Thursday 10 March 2016

It remained grey and overcast this morning, but with little wind it felt pleasant enough out.

An early visit to the lakes found the most regular visiting species there, those being MUTE SWAN, CANADA GEESE, GREYLAG GEESE (plus the hybrid Greylag x Canada Goose pair) COOT, MALLARD and MOORHEN, but not the hoped for Grey Heron!

On the way to the lakes I noted that the Ashes Lane Fields were empty of winter thrushes, the only FIELDFARE seen were two lone flyovers, they seem to have all moved on now, although I expect to record the odd one right up to the end of March and possibly into April, the median average last sighting date for Fieldfare is the 30th March, which also happens to be the same date for the Redwing  :-) Whilst at the Ashes Lane Fields a YELLOWHAMMER dropped in to the drainage ditch vegetation.

I had a bit of a sky watch during my visit today, sitting at my seat overlooking Migrant Alley, I watched the comings and goings of the BLACK HEADED GULLS out on the sheep pasture, plus I noted flyovers from HERRING GULL, SKYLARK, SISKIN, more Greylag and Canada Geese, and a pair of BUZZARDS, but more pleasing was adding CORMORANT (55) and MEADOW PIPIT (56) to the March tally, a pair of each were seen. The KESTREL pair were also observed hunting around the adjacent Greenhouse Grounds.

With March now a third of the way through, I start to look forward to the possible arrival of spring migrants, the Chiffchaff is nearly always first, but in the right conditions, later in the month, I might get lucky and find the likes of Wheatear, Sand Martin, Blackcap or even a very early Swallow, much to look forward to!

With no pictures again for the blog, ive had to delve in to the archives for an image, so here's the Chiffchaff, the bringer of spring  :-)




1 comment:

Pete Woodruff said...

What an excellent shot of the Chiffchaff Warren, the harbinger of spring.