Thursday 23 October 2014

It remained cloudy and dull for the 5 hour full patch walk this morning, but it at least remained dry and the winds were light, a bonus at this time of year!

As yesterday, a total of 43 species were found, the average tally for an October walk, a few different species were on on todays list though, with a KINGFISHER being seen at the Ornamental lake, and both SONGTHRUSH and MISTLETHRUSH turned up at the Scrubby Woods. A GREY WAGTAIL was at the Greenhouse Grounds, plus a BUZZARD was seen soaring over the Ashes Lane Field during my skywatch, which also produced another flyover REED BUNTING and a flyover YELLOWHAMMER, both good species to find on my patch now. A CORMORANT was also seen going over during my skywatch, along with a few BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS, a couple of SKYLARKS, as well as the KESTREL pair, which hunted over Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Grounds. Very few MEADOW PIPITS are left on the sheep pasture and the GOLDFINCH flock of some 30-40 birds had moved to the line of Alder trees that borders the Greenhouse Grounds.

Not a very exciting visit today, with all the summer species now gone and many of the winter species yet to arrive. The months list has stalled at 71, but that's still a good total and is the fourth best October from 13, while the year list of 107 is also a very good total for my patch, it's the 6th best total so far, the 13 year mean average annual tally is 101.5 .

No photo's left in the blog folder and no light for photography today, so an image-less post  :-(

4 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Thats not a bad total at all for late October. I did Stodmarsh today and a gentle walk gave me 55 species.

Warren Baker said...

Looking forward to some crisp frosty days now Marc :-)

Pete Woodruff said...

Not got out all week Warren, save about 30 minutes before I threw in the towel after sitting in the motor to see if the rain would pass by....it didn't. Hopefully tomorrow.

WOT NO PIKS!!

Warren Baker said...

Hi Pete,
It's not good for the soul when you cant get out birding :-(