Friday 21 June 2013

Midsummers day, but not midsummers weather unfortunately,  this morning was dull, damp and heavily overcast, with very poor visibility again.

I made a trip around the bean fields, hedgerows and ditches on the new part of my patch first thing, it's noticeable in this area that there are more WHITETHROAT territories than on other parts of my patch, also there is at least one YELLOWHAMMER territory, and one was seen carrying food into a large dense hedgrow. A party of LONG TAILED TITS moved along one of the ditches, using the mature willow trees for cover, and further along the same ditch a family of TREECREEPERS were seen in a mature Oak.

Spits of rain were blowing in the breeze as I made my way over to Migrant Alley, where I took my seat for a sky watch, a KESTREL sat on the Greenhouse roof behind me, and it didn't take long for a SPARROWHAWK to wheel its way over. Not much else was noted in the sky though, a few SWIFTS and SWALLLOWS and 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS with 4 HERRING GULLS which made there way over to the ripped up paddock.

A check of the Ashes lane field was had, where 4 STOCK DOVES were feeding on the emerging seedling grasses, the adjacent Pub Field had a few WOODPIGEON and JACKDAWS amongst the maize crop, I had hoped for a Lapwing, not all that likely, but they have turned up in this habitat in June before.

I didn't have time for a full patch visit, but all being well, that should be possible tomorrow, hopefully I can find something for the months list, which has ground to a halt! Later in the afternoon the sun eventually made a short appearance, and it brightened my mostly shaded garden up just enough to take a few photo's of the juvenile birds visiting  :-)
Juv. GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER
Juv. Great Spotted Woodpecker
Juv. Great Spotted Woodpecker
Immature GREENFINCH
This CHAFFINCH looks to be a young bird, but maybe an adult female
Not much sign of a 'gape' on it, but it's plumage is very washed out
Immature BLUE TIT, getting its blue wings already  :-)



6 comments:

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Birding ground to a halt here too Warren. Might be able to go for the not too far away Bluethroat tomorrow which would be nice if it sticks over night. Unforecast wall to wall sunshine today but...weekend doesn't look too promising

Cheers

DaveyMan

Marc Heath said...

Another weekend about to be ruined by the weather. Work all week, then it's bad at the weekend. Might take up sewing soon!!

Warren Baker said...

Davyman,
June is always a quiet month, especially if the weather messes up the invert action!!

Warren Baker said...

Marc,
I know the feeling well :-) Just to rub it in, next week looks a bit better!

Get the needle and thread out!!

ShySongbird said...

Hi Warren :-) Glad you're getting to grips with the new part of the patch. Lovely to see the garden juveniles especially the GSW. Dull here most of the day but brightened up a bit late afternoon, then the wind got up...what a summer! :-(

I particularly liked the photo of the two young Blue Tits lining up to be fed on yesterday's post :-)

Warren Baker said...

Thanks Songbird,
You're right, what a summer :-( - again!!