Friday, 8 February 2013

All things bright and beautiful....

Bright blue sky, sunshine with little cloud (initially)greeted me in Five Oak Green this morning when I arrived at 0915.  House Sparrow, Collared Dove, Wood Pigeon, Robin, Great Tit and Dunnock were all obvious as I 'wellied' up for the walk to the pits.
A slight NNW wind was rather cooling to say the least so neither the sun nor the cold wind seem to be the winner.
Setting off across Moat Farm orchard Blue Tits and Starlings appeared immediately followed by Chaffinch.  Some Fieldfares had taken it upon themselves to greet me just a few trees in and somewhat odd to see this before hearing the local Song Thrush chiming from near where I had left the car.
A Blackbird exclaimed my presence to others as a Crow slowly flap-flapped across the orchard.
Goldcrest and Goldfinch were both in attendance at the first house a couple of hundred metres in to the orchard.
I pressed on but the orchard became rather quiet with little to see or hear.  As I approached the Poplars at the northern edge of the orchard a lone Jackdaw called with a Little Egret in the distance patrolling one of the ditches.  The Poplars themselves only gave up Jay and Green Woodpecker, so I headed off across the fields.
No large flock of winter thrushes nor any large Corvid flock here this week.  Very quiet indeed so progress across the open fields was quite quick.  As I reached the northern side of the first field a few, possibly 5, Skylark were near by, though very scattered.  In the next field more were present, possibly another 10-15, though again they were very scattered and none singing on the outward trip.
As I approached the pits themselves a pair of Magpies went by and a Wren popped up but soon popped down again.  Dont blame it really, the slight breeze was quite cold at this point so it was nice to gain a little cover around the pits and enjoy some warming sunshine.
Initially the Coot count seemed low as there were few on the first pit, however, 65 was the final total.  64 Tufted Duck, 38 Gadwall, 4 Great Crested Grebe, 10 Pochard, 1 Little Grebe, 2 Mallard, 2 Moorhen, 52 Black Headed Gull, 1 Common Gull, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Goldeneye, 3 Grey Heron, 27 Cormorant, 2 Mute Swan, 14 Lapwing, 8 Herring Gull, 55 Teal, 1 Shoveller, 1 Greylag, 3 Snipe.
6 Bullfinch were along the shrubs by the pits.  A good number of Corvids were on the far side of the pits as well, mostly Jackdaws, some Crows and Rooks.
The trip back was again quiet across the fields, the only real difference being a couple of Skylark singing.
A Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard drumming from one copse to my left, immediately followed by another from the right, clearly drumming out their Summer living quarters.
Returning to the orchard I reached the still empty Poplars when a large flock, around 200 birds, arose from the orchard and landed in the end tree.  It was clear there were several different species in the flock.  Fieldfares being the most numerous, though Starling s were well populated.  Redwing and Chaffinch made up the numbers.
Finally reaching the southern side of the orchard a Mistle Thrush began to sing. 
1130 back at the car.

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