Saturday 14 July 2012

Once again the weather affected the full patch walk, rain curtailing the visit to just 2 and a half hours, leaving little time to look properly through the Small Holding, Wet Woods and Lake area, which only added COOT, MALLARD, BULLFINCH and NUTHATCH to the 41 species seen earlier  in the morning, just 45 species, a poor tally for a July visit.

Earlier in the morning under grey, heavy skies, a continuous passage of  BLACK HEADED GULLS and SWIFTS were noted as I walked over to the College Grounds, via the Greenhouse Complex and Migrant Alley, the Gulls in sporadic groups of 6 - 10, while the swifts were moving through on a broad front, widely spaced, around 75 - 100 birds in all.

Once at the College Grounds I looked for the SPOTTED FLYCATCHER family, but only found two adults, have the young succumbed to the awful summer weather I wonder? They may just have been secreted away, sheltering in the nearby large Lime tree, I couldn't find them if they were  :-(  The SWALLOW young were less in number too, just 3 young were at the College Stables as I passed. The immature  GREEN WOODPECKER seen on one of the gassy areas, seemed to be coping well enough in the wet conditions, this is only the second young one i've seen this summer. A TURTLE DOVE was also seen, sitting on a bench taking in the view as it sang  :-)
Turtle Dove, just about as close as you get to one on my patch, I also got a distant photo of one here last summer, I wonder if it was the same bird  :-)
Immature Green Woodpecker
The summer species were few in number, with little song being heard, just a lone BLACKCAP sang, while the CHIFFCHAFFS and WHITETHROAT called or scolded at me. Four HOUSE MARTINS were the only other summer birds noted today.

I tried to do another visit around 11:00am, but that was cut short again by persistent heavy showers, although during a 10 minute dry spell I did watch the KESTREL family out hunting, as well as a SPARROWHAWK, and the first two BUZZARDS (57) of July took advantage of the short break to stretch their wings high over the Tree Nursery, the months species list of 57 is still yet to break into the top ten of July species lists!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well composed shots, Warren. Jakki`s not workin tomorrow, so i`m treatin myself to a visit to Cortonwood :)

Warren Baker said...

Nice one Dean, enjoy it and good luck out there :-)

ShySongbird said...

Hi Warren, Nice to see the Turtle Dove. I always think the juvenile Green Woodpeckers look rather odd!

Don't know whether you saw on the news yesterday that waders are returning already, more than a month early at least.

Raining here again.

Warren Baker said...

Hi Songbird,
Still throwing it down here at 19:00hrs :-(

I saw the news about the waders returning early, I take it with a pinch of salt though, as waders are on the move at this time of year anyway ;-)

Pete Woodruff said...

Regarding your Turtle Dove on the bench Warren, t'would have caused a major twitch in our neck of the woods up here in't north and personally NEVER seen one in my 150 years birding....yes 150 years.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
I doubt that I will see/hear a Turtle Dove this year now , so good to see yours .
If you think you had rain , you should have been on the M6 on Friday morning , unbelievable .

Jason K said...

Your lucky to get Turtle doves on your patch Warren...let alone photograph them!

P.s great to see the juve Green woodpeckers isnt it

The Flagpole in Sherenden Park said...

Thanks Warren, it all helps to bring the issue to the fore. I've been advised that Natural England would be the next body to approach. I've also just been looking at the planning decision, which says "The Applicant [the architects] is advised that peregrine falcons nested on the building in 2009 and they may return to nest in the spring (2010). Care should be taken when undertaking works to the building during this time. Further advice should be sought from Natural England." However there doesn't seem to be any requirement to include a nesting platform.