Thursday 21 April 2011

Dawn Over Pittswood.


A five hour full patch walk from 05:45 onwards, was again undertaken in sunny warm conditions - once the sun was up and the early cloud had burnt away :-)


A total of 51 Species was recorded, amongst them were some newly arrived WHITETHROATS, there are now four singing, one along Ashes Lane, one in the Tree Nursery, one in the Greenhouse Complex grounds and one along the college stream. The LESSER WHITETHROAT has also been singing from the Greenhouse Complex Grounds for most of the day, and at least two TURTLE DOVES were heard, one from the wooded headland at Migrant Alley, and another from the Scrubby Woods adjacent to the lakes. One summer migrant that wasn't heard until early afternoon was the CUCKOO, strange, as they normally call constantly once they have their territory set up, it even becomes quite tedious to hear after a couple of hours!


On the lakes it was a case of CANADA GEESE, MOORHEN, and MALLARDS, but there were no coots! Maybe it was just hiding up, and the other was on her nest, I hope so! A bonus on the lake today was a male MANDARIN DUCK, which kept out of Photographic range.


In the Scrubby Woods, it was all BLACKCAPS and CHIFFCHAFFS, no Garden Warbler yet, and sadly no Nightingale, looks like another blank year on my patch for this species. I had a check of the SONGTHRUSH nest, and found two half grown young in it, a small brood, but with this very dry spell we are having I think the adult birds will have difficulty finding enough invertebrates for feeding even these two.


An hours skywatch at Migrant Alley around 10:30 produced flyovers by 2 BUZZARD, 1 YELLOW WAGTAIL, 1 GREY HERON, 1 SPARROWHAWK, and 4 GREYLAG GEESE.


I noted a few Butterflies today too, including my first Large White, the 11th species for the year. Later in the afternoon while trying to photograph the birds at the feeders, I found my first Large Red damselfly, but failed even to photograph that!


Oh well some you win etc... I did get a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER photo though :-)







7 comments:

Anonymous said...

A good day was had then, Warren. I went out looking for Large Red Damsels this afternoon, but failed miserably.

Warren Baker said...

Dean, I got a tip off that there may be a few about now, can't remember who it was now though :-)

Alan Pavey said...

What a great dawn pic, have a good weekend :-)

Jason K said...

Love the photo of day breaking over Pittswood. Ive not picked up Lesser throat yet but hopefully will over next few weeks

Phil said...

You're one ahead of me for the year Warren. I need to see the Lesser Whitethroat that I keep hearing to draw level.
Nice picture of dawn, haven't seen Dawn since my teenage years......but that's another story!

ShySongbird said...

I hope the Little Song Thrushes survive, Warren but this weather is extraordinary for the time of year!

I also hope you will have news of the Coots today, I was feeling confident about them.

Nice GSW photo. I have seen one in the garden two days running, once posed nicely on the bird bath which would have made a good photo but no way of getting it without disturbing it.

Jann said...

The dawn photo is gorgeous! Love seeing the peacock again and look forward to your other butterfly posts this season, besides the birds of course ;o)