Thursday 23 July 2015

Another full patch walk was undertaken this morning, in some fine and sunny weather, although scattered cloud moved in by late morning.

The four and a half hour visit produced a decent tally of 45 bird species, which could have easily neared 50 if the regulars of Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit, Bullfinch, pheasant and the Kestrels had played ball, I wonder where the kestrels were?

Of the 45 species seen, none were new for the July list, but a few bits of interest were noted, like the 43 CANADA GEESE and 26 GREYLAG GEESE on the pasture at Migrant Alley, with which they shared with 28 STARLINGS and 35 ROOKS, the adjacent paddocks had a few LINNETS and PIED WAGTAILS feeding on them.

The Greenhouse Grounds and associated Copse were checked, the latter had the families of BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT and CHIFFCHAFF feeding in sunny side of the copse, while the Greenhouse Grounds had two singing SONGTHRUSH, plus the common regulars of WREN DUNNOCK, ROBIN, BLACKBIRD, GOLDFINCH, GREENFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BLUE and GREAT TITS. I checked High House Lane for YELLOWHAMMERS, where just the male bird was seen, and heard to sing, no sign of any young yet!

A pair of MISTLETHRUSHES were seen at the Small Holding area, along with GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, while the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods, between them, added GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, JAY, STOCK DOVE, and COAL TIT to the mornings list.

On the main lake a female MANDARIN DUCK was present, but only a couple of MALLARDS and MOORHENS were on the other two water bodies.

Heading for home across the Ashes lane Fields, a BUZZARD flew low over, then the local SWALLOWS went into a frenzy as a pair of SPARROWHAWKS circled round. A SKYLARK and the only 2 SWIFTS of the day were the last two species on the list.

This female Linnet preened and posed nicely for the camera this morning


Female Linnet




A female BLACKBIRD was the only other bird image I took


A Speckled Wood provided the only Butterfly image of the visit.

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