Saturday 17 October 2015

Another dull, overcast morning, with a cool Northerly breeze, but it was at least dry today.

 A 3hr patch visit brought a taste of both summer and winter bird species today, with a few SWALLOWS seen flying over, a group of 7 being the biggest, these being well past their median average last sighting date of Oct 8th. For the winter species, two flocks of FIELDFARES were seen, one of 14 headed west, while a flock of 10 dropped into the Greenhouse Grounds for a short rest, where the SISKIN and GOLDFINCH flock had been joined by a minimum of 4 LESSER REDPOLL. There was also a flock of 30+ REDWING seen heading West over the Ashes Lane Fields, with at least 4 more seen in the Scrubby Woods.

There was a surprise waiting for me on the main lake this morning, when I found a female TEAL (68) among the 5 MANDARIN DUCKS and 4 MALLARDS that were resting under the tree overhang, a good species to add to the October tally  :-) A KINGFISHER was also seen as it flew low over the water, plus a lone CANADA GOOSE and a few MOORHENS were also seen

There were plenty of JAYS and GREEN WOODPECKERS moving about my patch this morning, while overhead there were passing MEADOW PIPITS, SKYLARKS, more Redpolls and Sikins, plus a GREY HERON and a trio of MISTLETHRUSHES. The female KESTREL and a single BUZZARD were up hunting, the only raptors seen today.

Just the last few images left in my blog folder now............brighter weather is needed!


Wren



2 comments:

Phil Barnett said...

How come you've got all these images in your 'blog folder' any one of these would be amongst my best ever!

Warren Baker said...

Phil,
I took these images a few weeks back, along with a few other garden visitors. I kept them back until I had run out of 'patch' photo's ;-) Enjoy the coming winter Phil !