Tuesday 15 March 2011

March 15th

So, not quite the same as yesterday, as far as brightness goes but still a pleasant walk in the mist this morning, there were a few more Fieldfares and Redwings this morning, maybe a dozen of each on the edge of the overflow car park, a Mallard was making a noise in the small pond next to the main car park, several Jackdaws were flying out from the wood and a couple of Green Woodpeckers could be heard. Walking passed the veg garden a couple of Greenfinches flew up out of a nearby hornbeam hedge and I could hear Greylags in the mist (not quite the same as Gorillas, but hey!). At the lake there were 10 Greylag Geese, I think that is possibly a site record, certainly the most I've had on the lake at one time.
The fence infront is stopping people get too near last years Hornets nest!
I thought the geese were going to stay as they didn't fly until I turned to leave.

 I continued through the wood and heard my first Redpoll of the month go over. There was a sudden burst of noise as a Sparrowhawk circled over for a few seconds and then a Chiffchaff called but once again didn't sing!! Although a Goldcrest more than made up for the lack of Chiffchaff song, with a non-stop rendition of his favourite tune. Other birds included, Bullfinch, Grey Heron, Linnet, 3 Yellowhammers singing and a Treecreeper. Later speaking to Dad he reported he had seen 4 Brimstone butterflies and Steve Broyd was watching at least 5 of the day flying Orange Underwing moths when I spoke to him at lunchtime, my visits are normally too early or too late to catch up with these insects regularly, hopefully I'll get a chance at the weekend.

6 comments:

Warren Baker said...

I can sympathise with you on not getting out when you want to Alan, but at least we get some sort of daily patch visit :-)

Alan Pavey said...

Hi Warren, You're absolutely right, I'm grateful to get out as much as I do and as it gets warmer I do find a few Butterflies and Dragonflies in the mornings, if I'm lucky :-)

ShySongbird said...

You're beating me on butterflies as well as a Chiffchaff!

You also saw a lot more than I did today. After a few days of glorious sunshine we had mist most of the day today and most of the birds seemed to have disappeared into it :(

Rachel J said...

How much longer will the winter thrushes be here? It only seems like five minutes ago they started to be around. Where do the days go.

Anonymous said...

As soon as the sun shows it`s face & it warms up, i`ll be on the lookout for Orange Underwings up here.

Alan Pavey said...

Hi ShySongbird, It's nice that my Dad walks round the patch as well, he was quite pleased with his Brimstones :-) It was our turn for the mist this morning, so my list pretty much halved today!!

Hi Rach, the Thrushes might make it to the end of the month but April records for me are not the norm, it is flying by, I haven't forgot about a Norfolk date just having trouble getting to sit down and workout what I'm doing!!

Hi Dean, I hope you find Orange Underwing, I've never seen them, I'm hoping this weekend could be the time to find them :-)