the feeders, and who can blame with the Sparrowhawk lurking!!

2011-11-25T16:32:00.001Z

The view North from my sky watching position at Migrant Alley this afternoon

There was some well received sunshine for my afternoon walk today, however it didn't seem to bring out the birdlife! My usual walk to the lakes and back was almost completely birdless, I know afternoons are not the best time to see birds, and there may have been quite a bit of disturbance earlier in the day, but all the same, it was a pretty bad state of affairs. I just hope things pick up markedly for tomorrow mornings full patch walk.

There was one species i'm always glad to see, the LAPWING, 8 of them were out on the Pub Field, strangely, the flock of 40 o 50 Black Headed Gulls that have been here for a couple of weeks, had completely disappeared.

Lapwing - One of the 8 seen on the Pub Field, they are hard to approach without putting them up, so i took this photo from well away.

Whilst finishing the day in my usual place at Migrant Alley, I heard a TREECREEPER calling from the Greenhouse Complex some 30 - 35 meters away, such a piercing call for a small bird, but nothing flew over whilst I was there, apart from the local Corvids, the ROBIN was still beside me at the tall hedge, where a few CHAFFINCH finished of the last bits of wheat grain as well. Its been a real struggle on my patch this week, I feel things can only get better!!

The Robin at the tall hedge.......again, sorry but it's just about the only bird that I got near today!!

2011-11-24T15:55:00.001Z

Raspberries galore - if the birds want them!

A bit of brightness today made for a much more interesting patch visit. My wanderings over to the Lakes took me through the Small Holding first, and here a dozen CHAFFINCH, a NUTHATCH, a TREECREEPER, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKER, plus a couple of JAYS, made it a better visit already than the whole of yesterdays! The Wet Woods was still empty though, as was the footpath from there to the lake area. The Lakes between them had only the Usual MALLARDS and MOORHEN today, but a GREY HERON dropped in for a quick forage, before flying off again.

The adjacent Scrubby Woods was again checked out for a possible Woodcock, but no luck again today, I dont seem to get this species on my patch unless there some hard weather about, there were a few thrushes about though, and some song was had from the SONGTHRUSH. A GOLDCREST, a COAL TIT and a few BULLFINCH'S made up the more notable species here. One species that I'm not getting this Autumn/Winter is the Marsh Tit, one, sometimes two, have overwintered in recent years, but this Autumn there are none, lets hope one turns up for next years list!

By 15:00hrs the light was fading, as it does at this time of year, so i made my way to the Tree Nursery and Pub Field, the former had just MAGPIES, and a couple of CARRION CROWS, the Meadow Pipits have moved on from here it seems. A squinted look through the hedgerow and over the Pub field revealed the usual band of BLACK HEADED GULLS, but today 12 LAPWING had returned :-)

There was just enough time to go over to the tall hedge at Migrant Alley, passing through the Greenhouse Complex on the way I noticed the raspberries under polytunnels had been uncovered from there plastic sheeting, the leftover berries are there for the taking if any birds want them, however not a bird was interested! At Migrant Alley I was pleased to see a ROBIN had taken up the vacant territory at the tall hedge left by its unfortunate predecessor, lets hope it doesn't end up as Sprawk dinner like the last one! Walking the Tall hedge I saw BLACKBIRD, GREAT and BLUE TIT, but no Yellowhammers today, probably because most of the wheat grain I put down has now gone. Over head, a flock of 43 FIELDFARE flew over, and a SKYLARK called from somewhere out on the sheep pasture, but the wished for flyover Mute swan, or Little Egret to add to the months list, were not forthcoming :-(

Walking home along Ashes Lane, between the Tree Nursery and the Greenhouse Complex, there was just enough light to see around 45 LINNETS coming in to roost.

