Sunday 22 November 2009

I had to let a heavy shower pass before leaving for my patch walk this morning, but in the 3 hour visit I got lucky and only two more heavy showers came through, before they turned back to back downpours later on.

A total of 43 species was seen today, 3 of these were not seen yesterday, firstly a
SPARROWHAWK, secondly that most rare bird for my patch a COOT! This is the second one this month, I am very impressed, as no Coot has ever been recorded in November before! I was also happy with the third species as it was new for this month, a LITTLE OWL, it flew from the edge of the wet woods as I walked Marchants field ( what was part of the tree nursery).

I had good views of both TREECREEPER and GOLDCREST as they fed along the footpath from the wet woods to the lake, but it was too dull to photograph them. A group of 5 BULLFINCH'S flew from the lakeside scrub, and a flock of 11 FIELDFARE flew over whilst I was there, the only ones seen this morning.

At Migrant Alley 7 SKYLARKS, two YELLOWHAMMERS and a single MEADOW PIPIT were on the sheep pasture, and the nearby college sports pitch had 38 BLACK HEADED GULLS and 9 HERRING GULLS feeding on it.
REDWING and SISKIN were seen, but they and the Fieldfare were the only species that gave my walk a wintery flavour.

So the months list moves on to 61, just 6 more new species needed for a new November record total, but with only 2 more full walks of my patch left and 5 short afternoon visits, I think it's a challenge too far. :-)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is your Tree Creeper like our Brown Creeper that I posted a week or so ago? It was the first one I ever saw here.

Kelly said...

...you're definitely narrowing in on the record. Who knows, those two days may have a windfall! (But even if they don't, you'll still be outside enjoy nature.)

Sharon said...

Well done on the Little Owl Warren, I agree with Kelly you're creeping closer to your target - you just never know, don't give up!

Pete Woodruff said...

A challenge too far, truth is you don't know so keep at it Warren......well I know you will!

Anonymous said...

Treecreeper`s eluding me this month, Warren.
Well done with the Little Owl.

ShySongbird said...

I would be very happy with the Treecreeper, Little Owl and the Goldcrest!

Really beautiful photos on your previous post Warren, how do you get so close, do you have a hide? The one of the GSW was great! You had such good light too!!

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
you never know, you still might beat this record!! But wow next year is gonna be hard mate!! For me, I do not think I'll get number 94, and that's not so bad, then next year will not be that hard maybe!!! :-)

FAB said...

Hi Warren. I see you have been struggling with high winds & rain but despite these conditions the tally keeps rising. Well done mate. FAB.