Thursday, 11 April 2013

Out of Africa....

.....and home.......

3 Swallows
1 Willow Warbler

.....and lots more Chiffchaffs....

Some days are saved by the bird...not the bell....Mr Met Office said dry today, should have known better!
Anyway, by 8am this morning I had had enough of shall I shall I not....so I got ready and managed to get to site by 9am.

0900 Overcast, grey, brightening later, light drizzle to start.  Light N / NE breeze.
A cheery Robin attempted to make me think it was a great idea to walk off in to the, well, not quite sunset (there wasnt any sun!)....it proved to be so, but at the time any sane person may have thought differently.
Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Crow, Woodpigeon all made their entrance 'stage right'.
Off across the orchard with a Fieldfare calling along with Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock and Blackbird.  A Starling whistled and crackled from a tree and a Green Woodpecker yaffled several times.  So, with the first 50 metres of the orchard gone....it was a quiet walk to the northern boundary with nothing to report...a Wren broke the lack of writing.
Off across the field 3 Mallard arose from the ditch and flew off West....I could see another 3 further along the field and for a while I seemed to be herding them along, but finally they lost control and flew off East.  This signalled the Skylark to commence singing and a Pheasant clucked distantly as a Great Spotted Woodpecker drilled.
The going, as they say, was heavy under foot.  My boots covered in mud I was glad to reach the pits where a Blue Tit was waiting patiently to be noted.  A Magpie sat on the fence admiring the birds on the water.  A Song Thrush toot-tooted....toot-tooted....and a Long Tail Tit appeared.
At the pits - loads of Reed Bunting everywhere, a Herring Gull flew over heading north and was joined at a steady rate by more during my visit.  Chiffchaffs were either calling or singing all round the pits, 42 Coot, 46 Tufted Duck, 9 Mallard, 3 Gadwall, 12 Great Crested Grebe, 11 Cormorant, 3 Little Grebe, 8 Moorhen, 29 Shoveller, 5 Teal, 2 Lesser Black Back Gull, 2 Pochard, 4 Mute Swan, 1 Water Rail gave good views, 3 Snipe, 2 Lapwing flew over heading East, 2 Canada Geese flew in as did 2 Greylag Geese a little later, 1 Grey Heron, 4 (four!) Black Headed Gull.  There was plenty of Green Woodpecker action around the pits.
Whilst wandering along the pits 3 Swallows appeared and spent a good deal of time swooping along the planted area where a considerable amount of food was available.  So nice to see this bird home from a corner of a foreign field. 

They rested on some bushes for a while, from the tail streamers I think these have got to be males, the other bird had shorter streamers....sorry about the poor quality, I had to use my phone through my scope as yet again I had forgotten my camera, it probably would have been better quality if it had been sunny, like the Met Office had said it would be...!!

It got better....a Willow Warbler sang a few times.  Great!!
There was also Jay and Great Tit present.
On the way back across the field a Meadow Pipit was found.  I was beginning to think all the Yellowhammers had gone again...until one gave itself away on the northern edge of the orchard high up in a Poplar.
Back to the car by 1200.

Heres a picture of some Coltsfoot.  I meant to post this a couple of posts ago, to show that, despite the weather, the plants were, in fact, determined....

1 comment:

  1. I ''ummed'' and ''arred'' whether to get out early this morning Graham, I did go out but came back again shortly after.

    A later visit in the day was a bit better.

    Good to hear the Willow warblers are about, a bird not often seen here :-(

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