New Robin at the tall hedge

Robin

2011-11-23T16:46:00.001Z

Cheated!! That's how I felt today, after days of foggy gloom the weather forecasters promised us some afternoon sunshine, but it came to nothing, there was just more overcast gloom :-(

So with the camera put back in its bag, I went off to check the lakes, crossing the Tree Nursery and checking the Pub Field as I went. It was dire! The only birds of note were a KESTREL sitting up in a sycamore, it was over looking the BLACK HEADED GULLS which were on the Pub field, where there were no Lapwings today.

Over at the Lakes, it all seemed to have been disturbed before I got there, a dozen MALLARDS were hiding under the overhang of the bankside Trees, where a few MOORHEN skulked with them, a SPARROWHAWK flew low over the water, and off towards the Wet Woods area, upsetting a flock of mainly BLUE TITS, but there was at least 2 LONG TAILED TITS with them as well as two GREAT TITS. The Scrubby Woods was quiet, I stopped to listen for maybe a Nuthatch, Goldcrest or Treecreeper, but only got the sounds of a nearby chainsaw, and a leaf blowing machine, which competed with the numerous light aircraft that kept going over!

I made my way back through the Tree Nursery, then onto Migrant Alley, hoping something new for the months list would flyover, a Mute swan or Common gull would be nice, a few SISKIN and GOLDFINCH is what I got though :-) At Migrant Alley the day got more frustrating, a work crew of students were putting up wire mesh around the stock fencing, a job that was started back in February!! On the way home the sight of a freshly dead ROBIN that had been hit by a car on Ashes lane just about summed up the visit :-(

As you can tell I am in need of some inspiration, a maybe a bit of sunlight. !!

2011-11-22T16:11:00.001Z

I was out for just over an hour this afternoon, in incredibly dull and dismal conditions, fog lingered all day, and by 15 : 45 it was raining just to compound matters, a not very nice day!

My walk consisted of a quick visit to the lakes, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, then back home through the Tree Nursery, and a scan of the Pub field. At the Small Holding, both GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS were seen in the old orchard there, plus a couple of JAYS and a small mixed flock of HOUSE SPARROWS and CHAFFINCH'S. The Wet Woods was empty of birdlife, unsurprising really, as it was particularly dark in there! Over at the lakes, only the main lake had any life on it today, and that only had 4 MALLARD, 6 MOORHEN and a GREY HERON, a quick walk around the Scrubby Woods to hopefully flush up a Woodcock, only produced a few REDWING, around 6 BULLFINCH, and 4 SONGTHRUSHES of note.

On reaching the Tree Nursery, I peered through the hedgerow across to the Pub Field, where the BLACK HEADED GULLS are continuing to feed, along with 2 HERRING GULLS, today they were joined by 11 LAPWINGS. The Tree Nursery itself was home to a large mixed feeding flock, containing at least 14 LONG TAILED TITS, 5 GREAT TITS, 5 BLUE TITS, 1 COAL TIT, 3 GOLDCRESTS, 2 DUNNOCK, 2 ROBIN, 2 BLACKBIRD, 1 SONGTHRUSH, and a WREN. That was it for the afternoon!

2011-11-21T16:09:00.001Z

I was out on my patch by 2 o'clock today, trying to fit in some birding before the dusk fell, which it is doing earlier by the day and will continue do so for the next month, before we resume the steady crawl towards longer days :-)

I visited the Lakes again, in the hope of finding a different duck species, there wasn't one today, but a GREY HERON flew off as I arrived, nice to see that here anyway, the only other birds on the lakes were 4 MALLARD and 5 MOORHEN,. I did come away with something today though, my first KINGFISHER (65) for November, it flew from it's perch as I approached the smallest of the 3 lakes :-)

I had a quick look around the Scrubby Woods, hoping to find a Woodcock, which wasn't forth coming, in fact it was eerily quiet in there today, the only birds that were active were a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS that chased around a large Oak tree. SISKINS were heard passing overhead, and as I stood and listened I could here the 'chirriping' of LONG TAILED TITS, I tracked them down to the far end of the main lake, where I had no access, then all of a sudden the ''chirriping'' turned to blind panic and alarm calls! Of course, the SPARROWHAWK had tracked the birds down too, I watched it fly through the dense trees three times hoping to catch a Long Tailed Tit, but it failed each time.

