Thursday 17 July 2008

A rather uninspiring day today, the KESTREL sitting on a telegraph pole early this am was a classic pose, and the sighting of a SPOTTED FLYCATCHER at the college was a welcome sight, though still no fledglings have been seen.
This afternoons search for a new species around migrant alley failed, it's still a bit early yet though, and with the gloomy, cool, damp weather, the only butterfly seen was a Meadow Brown. While I was walking back home a skein of GREY LAG GEESE flew over, it's always a spectacular sight when a group of geese go over in formation.
I did some garden watching for an hour, and recorded 14 species at the feeders, one noteable absentee was the Starling - where have they all gone ? I did see a couple of small groups early this morning, but I seem to missing a few hundred!

A Handsome male CHAFFINCH was one of the better pics, you wouldn't want to see the others!

Part of the Grey lag geese flock that flew over, I was a bit slow on the uptake and they were already distant when I snapped them .

4 comments:

Greenie said...

Warren ,
What you say about the Starling is very true , their numbers seem to have tumbled in recent years .

Mosura said...

If the Starling ever gets into real trouble (and I hope it doesn't) there are plenty down here in Tasmania to reestablish a population. Then there are the House sparrows - 50 just in my backyard alone eating my chook and duck food. Other British introductions I get in the backyard are Greenfinch, Skylark, Goldfinch, and Blackbird.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: What a great picture of the Chaffinch. You have such different birds in England.
Thanks for your help in identifying some of the plants and insects on my blog.

Warren Baker said...

Mosura,
Tour backyard sounds like mine used to be 7 or 8 years ago. nice to here you've got some of our birds in ''reserve'' though!