Saturday 11 January 2014

Sunny Saturday

A fantastic morning, a slight frost ,clear blue skies ,slight breeze, get out on the patch my son and that is what Willow and I did.
So first of all the most obvious birds were Fieldfare with 200 plus and Redwing with a whooping 500 plus feeding on the damp pasture and hedgerows ,a couple of Mistle Thrush and a sprinkling of Song Thrushes were also about. There was also 300 plus Starling keeping them company.
Overall it was pretty quiet but we did bump up the species number by 3 with a fine male Yellowhammer ,an unseen Moorhen calling from a pond and a couple of Long Tailed Tits on the feeders.
Raptors were represented by 3 Buzzards getting the most out of the conditions . Stock doves were about with 7 seen today and the Skylark flock numbered 25 plus. There was just a single Meadow Pipit today.
I have also noticed over the last couple of days some very high flying flocks of Woodpigeons heading north and East are they already moving north ? ,they look as if they are but it would seem a little early yet .That been said there is certainly more bird song than of late with Dunnock, Song Thrush, Great Tit ,Stock Dove all chipping in
The species count now stands at 41.

A midweek update

Midweek on the patch and the usual time restraints meant only brief visits, but still a few highlights. Firstly was a fine sighting of a Fox strolling across a flooded field ,great to see !
Winter Thrushes both Fieldfare and Redwing were present in good number with peak counts of 70 plus Redwing and 138 plus Fieldfare there were also a couple of Mistle Thrush thrown in for good measure.
The Skylark flock seems to be thinning out with a peak of 14 and Meadow Pipits are steady still at 14 birds .It is nice to report that we achieved a count of 4 Raven on Friday not just the usual 1 or 2.
A Peregrine Falcon stormed across the patch no doubt on its way to Ashleworth  causing panic as it did so.
Black Headed Gulls were still evident over the floods with 120 plus on Friday, with them were small numbers of Lesser Black Backed, Common and Herring Gulls .
There were  small numbers of Stock Dove present and we pushed the species count up by one with a Greater Spotted Woodpecker ,a bit overdue if you do not mind me saying so.
That now brings us up to 38