Already the sun ( which wasn't out by the way!) was getting ever nearer the horizon, so I moved off to look around the Tree Nursery and Pub Field, the former had another Green Woodpecker, but little else of note, even the Meadow Pipits had moved, maybe they had already had a visit from the Sprawk!! On the Pub field the now regular BLACK HEADED GULL flock was winging up and down the seedling grass, picking up morsels of food now and then, a quick scan of them all, to maybe to find a Common or Mediterranean gull was not successful, but I did see 2 LAPWING feeding out there. A KESTREL, and one each of MEADOW PIPIT and SKYLARK were also noted.

The last dregs of light were spent checking the wheat grain I had put out over at Migrant Alley, but not a bird was seen around the tall hedge where I sprinkled it all, again, I blame the Sprawks!!! :-)

The kingfisher sighting takes the November list to within 1 species of equaling the second best November total, and 3 behind the record November total. With just 2 morning visits left for the month, and 7 shorter afternoon visits, There is a chance of setting a new record, with species like Common Gull, Snipe, Mute Swan, or maybe a Coot or duck species at the lake all possible, although they are all scarce birds here at any time of year - we shall see!

2011-11-20T14:21:00.001Z

More blasted fog!!!

A frustrating time was had this morning, as very dense fog shrouded my patch, limiting sightings to just a few regular species, with no chance of seeing any flyover species. After just 90 mins I gave up, and headed home for breakfast, where I waited for the fog to clear. Just 29 species were noted in the 90 mins, which I spent walking over to the lakes area, but it was nice to see the LITTLE OWL in the Small Holding, plus a bonus on the lake was finding 4 MANDARIN DUCKS which flew from the bankside vegetation of the main lake.

By 10.00hrs the fog had only lifted slightly, but I got fidgety at home and took a walk over to the Tree Nursery, Pub Field and Migrant Alley ( see above photo). It was very hard going, but I slowly started to find a few birds, 24 MEADOW PIPIT were in the Tree Nursery, with 3 GREEN WOODPECKER, on the Pub Field there were an unknown number of BLACK HEADED GULLS, just shadows were seen, and looking for any Lapwing out there was hopeless!

I arrived at Migrant Alley, where eventually the fog did lift, but it was 11;30hrs by now, and the best bit of the day for birds had passed. I sat and watched the tall hedge next to my seat, and had a skywatch in some bright warm and springlike sunshine! A KESTREL was up hunting over the Greenhouse Complex, spooking a few PIED WAGTAILS my way. In the tall hedge there were BLACKBIRDS, DUNNOCKS, 3 FIELDFARE, 2 CHAFFINCH and 4 YELLOWHAMMERS. Flyovers were confined to mostly gulls, 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED, and a few BLACK HEADED, but 6 small flocks of HERRING GULLS went south east.

In all then, not the best of visits!!

Photo opportunities were limited, but the tall hedge provided these two species :-)

Dunnock

I finally got some sort of photo of the Yellowhammers that visit the tall hedge where I put the wheat grain for them, this is the best view of one ive had to date!

In the sunshine this afternoon, I spent an hour in my garden, trying for some photo's of the regulars. I was very pleased to see a female BULLFINCH arrive, but before I had even focused in on it, the blasted SPARROWHAWK had chased it off! - I really am getting fed up with these pesky Sprawks!!

COAL TIT

Coal Tit

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

2011-11-19T15:56:00.001Z

Foggy Morning

It seemed to take an age for it to get light this morning, and it was gone 07:00hrs before I set out into the foggy conditions. The reduced visibility made finding the birds a bit frustrating, and at the end of the 3 hour full patch walk, just 38 species were noted, with some notable omissions, such as House Sparrow, Starling, or any sort of Raptor species.

