Monday 27 May 2013

Another outing for the hide! and Woodcock survey

A good weather Bank Holiday, a rarity in itself! I managed a few hours out plus a quick visit to Rye Harbour for  TEREK SANDPIPER, great bird!!!
On the patch I managed 57 species over the weekend. There was nothing new for the year but some interesting sightings nonetheless. A couple of pairs of LONG TAILED TITS were busy visiting their respective nests feeding their young, other young in evidence were MOORHEN, MALLARD, MISTLE THRUSH and STARLING.
The youngsters are about

 

Young Mistle Thrush

There were a few SWIFT, SWALLOW and HOUSE MARTIN moving through but really small numbers, 6 SWIFT being the largest gathering! COMMON BUZZARDS tussled over the fields and over the house and 2 SPARROWHAWK were seen on Saturday with plus 1 KESTREL. Today a HOBBY added to the raptor count. After a 5 SPOT FLYS last week I could only find 1 today. A male REED BUNTING sung from the top lake the first one I've found this spring since the winter birds finally disappeared. Other birds this weekend were, KINGFISHER, LITTLE OWL, GOLDCREST, MARSH TIT, NIGHTINGALE and at least4 pairs of YELLOWHAMMER.
This morning I gave the hide another outing, I found a sunny corner and basically sat and waited. Below are a couple of the results of the 90 mins I spent looking into the bushes :-)
Nightingale above and below


This Great Spot dropped in briefly

Common Whitethroat

Finally Thursday night I joined a couple of friends to check out the Woodcocks locally between us we managed 45 sightings in a couple of hours plus one of us had Nightjar. Several times I had 2 birds together and it stayed dry, I'm looking forward to this weeks session.
A vocal Grey Heron!


11 comments:

Greenie said...

Alan ,
'Heinz' is a good species count for the weekend , and good numbers of youngsters too hopefully .
That new hide seems to be working well .
Great Woodcock numbers .

Warren Baker said...

57 species for the weekend, I had 58, :-)

Good to see you're finding successful breeding evidence Alan, I have yet to find a fledged Mistlethrush.

Isidro Ortiz said...

Bonitas capturas Alan.Un abrazo

Lasse said...

Hi Alan ! Wonderful captures !

Pete Woodruff said...

Another excellent illustrated account Alan, with Nightingale and Nightjar, two species I'm unlikely to see in my area.

No pic of the Terek then Alan?

Magia da Inês said...

¸.•°❤❤⊱彡

L I N D Í S S I M O !
Você conseguiu um bela série de fotos.

Boa semana!
Beijinhos do Brasil.
¸.•°❤❤⊱彡

ShySongbird said...

Great sightings and a very nice collection of photos Alan. Lovely to see the ducklings and the young Mistle Thrush. Very envious about the Nightingale, I have never caught one on camera.

Marc Heath said...

Great clear shots Alan. Could you give us a shout if you get any Beautiful Demoiselles sightings as I may be tempted down your way for them.

Helma said...

I read that you are now well on the weekend saw 57 different types of Allan?? Very cool that you saw so many. You leave here again see some beautiful pictures of the woodpecker, the young thrush, blue heron and other birds.
Greetings, Helma

Rohrerbot said...

What an incredible number! Nine work and great shots of all your birds. Very exciting day:) I love those kinds of finds:)

Anonymous said...

i am envious that you have so much wonderful wildlife to capture