Monday 16 May 2011

Last night and this morning

A quick walk between 6pm and 7pm yesterday evening was all I could manage, most of the people had left and at first I thought the birds had left to! Gradually though some birds appeared a few LINNETS were again in the veg garden and a yesterdays missing LESSER WHITETHROAT started singing. SKYLARKS occasionally lifted and dropped in the winter wheat and a YELLOWHAMMER landed close but just on the other side of the hedge. I looked up and directly above was a CORMORANT flying south, Cormorants are not uncommon here but can be quite sporadic and generally involve birds just flying over, a Cormorant sitting on the lakes is pretty rare. I managed to add BULLFINCH, GARDEN WARBLER and KESTREL out in the fields and as I headed back to the car a GOLDCREST was singing and a BUZZARD drifted low over the wood.

This morning was another brief visit 7am - 7.45am, a slightly scruffy Blackbird checked me out as I got out of the car. I added a few of the regulars as I left the car park then the first bird I saw flying across the valley following the line of the stream was a MUTE SWAN (98), this is only the 3rd record in 14 years and a welcome addition to the year list. The pair of COLLARED DOVES were again on the holiday let and the SPOTTED FLYCATCHER was pretty vocal nearby, there were 2 MOORHENS in the moat and on the lake the Moorhens had young that could be heard in the reeds and were glimpsed a couple of times.



On the lower lake there were 2 GREYLAGS and a female MALLARD that had just 3 ducklings, they are the first I've seen here this year and would normally expect to see 4 times that amount, so maybe there are still a few Mink around or she's encountered some other problem. As I walked back MISTLE THRUSHES were out in the sheep field with 15-20 STARLINGS that also included several young birds. A GOLDCREST alighted for a second or two at eye level two feet in front of me and a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was using a gate to survey the grass below.

3 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Well done on that Mute Swan Alan! It's just a matter of luck weather you connect with them flying over, much the same here :-)

Looks like I need one more species to catch up again now !

ShySongbird said...

Well done with the Mute Swan Alan. It seems odd that you don't see them there very often.

Lovely photo of the Blackbird 'giving you the eye' :) Nice to see the GSW in a slightly unusual place too.

Alan Pavey said...

Hi Warren, Thanks, they are surprisingly tricky to catch up with and as you say it's just luck of the draw. You must be due another year tick even though it is slowing down now for us :-)

Hi ShySongbird, Thanks, It was a nice to add to the list and an unusual sight over the valley. I think we don't see many, due to no large bits of water or any rivers for them to follow nearby and the warden keeps resisting my attempts to persuade him we should have a large lake out in the middle of one the crop fields!! :-)