I made an early visit to the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, in the hope of finding something exciting on the lakes, but it was down to just MALLARD and MOORHENS again,on the way however, as I passed through the Small Holding a LITTLE OWL was seen perched up in one of the old holey pear trees, also, flyovers from LESSER REDPOLL, SISKIN, and more excitingly ( for me!) my first BRAMBLING (63) of November, I didn't see any of them but their calls were heard as I passed through the dripping trees of the Wet Woods. Around the lakeside vegetation, and into the Scrubby Woods, some, but not all of the regular species were noted, most of them feeding in a loose flock, containing LONG TAILED TIT, , GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, CHAFFINCH, and both BLUE and GREAT TIT, no sign of a Treecreeper today, or a Coal Tit. JAYS and BULLFINCH'S called from the murk, and a PHEASANT was seen under the garden feeders of the nearby house.

I made my way over to the College Grounds, via the Tree Nursery and Pub Field, where the fog was at its worst, the likes of MEADOW PIPIT, YELLOWHAMMER, SKYLARK, and PIED WAGTAIL were all heard but unseen, as they went over somewhere in the fog, but probably the bird of the visit for me was seen in the hedgerow dividing the Tree Nursery and Pub Field, a CHIFFCHAFF (64), nice to see one of the many overwintering ones that now stay with us.

After getting home again and having a good breakfast, the fog had lifted into broken low cloud, and some sunshine peeked through, so I went back out through the Tree Nursery, along the Pub Field and over to my seat at Migrant Alley, I could now see all of the 52 BLACKHEADED GULLS on the Pub Field, and also 2 LAPWING that were there, plus at last I located some HOUSE SPARROWS in the hedge of a nearby large garden.Over on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, it was now clear enough to see some STARLINGS feeding, and a KESTREL hunting over the paddocks, from my skywatching seat I picked up 4 STOCK DOVES going over, and incredibly, I heard then saw 3 CROSSBILL flying over, my fourth record of this species in ten years, all of them being in the last 24 days! This brought up the daylist to more respectable 44, however, it was to make 45, shortly later in a sad incident for me :-( A SPARROWHAWK came crashing through the tall hedge adjacent to my seat, and grabbed the Robin that often sits watching me, the Sprawk dropped just a meter from my feet, and quickly flew off with my little songster :-( Over the last few weeks it had become very acceptable of my presence, and would grab any insects that I disturbed from the grass as I passed, giving me some close up photo's of it.........you can pay your last respects to him by visiting the post for the 14th November, where you can his photograph :-)

So after an unpromising foggy start to the day, that ended in tragedy for my mate Robin, I at least manged to get two more species on this Novembers list, making it the 3rd best out of the ten, still 4 behind top spot though!
I only manged the photo at the top of the page this morning, but I got a few from my garden this afternoon, only the same old regulars though!

Starling

one of a pair of Nuthatch that visit

Blue Tit. There is always at least 15 about, so i went a bit mad with these :-)

Another Blue Tit

Yet another One!

2011-11-18T16:12:00.001Z

The brief glimpses of sunshine had gone by the time I got out this afternoon, and the visit was a much quieter one than of late! I made a trip to Migrant Alley first off, to try to photo a YELLOWHAMMER, half a dozen flew from the tall hedge before I even got anywhere near for a photo, i'll keep trying though. Whilst there, I noted 3 SKYLARK out in the sheep pasture, and a KESTREL hunting over one of the tatty hedgerows.

Crossing the Tree Nursery, there were at least 24 MEADOW PIPITS flushing up and dropping down, hard to count them! Other than that it was down to BLACKBIRDS, DUNNOCKS and ROBINS with a couple of MAGPIES. I peaked through the hedgerow, over to the Pub Field, and saw the now regular flock of 40-50 BLACK HEADED GULLS were there but nothing with them today.

Over at the lakes, the ornamental lake there was empty. The adjacent main lake however had 24 MALLARDS, a CORMORANT and 6 MOORHEN, the other, smaller lake, had just 4 Mallard and 2 Moorhens, so no exciting surprises here today! A quick look around the lakeside vegetation and the edge of the Scrubby Woods was good for TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH and COAL TIT, much as I would expect, while at the nearby house ( that owns the main lake) the garden feeders were suffering the same fate as mine, a SPARROWHAWK sitting in the trees waiting for a customer on the sunflower hearts!

