A two and a half hour patch visit this morning started with rain and ended with rain, with a dry-ish spell in the middle, the mist and general murkiness of the morning made for a very uninspiring walk and don't even mention the mud!
There wasn't much happening about the place, only a KINGFISHER was of any note on the lakes, where the Coot was not seen again, one less companion for the immature MUTE SWAN!
Half a dozen LONG TAILED TITS fed busily in the bare twigs of the Oak trees in the Scrubby Woods, they, plus the GOLDCREST and a calling NUTHATCH were about the best of it there.
As I walked across the Ashes Lane Fields I put up at least 8 MEADOW PIPITS, then checking the old shack I could see the LITTLE OWL was home. I heard the cackling of a skein of distant geese which had me scanning through 28 GREYLAGS as they passed over, but I was hoping for my first Canada Geese of the year.
Over at the Greenhouse Grounds the KESTREL pair sat together on the greenhouses and a YELLOWHAMMER flew over, calling loudly as it went, a SKYLARK ''trilled'' as it flew high over and another 2 Little Owls were seen, these at the Greenhouse Copse.
A scan of the sheep pasture and Migrant Alley yielded mainly BLACK HEADED GULLS, but 5 COMMON GULLS were picked out as I checked for Med. Gulls among them.
Not a morning to be out long, certainly not one for the camera, bad news as i've run out of blog pics to brighten the post :-(
Sunday, 18 January 2015
Saturday, 17 January 2015
I added TAWNY OWL (58) to the patch year list last night, when I heard two birds calling from my house in the clear frosty conditions at 23:10hrs.
This morning the frost was still around, with some sparkling sunshine first thing, although showers fell by 11:00hrs. I decided to carry out a full patch walk and in the four and a half hours found a good tally of 46 species, but nothing new for the year list sadly.
There were 2 female GOOSANDERS back on the main lake, but the Coot wasn't seen today, hopefully it was just well concealed somewhere in the bankside vegetation. The adjacent Scrubby Woods and the Wet Woods, between them provided all the woodland species I can expect here, with TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GREEN WOODPECKER, JAY and STOCK DOVE all being found, I also came across a BUZZARD in the Scrubby Woods, which was feeding on a recently killed WOODPIGEON.
GREY WAGTAIL, PIED WAGTAIL, the KESTREL pair, 2 REDWING and the regular WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH and GOLDFINCH were all seen around the Greenhouse Grounds, plus the LITTLE OWL gave good views at the Greenhouse Copse.
At least ten MEADOW PIPITS flew up from the Ashes Lane Fields, and another 2 were seen out on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, where three Gull species were seen, HERRING, COMMON and BLACK HEADED.
Flyover species boosted the day list today, with CORMORANT, YELLOWHAMMER, SKYLARK, and FIELDFARE all going over in singles.
Not much for the camera today, despite hanging around for the Goosander to come nearer, which they never did, plus trying to get Goldcrest and Treecreeper photo's, where I was thwarted by dog walkers. I did get a couple of images though, the female Kestrel is always obliging, as are the Blackbirds at the Greenhouse Grounds.
This morning the frost was still around, with some sparkling sunshine first thing, although showers fell by 11:00hrs. I decided to carry out a full patch walk and in the four and a half hours found a good tally of 46 species, but nothing new for the year list sadly.
There were 2 female GOOSANDERS back on the main lake, but the Coot wasn't seen today, hopefully it was just well concealed somewhere in the bankside vegetation. The adjacent Scrubby Woods and the Wet Woods, between them provided all the woodland species I can expect here, with TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GREEN WOODPECKER, JAY and STOCK DOVE all being found, I also came across a BUZZARD in the Scrubby Woods, which was feeding on a recently killed WOODPIGEON.
GREY WAGTAIL, PIED WAGTAIL, the KESTREL pair, 2 REDWING and the regular WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH and GOLDFINCH were all seen around the Greenhouse Grounds, plus the LITTLE OWL gave good views at the Greenhouse Copse.
At least ten MEADOW PIPITS flew up from the Ashes Lane Fields, and another 2 were seen out on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, where three Gull species were seen, HERRING, COMMON and BLACK HEADED.
Flyover species boosted the day list today, with CORMORANT, YELLOWHAMMER, SKYLARK, and FIELDFARE all going over in singles.
Not much for the camera today, despite hanging around for the Goosander to come nearer, which they never did, plus trying to get Goldcrest and Treecreeper photo's, where I was thwarted by dog walkers. I did get a couple of images though, the female Kestrel is always obliging, as are the Blackbirds at the Greenhouse Grounds.
Kestrel
Blackbird
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