I made the 10th and final 'full patch walk' of January this morning, in dull, overcast conditions, but it was at least dry and quite warm for the 3 hour visit.
A total of 42 species was recorded, but nothing new for the months list was among them, January now looks like remaining on 62 species, unless I can winkle out anything on a short visit tomorrow, this will be the same tally as in 2008 and 2012, and would put it in joint 10th position from the 16 Januaries recorded.
The highlight of todays birding was finding that the 2 male and single female GOOSANDER had returned to the now only half frozen lakes, with them were a dozen CANADA GEESE and a pair of GREYLAG GEESE, as well the usual scattering of MALLARDS and MOORHENS - quite busy for these lakes!
All the regular woodland species were recorded this morning, apart from Stock Dove, some of which were giving a bit of song, like COAL TIT, GREENFINCH, GOLDCREST, SONGTHRUSH, MISTLETHRUSH, WREN, ROBIN and DUNNOCK, plus a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was drumming from the Wet Woods too, spring is approaching!
Over on the farmland is was a bit quieter, but SKYLARKS were up singing over Bustard Hill, plus around 100 BLACK HEADED GULLS were on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley. The KESTREL pair were seen at the Greenhouse Grounds, but no other raptors were about this morning.
Monday, 30 January 2017
Friday, 27 January 2017
Although there was a slight frost this morning, it felt a bit warmer, although still dull and damp, it could, however, be a lot worse!
I spent 3 hours out, making an effort to complete a 'full patch walk', the penultimate one for January, it's always hard going at this time of year, especially now that most of what can be found this month already has been, only flyover species or visitors to the lakes will be added to the months list now I suspect.
The lakes however were frozen over still, so just MALLARDS and MOORHENS were present, the only flyover species recorded today were SISKIN and STOCK DOVE. The rest of the 36 species that I recorded today were the regulars, apart from the 38 LAPWING that were spread over the sheep pasture at the Ashes Lane Fields and Migrant Alley.
Only BUZZARD appeared for the Raptors, that was over at the Scrubby Woods, where it was a case of trying to tick off the less frequently encountered species, the likes of COAL TIT, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, and GOLDCREST were found, but Treecreeper and Long Tailed Tit eluded detection, not surprising for the latter, as there were 14 watched this afternoon, clinging to the suet bars that I have put out for them in my garden!
FIELDFARES and REDWINGS are on virtually every field and in most of the large gardens, despite the ground being semi-frozen still!
A couple of images for todays blog post, taken in my garden a few days back....
I spent 3 hours out, making an effort to complete a 'full patch walk', the penultimate one for January, it's always hard going at this time of year, especially now that most of what can be found this month already has been, only flyover species or visitors to the lakes will be added to the months list now I suspect.
The lakes however were frozen over still, so just MALLARDS and MOORHENS were present, the only flyover species recorded today were SISKIN and STOCK DOVE. The rest of the 36 species that I recorded today were the regulars, apart from the 38 LAPWING that were spread over the sheep pasture at the Ashes Lane Fields and Migrant Alley.
Only BUZZARD appeared for the Raptors, that was over at the Scrubby Woods, where it was a case of trying to tick off the less frequently encountered species, the likes of COAL TIT, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, and GOLDCREST were found, but Treecreeper and Long Tailed Tit eluded detection, not surprising for the latter, as there were 14 watched this afternoon, clinging to the suet bars that I have put out for them in my garden!
FIELDFARES and REDWINGS are on virtually every field and in most of the large gardens, despite the ground being semi-frozen still!
A couple of images for todays blog post, taken in my garden a few days back....
Female BLACKBIRD
Male Blackbird
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