It seems ages since last weekends full patch walk, so i'm looking forward to tomorrows, where I can hopefully add a new species for the month, the current tally of 62 is the fourth best November total, still 2 behind the third best, and 6 behind the record :-) Kingfisher and Common Gull will be the most likely additions now.

Photo opportunities were few, and in the light, not really worth the effort, as you can see by this Meadow Pipit photo.

Meadow Pipit

So for a treat today i'll put up some photo's of last weekends garden visitor the Nuthatch :-)

Nuthatch

2011-11-17T16:17:00.001Z

A much brighter afternoon, with some sunny spells, making it feel quite warm, enabled an enjoyable patch visit, well most of it enjoyable as you'll see!

I set off along Ashes lane and through the Tree Nursery to get to the lakes, I didn't see a great deal in the Tree Nursery, just a GREEN WOODPECKER and the KESTREL up hunting. Looking over the boundary hedge at the Pub Field I saw at least 60 BLACK HEADED GULLS, which suddenly took to the air, the culprit for their panic was a large female SPARROWHAWK going over.

I arrived at the lakes, not expecting anything at all after yesterdays shooting incident, and sure enough the ornamental lake was completely empty, the walk to the main lake takes just a minute, and on arriving there I scanned the lake and was very surprised to see a superb male GOOSANDER (62), what stunning birds these are! This is only the second time Goosander have been recorded here in November, the other record was of a female last November, seen on the 12th and 13th. There were unsurprisingly fewer MALLARD about, and only two MOORHEN were seen. After the Goosander was flushed off by a noisy pair of rather corpulent ladies in the adjacent horse paddock ( now the leaves have gone there is little cover from this area)

Anyway, I lost interest at the lake area, :-) and decided to go over to Migrant Alley and see what was on the wheat grain I have put down, I was disappointed to see just 2 YELLOWHAMMERS fly off when i arrived, but I was more than happy at hearing CROSSBILLS in the sky! I looked frantically up into the blue, and was well rewarded with my best ever views of this species as four flew low over, I could even see the red colouring on the lead male bird , brilliant! I hung around until the light started to go, and saw a couple of SKYLARK and a MEADOW PIPIT go over, plus a LITTLE OWL called from the nearby Greenhouse Copse, also, nice to see, was a flock of 24 LAPWING heading over and dropping onto the Pub Field. The last birds seen were the flock of 30-40 LINNETS, heading to roost at the Tree Nursery.

Goosander - superb! As you can see i had to shoot through the bankside vegetation, making for a difficult photo :-)

Goosander

Some of the Pre -roost Linnets

2011-11-16T15:55:00.001Z

Another grey November afternoon beckoned, and with it was a chill in the air, but as most days, I made a visit to my patch, albeit camera-less again!

I made my way to the lakes again, via the Tree Nursery and Pub Field rather than going the Small Holding and Wet Woods route, I counted 18 MEADOW PIPITS, 15 LINNETS and a GREEN WOODPECKER as I walked through the Tree Nursery, then on exiting here, I walked the dividing hedgerow with the Pub Field, and found a party of busy LONG TAILED TITS with two GOLDCRESTS. Out on the Pub Field were at least 50 BLACK HEADED GULLS, and again around 20 LAPWING were present, but no sign of the Buzzard today, however, another raptor was on show - a PEREGRINE (61) it flew over the field, having the effect of putting everything up, so I quickly moved on to the lakes.

I could hear the TEAL calling as I approached the ornamental lake that is situated in the grounds of the large house, it had moved lakes again :-) with it were two pairs of MALLARD. On the adjacent main lake a CORMORANT was fishing, more Mallards were recorded.

here's a couple of garden bird photo's from the sunny Sunday just gone.

