Wednesday 4 April 2012

A cold front brought some overnight rain, the first for weeks here, but it also brought a noticeable drop in temperature for the afternoon patch visit today. Only the Tree Nursery, Greenhouse Complex and Migrant Alley were visited, and despite them being very thoroughly checked over, nothing much different from yesterday was seen. The KESTREL was up hunting, no sign of it having a mate though, it would be good to get one nesting on my patch for the first time. A pair of SPARROWHAWKS were seen together though, circling high up, the only other noteworthy occurrence today was the flyover of two single MEADOW PIPITS. Nothing was added to the months list, and no new spring migrants had arrived - a very poor and frustrating visit, not helped by much disturbance today, which even included a helicopter landing in the sheep pasture at migrant alley!  An afternoon to forget really, I am in need of some inspiration, if I cant find it in April, which is one of the most exciting birding months of the year, then there is no hope !

On a brighter note i'm now off work for a straight eleven days, and i'll be out for every single one of them, and as early as possible to avoid the disturbance!

I took just one photo today, that of this LONG TAILED TIT, so i'll post the ROOK photo's that I took yesterday as well.
Long Tailed Tit
Rook
Rook

4 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Hopefully the holidays will deliver a few migrants for you, get out early if you can.

Anonymous said...

Atrocious conditions up here today, Warren, with rain, sleet, snow & a biting wind.

Enjoy your days off & make the most of em.

Jason K said...

The weather wasnt great here either. Driving wind and rain!

Enjoy your break mate...best time of Spring for a holiday...who knows what may turn up!

ShySongbird said...

Lovely LTT photo Warren.

With the return to Wintry weather the Chiffchaffs etc will be wishing they hadn't bothered to come here!

I'm sure your patch walks during the Easter holidays will provide you with something inspirational. Eleven days will give you plenty of time to have fun :-)