Friday 16 March 2012

Only a short patch visit was possible this afternoon, as I had a dental appointment later  :-(   I had just enough time to walk over to the lakes and back, through the Small Holding and Wet woods. Conditions were the opposite of yesterday, back on went the fleece jacket and woolly hat, as the temperature was a good 10C down on yesterday, and the sun stayed behind a grey sheet of cloud. The mix of GREENFINCH and GOLDFINCH continue to feed in the Alpaca enclosure at the Small Holding, BLUE and GREAT TITS buzzed about calling, and as usual a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS were seen.

The Wet Woods had a drumming GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, more calling Tits, a NUTHATCH, and 3 drake MALLARD, they were on the almost dried out pools of water, also an old friend passed me by, the 3 legged fox, not seen him since late last year, good to see he survived the winter  :-)

On the lakes today it was relatively busy, with 7 CANADA GEESE, 4 more drake Mallard, 4 MOORHEN, a CORMORANT, the pair of COOTS, but best of all a visiting pair of MANDARIN DUCKS, probably the pair seen in the Wet Woods on Tuesday afternoon. I couldn't stay to check the Scrubby Woods thoroughly, but heard BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, JAY, GOLDCREST and PHEASANT, a CHIFFCHAFF called but didn't sing today, I then retraced my steps back home the way I come. A flock of 30-40 BLACK HEADED GULLS flew over calling loudly as I neared home, they were flushed up from the fields over at Migrant Alley, but looking around the sky I didn't see anything to upset them, no large raptors about  ;-)

Too dull and dingy for photo's today, the camera stayed at home, so here's the last of my garden finch photo's I took earlier in the week.
Goldfinch
Chaffinch

7 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Hi Warren, I have never seen a Mandarin at all in my area yet.

Lovely clarity in those photos!

Warren Baker said...

Hello Songbird
Keep looking for the Mandarins, they are becoming more widespread as the years go by :-)

Marc Heath said...

As you say, not a good day for the camera. A few Wheatear around the coast today. Hopefully I may see one tomorrow!!

Anonymous said...

Gone a bit stale up here, Warren. Hope the weekend brings something different.

Jason K said...

Nice one on the previous day's Marsh Harrier Warren. There have only been 3 records of this species at Shenstone...so fingers crossed for the fourth!

P.s. I'm hoping to get back into action next week and do some serious patch watching...withdrawl symptoms!!!!

Rohrerbot said...

Hello there, great shots...especially like the one of the Goldfinch. Hope you have some nice weather for tomorrow. It's supposed to rain here all day and Monday!! But I'll be working in a tropical butterfly house so I'll go from cold and rainy to hot and moist....that should be good for the body:) So no hike or birds...but butterflies....heck yeah:) Have you been seeing more butterflies now that it's warming beyond the last one you posted?

Warren Baker said...

Rohrerbot
All the Butterflies have gone back into hiding again, as the temperature has dropped markedly here now!