COAL TIT

STARLING

2011-11-15T16:01:00.001Z

I did much the same walk as yesterday after work today, but the warm sunny conditions seen this morning soon disappeared, and the low cloud with mist rolled in again, very frustrating!

The TEAL was still present over at the lakes, it had moved back onto the main lake, with it were a few MALLARDS and MOORHENS, the smallest of the two satellite lakes had a single CANADA GOOSE and more M & M' s, but the ornamental lake was empty, probably disturbed by the gardener of the large house, the grounds of which the lake is situated.

I again encountered the LONG TAILED TIT flock around the edge of the main lake, but there wasn't any other species with them today. In the adjacent Scrubby Woods a few BLACKBIRDS, SONGTHRUSHES, and REDWING flew up from the woodland floor, but not a hoped for Woodcock. BULLFINCH and TREECREEPER were heard calling, and whilst I watched a GOLDCREST, it started up it's high pitched song :-)

Making my way over to the Tree Nursery, 4 single LESSER REDPOLL were heard going over from east to west, as were a couple of SISKIN, but the Tree Nursery itself was all quiet apart from 16 MEADOW PIPIT, there were probably more out in the shrubs, but I didn't go through all the bushes, I instead followed the track to the Pub Field, here there were 52 BLACK HEADED GULLS some on the seedling grass, some winging there way up and down the field, occasionally dropping down on some morsel to eat. Whilst I watched them through my bins, I noticed two well camouflaged LAPWING sitting well out in the field, then scanning round saw the BUZZARD sitting on a fence post, it seems to have made this field his home this week!

As yesterday, my last place to visit was the tall hedge at Migrant Alley, today there were 8 YELLOWHAMMER, feeding on the wheat grain, this seems to be the most the grain is attracting at the moment, but i'm sure more will come in if it gets colder. A quick skyscan revealed nothing but greyness, but as I cleaned my lenses on my bins, a flock of 43 Lapwing flew over, heading towards the Pub Field, I couldn't tell if they joined the other two there though.

I took the camera out today, as it was sunny initially, but the incoming cloudy conditions were against photography really. here's the results!

The long staying Teal, - yes, here three days is a long time for a teal to stay on the lakes!

Buzzard on the fence post - just look at the gloom in the background :-(

The Buzzard took off and was immediatly mobbed by a CARRION CROW

The CHAFFINCH photo, below, was taken at my feeders on Sunday afternoon

Chaffinch

2011-11-14T16:32:00.001Z

After yesterdays most enjoyable sunshine, it was disappointing to find today reverting back to the gloom once again. It felt a bit colder as well today, making for a very unenjoyable visit to my patch this afternoon, where only 90 minutes was spent out before the dark descended. My visit to the lakes wasn't totally in vain though, as the TEAL was still present, it had moved from the main lake to the ornamental lake, along with 8 MALLARDS, another 8 Mallards were on the other small satellite lake, with a further 14 on the main lake, 9 MOORHENS were the only other birds on the three water bodies.

I had hoped to add Kingfisher to the months list, but my wait on the surrounding lake edge was not a successful one, however, a feeding flock of LONG TAILED TITS, with a TRECREEPER, 2 GOLDCRESTS and a few BLUE and GREAT TITS partially made up for it, I also heard BULFINCH, and SISKIN fly over. A noisy JAY squawked for some time in an ivy draped tree, but when I investigated I couldn't find any Raptor or Owls, there must have been a fox about.

I had a quick look around the Tree Nursery, the most notable birds here were 22 MEADOW PIPITS, while the adjacent Pub Field had 18 BLACK HEADED GULLS, and a nice flock of 30 + LAPWING, I couldn't get an accurate count, as they were mostly behind the rise in the field, and I wasn't about to flush them all up just to count them, they have enough of that from the dog walkers!

The last part of the day, in very dark conditions, was spent checking the tall hedge at Migrant Alley to see if there was anything on the wheat grain I have put out, there was, two CHAFFINCH and 8 YELLOWHAMMER :-) In the hedge itself a dozen BLACKBIRDS, 2 FIELDFARE, plus WRENS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS and a couple more Long Tailed Tits made this the best spot on my patch today :-) As I neared home I watched the LINNET flock of about 30 birds wheeling low over the Tree Nursery and Greenhouse Grounds as they prepared to come into roost - it was only three thirty!

