March is upon us...let the birds commence....! Well, maybe next week...
Out of the car and a Greenfinch is singing, a Goldfinch flies over and then a Chaffinch joins the finch-fest....add Bullfinch to this list and its pretty good going....
Crow, Woodpigeon, MistleThrush, Song Thrush......and some Mallards in the ditch by the car....
.....no winter thrushes present again today...second visit in a row that has happened....so..there they go...
Ducks have had a bit of a clear out again...not many Gadwall left compared to the past few weeks numbers, maybe 20...the male and female Goldeneye are still present and about 30 Shoveler....4 Teal were seen but more were calling from the small hidden pool.....
Feral Pigeons gritting
2 Buzzards were calling, todays only raptor...a Grey Wagtail was near the bridge at the west pit and at least 3 Yellowhammers were singing....
The geese were still in the fields to the south of the pits....74 Canadas south of middle pit and 182 Greylag south of west pit by the footpath....
The mixed flock of Linnets and Reed Buntings were still at warbler corner, but fewer in number.....
And then a Cettis Warbler sang.....several times....it was located at hidden pool....is this the first real migrator? They don't over winter here and they don't breed here with this being the third record since I started watching the pits....so where has it come from and where is it going to?? Its interesting that the habitat they seem to like, scrubby Willow with a bit of reed, is reasonably abundant at Whetsted yet no Cettis call the pits home....
Maybe its a bird that over winters here in the UK and is moving to breeding grounds....I don't think it would be an early migrator....
Finally....I saw this bird briefly a few weeks ago....but it was only a flurry in the long grass....
....today it was out on the fields just south of Big Mound....it is a black, male Pheasant...a cross bred, or hybrid, Pheasant....heres a brief explanation I found....
'Pheasants are bred in huge numbers as game birds by the big country estates, a while back some of these estates started cross breeding with birds from the far east, the result is almost a hybrid bird showing a single colour, mostly all black or Dark green.....two stories I have been told, large shooting parties often placed large sums of money as wagers on shoots. so if two people shot the same amount of birds. then it was decided who had won, by counting the numbers of single colour birds, which had a higher point score, not sure I believe that, but the best story, a landowner fed up with his neighbouring estate, shooting what he thought was his birds, cross bred his birds with imported birds to achieve the single colour, therefore he could check his neighbours kills and should he see one of his birds, then he could charge accordingly, not sure if these stories are true but the cross breeding is...'
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