If you have add a species to the patch list then the fantastic male Merlin that hurtled through the patch on Thursday is a good one to do it with ! .It was heading due north so perhaps it was the first noticeable spring migrant, its the third patch record for this bird and I love them .
So the other midweek highlight was a Tawny Owl that was calling early afternoon , a larger flock of 250 plus Fieldfare heading north east and the wintering flock of Starlings which is at a steady 500 to 700 birds , they soon will be heading to the north for the summer .
Saturday dawned like a spring day, sunshine, light winds ,snowdrops in almost every available space and the first Lambs on the pasture.
It was therefore a little disappointing to find that it was a quiet walk .The local Buzzards are much more in evidence with 3 around the patch today and the other raptor was a male Kestrel which passed over.
Winter Thrushes were 10 plus Redwing and 117 plus Fieldfare and 250 plus Starling keeping them company on the wet pasture.
Linnets are back with a singing bird and 2 others floating about ,but I also discovered a flock 32 on the top fields ,wintering or passage birds are my guess . 7 Skylarks (4 singers ) are still trying to kick start spring but there were only 6 Meadow Pipits today ,the rest of them must have started heading northwards to their breeding grounds.
The best of the rest were a Green Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, 3 Red Legged Partridge, 3 Stock Dove ,Bullfinch ,Pied Wagtail over and still 2 Moorhen.
Sunday and it was back to wind and heavy showers and again it was quiet ,that been said there was a large flock of 200 plus Fieldfare, 300 plus Redwing and 200 plus Starling all feeding on the pasture near the cottage this morning.
Skylarks numbered 12 with again a fair few singers. Meadow Pipits just 4 today. The rest of a rather paltry list (highlights only), were Pied Wagtail ,calling Bullfinch, Buzzard, 2 Stock Dove .Lets hope things start picking up soon .
The patch list advances to 54