The camera stayed at home today, so here's a few of yesterdays efforts at my garden feeders, mostly Blue Tits, but i'll put some of the other species up over the next couple of days :-)

Blue Tit

This Robin was in the tall hedge yesterday, I forgot to post it!

2011-11-13T15:53:00.001Z

Here it comes at last....the sun!

It was a bit misty at first though :-)

For the first time in ages, I had a full patch walk in sunny and calm conditions, and what a difference it makes :-) The four hour walk was most enjoyable, giving me 47 species in all, a very good total here for November.

The sunshine was having an effect on the birds too, with song from ROBIN, WREN, DUNNOCK, CHAFFINCH and MISTLE THRUSH too, all very pleasant. Early in the walk, I crossed the Pub Field, where the BUZZARD was again feeding, but it was on it's own today, without the Lapwings, however two LAPWING were found on a paddock at Migrant Alley, and whilst crossing the fields there, I had 5 CORMORANT, and a GREY HERON fly over, as well as the BLACKHEADED and HERRING GULLS, once again it was a WOODPIGEON day, with many hundreds seen heading south in various flock sizes.

The College Grounds were quite lively, with GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, BLUE and GREAT TIT, GOLDCREST, SISKIN, SONGTHRUSH all seen, plus 6 flyover FIELDFARE, however there were no Greenfinch or Redwing seen, in fact I didn't record these two species all morning. I walked back through Migrant Alley to check the wheat grain I had put out, but nothing was feeding on it, I suspect the area had been disturbed by either dog walkers or the farmer, as a subsequent visit at the end of the walk revealed not only 6 YELLOWHAMMER but a REED BUNTING there too, excellent!

My next place to visit was over to the Lakes, through the Small holding and Wet woods, both KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were encountered, as were both the GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, a small group of Tits with a Goldcrest were found in the Wet woods. On the lakes today, there was a surprise waiting for me, for with the MALLARD and MOORHEN was a single drake TEAL (60) the first here since February, It's not unusual to find a few in the Wet Woods at this time of year, but with that being bone dry, I suppose they will have to use the lake, I dont often see them here though.

Teal......Not too good a shot, as I had to peer through the trees!

In the Scrubby Woods, I added most of the regular species to be found here, TREECREEPER, and NUTHATCH, being the most notable, but a STOCK DOVE that went over was only my second of the month so far.

A second look through the Tree Nursery was worth it, as I found a troop of LONG TAILED TITS, and seven MEADOW PIPITS, both species gave me a photo shoot :-)

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit in tree

Long Tailed Tit

Whilst I chased the above about, the Buzzard came over, allowing for a couple of photo's too

Common Buzzard.....Not quite in focus

This shot was a little better

What an excellent Day!!
I'll post a couple more sunrise photo's, .............went a bit mad with the sun and camera today, in fact I spent the whole afternoon photograhing the garden birds, i'll post them during the week though :-)

2011-11-12T16:30:00.001Z

I took this Great Spotted Woodpecker photo in my garden, two were squabbling over the nuts :-)

As expected, this morning was grey, misty, damp, and gloomy, the story of so many days this month! None -the-less a good variety of bird species were seen on my four hour full patch walk, totalling 45 in all. As I started out, a KESTREL was seen hunting over the sheep pasture opposite my house, while a little further on in the walk the only other raptor species of the day was seen, the COMMON BUZZARD. It was out on the Pub Field again, and nearby, tolerating it's presence, were 3 LAPWING, they were joined an hour or so later by 7 more.

