After a cloudy morning, the afternoon slowly improved to give sunny spells.
A look through the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods early on, only revealed BULLFINCH (40) for those resident, woodland patch species that are yet to be found. The lakes proved disappointing again.
A GREY HERON (41) joined the October list as it flew over the Ashes Lane Fields, where, along the drainage ditch there, a STONECHAT was seen, probably yesterdays birds that had relocated from Migrant Alley.
KESTREL (42) was added to the months list, the male was looking superb as it hunted around the greenhouse grounds in it's newly moulted plumage. Two BUZZARDS were the only other raptors seen this morning.
There were plenty of MEADOW PIPITS around Migrant Alley, some just passing through among the small numbers of HOUSE MARTINS and SWALLOWS, while others dropped into the sheep pasture. A pair of GREY WAGTAILS (43) were watched as the flew over heading for the Greenhouse Grounds.
There were two more additions to the months list this morning, BLACK HEADED GULL (44), a single one of which flew over, and MISTLE THRUSH (45) two of which were seen in a garden along Ashes Lane.
So the October list moves on to 45 species, a long way short of the record of 77, set in 2010, and still a considerable ask to get to the mean total for the previous 5 Octobers, which is 73.
Sunday, 2 October 2016
Saturday, 1 October 2016
The first day of the new month brought some heavy and prolonged showers, the first proper rain we've had for 6 weeks!
Although I did a full patch walk, much of the time was spent sheltering from the rain, so the low day list of just 39 species wasn't too surprising, there were a few regulars missing, like Treecreeper, Bullfinch, Stock Dove, Pheasant, Linnet and Kestrel.
On the other hand there were a few surprises, the best being a STONECHAT (100) at migrant Alley, the 100th patch species of the year comes at last! Another surprise was finding a LESSER WHITETHROAT at the Greenhouse Grounds, the first ever seen here in the month of October, making it the latest record for my patch. There were also quite a few CHIFFCHAFFS at the Greenhouse Grounds, along with a BLACKCAP. SWALLOWS and HOUSE MARTINS made up the Summer species still left here, seen as they flew over on passage.
A BUZZARD was sitting on a fence line at Migrant Alley, plus the male SPARROWHAWK was up hunting at the Wet Woods.
So 39 species to kick off October, lots to find yet ......hopefully!
Although I did a full patch walk, much of the time was spent sheltering from the rain, so the low day list of just 39 species wasn't too surprising, there were a few regulars missing, like Treecreeper, Bullfinch, Stock Dove, Pheasant, Linnet and Kestrel.
On the other hand there were a few surprises, the best being a STONECHAT (100) at migrant Alley, the 100th patch species of the year comes at last! Another surprise was finding a LESSER WHITETHROAT at the Greenhouse Grounds, the first ever seen here in the month of October, making it the latest record for my patch. There were also quite a few CHIFFCHAFFS at the Greenhouse Grounds, along with a BLACKCAP. SWALLOWS and HOUSE MARTINS made up the Summer species still left here, seen as they flew over on passage.
A BUZZARD was sitting on a fence line at Migrant Alley, plus the male SPARROWHAWK was up hunting at the Wet Woods.
So 39 species to kick off October, lots to find yet ......hopefully!
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