Bluebells in the Greenhouse Copse

The decent weather of late has always been at the expense of fog or early cloud to blight the dawn, but this morning it was sunny from the off, allowing the camera to come out  :-)

After yesterdays mammoth species count, with additions to both year and months lists, todays patch walk was a little more subdued, only to be expected I suppose. The five hour walk produced a much more representative species tally for my patch, with 45 species being found, the only addition to yesterday was a flyover MEADOW PIPIT, they are getting few and far between now, and will cease to be recorded here anyday now.

Dunnock

Plenty of these on my patch, and they always oblige for the camera

I checked the MISTLETHRUSH nest, it was ok, but the male was seeing off a Squirrel that had strayed to near the nest, the GREYLAG GOOSE, CANADA GOOSE, MUTE SWAN and COOTS are all incubating at the lakes, but nothing else was of much note o the water.

Song was much more subdued in the Scrubby Woods this morning, maybe because of the wind, which had picked up a bit, BLACKCAPS, CHIFFCHAFFS, WRENS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS and BLACKBIRDS dominated, but occasional song from GOLDCREST and COAL TIT was also heard. A pair of MANDARIN DUCK flew from the Wet Woods, where GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and NUTHATCH called from near their nest sites.

Out on the fields at Migrant Alley there was no sign of a Wheatear for the April list, most unusual not to find one in April, nor much else out there really, just the ROOKS foraging for leather jackets to feed their offspring.

My hour long sky watch was reasonable, with BUZZARDS seen in whatever direction I looked, two of them being local birds, a pair of SPARROWHAWKS were the only other raptors seen today. Only 4 HERRING GULLS went over, and 1 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, the local LINNETS, PIED WAGTAILS and GOLDFINCH'S moved around the Greenhouse Grounds and across the sheep pasture, the only other noteworthy sighting was of 3 SKYLARKS chasing about over the Ashes Lane Field.

Lots of Orange Tips about today, males and females, but the males weren't sitting open winged for me today!

Orange Tip, Female

Orange Tip, Female

Orange Tip, Male

Orange Tip, Male

It took a while for early cloud to clear this morning, but when it did, the remainder of the day was left sunny and warm.

My five hour full patch walk yielded a mammoth 53 species, just about every bird species that resides on my patch was found! The undoubted highlight of them all was hearing, then watching, my first CUCKOO (81,63) of 2014, alas it didn't stay, but continued NW across my patch. Its arrival here is just one day earlier than the 12 year median average arrival date.

I checked up on all the nest sites I know about, MISTLETHRUSH, MUTE SWAN, GREYLAG GOOSE, CANADA GOOSE and COOT, finding them all ok, I also saw 2 male MANDARIN DUCKS on the main lake while checking the geese nests. The LITTLE OWLS at the old shack in the Ashes Lane Field, may be nesting, and one was heard to call this morning.

Much bird song was heard in the Scrubby Woods, but the most pleasing song was from the WILLOW WARBLER - one of my favourites  :-) Whilst I stood and listened to the singing, I saw my first CORMORANT (64) of the month flyover, the April list is slowly creeping along, but is still in 11th place out of the 13 Aprils so far recorded, another 11 species will need to be found just to equal the average species count of the previous 5 years.

My sky watch today produced a few HERRING GULL, 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS, 4 BUZZARDS up together, a sparrowhawk, and the male KESTREL, the female hasn't been seen for a few days so she may well be in the nest box at the greenhouse Grounds. More SWALLOWS have arrived, at least 6 were feeding over the sheep pasture, and the SKYLARK pair sang for most of the hour I sat at my seat.

Later in the morning I spied my first HOLLY BLUE butterfly of the year, the 10th species so far for 2014, and also added Red Admiral to the April butterfly tally.

Not much action for the camera today, just these from my garden.

STARLING

Wood Mouse

.