The walk through Migrant Alley, and the College Grounds only provided me with the regular species, none of them in any notable numbers though, just ones and two's appearing. These were the likes of SKYLARK, MEADOW PIPIT, LINNET, REDWING, FIELDFARE, GOLDCREST, GREY HERON, MISTLE THRUSH, with flyovers from SISKIN, BLACK HEADED GULL, and HERRING GULL. On the walk back through Migrant Alley, I passed the Tall Hedge, which borders the Greenhouse Complex to check out the wheat grain that I have put down for the birds, I was pleased to see 8 YELLOWHAMMER along the hedge, but only saw 2 actually feeding on the grain, along with a CHAFFINCH. I'm hoping if the weather gets a bit colder, numbers may build up further ;-)

The second half of my walk, through the Small Holding, Wet Woods, and Lake area, slowly increased my list, the likes of GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH, SONGTHRUSH, and COAL TIT being added, however on the Lakes today, as well as the usual MALLARDS, which had increased in number to 28, and the MOORHENS of which there were 7, my first CANADA GEESE (58) of the month were also present.

I manged a short skywatching session on my seat over at Migrant Alley just after mid-day, and saw 8 GREYLAG GEESE go over, plus more excitingly my first GOLDEN PLOVER (59) since February, I heard it calling long before I saw it, very nice :-) More frustratingly, I also saw the tail end of a Wader species disappearing into the gloom, I got onto well too late to ID it, also 30 Duck species went over in formation, but they were just small silhouettes, up in the gloom, I couldn't tell what species they were, so that's two patch ticks missed !!!

The Buzzard also put in another appearance, low over, again just a silhouette

Buzzard

2011-11-11T17:20:00.001Z

Birding this afternoon was suspended! I always try and keep my afternoons free for the important things in life - birds! However, today circumstances had me running around doing more mundane stuff :-( Given the weather has returned to ''gloom'' mode, and boy was it gloomy today, I don't think I would have seen much. I did see a GREY WAGTAIL on the way home from work though, feeding on the College Manure pile, always a nice bird to find.

More gloom tomorrow morning, but i'll be out and about early :-)

2011-11-10T16:44:00.000Z

The weather was not too bad again this afternoon, in fact, it was better than some of the days we had back in July ! Warm and windless with a few sunny spells, very unlike November weather :-)

I made the walk over to the tall hedge at Migrant Alley first off, and deposited some more wheat grain around the base of the hedge, but today as I approached, there were just 2 YELLOWHAMMER and a CHAFFINCH, I hope my efforts come to more than that!

As yesterday, I made my way over to check out the Lakes, via the Tree Nursery, in which the 20 or so MEADOW PIPITS were still about, they were trying to outwit the KESTREL that was sitting up on the telephone pole watching them. I made a point of scanning the adjacent Pub Field whilst there, but there weren't any Lapwings or the Buzzard today, only BLACK HEADED GULLS.

I spent the rest of the daylight hours around the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, the Lakes had a CORMORANT keeping the MALLARDS and MOORHEN company today, but still nothing more exciting than that :-( In the woods however, it was positively buzzing, I found GREAT TITS, COAL TIT, BLUE TITS, CHAFFINCH, GOLDFINCH, BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, REDWING, BLACKBIRDS and SONGTHRUSHES all in close proximity, they were mostly congregating around a large Hawthorn bush, the fact it was receiving the suns rays, and was full of berries made it a natural stop for them, but try as I might I never got a decent chance of a photo, although the Goldcrest (below) did move nearer into an Elder for me, but it was much shadier here.

Goldcrest

A SPARROWHAWK didn't take long to turn up on the scene, whizzing through at high speed, but after the initial panic, the birds soon returned to their foraging. A few flyovers were noted whilst I was in the woods, FIELDFARE, SISKIN, LESSER REDPOLL and HERRING GULLS, but not the hoped for Canada Geese, they are just about the only certainity to join the November list that I have yet to record.

In the dying light, I spotted a moth fly across my path and alight on a nettle, no idea what it is, i'll leave that to Greenie and Dean, any ideas guys ?

Unidentified Moth......Now identified as not a moth at all, but a Caddis fly :-) Thankd Dean, Alan and Greenie!