Its summer on the patch and grass has been cut for silage and there is a general feeling of high summer .
Its been over a week since I updated the blog so I will start with last Saturday. It was mid morning by the time I got out onto the patch ,as I was feeling very under the weather .
In the hedgerows were 7 Chiffchaff, 5 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat .There is much less bird song now so its not quite as easy to find your quarry sometimes.
Overhead 2 Raven were loudly calling and 13 plus local Swallows were about along 10 plus House Martins and briefly a lone Swift. The local Buzzards were out in force with 5 been seen and a female Sparrow hawk cruised over. 1 Grey Heron passed upriver .
On the pastures just 2 Skylark were singing ,its seems to have a good year for them this year . 5 Stock Dove were in the usual haunts.
The local Little Owls still seem to be have problems sleeping with 2 calling to each at around midday.
One Pied Wagtail was feeding in a fodder beet fields and a Greater Spotted Woodpecker bounced over towards its nest sight , I can hear the young within the nest.
Regular readers may remember me wanting to know where if any were any Spotted Flycatchers were nesting, well I found out that a pair are nesting in middle of the village after being alerted by a local reader who asked me to come down and id a brown bird that had a nest in their honey suckle, I was over joyed to find a pair of Spotties .
Today Wednesday another Summer treat found when a Red Kite was seen by myself feeding on road kill on the out skirts of the village, it glided over my head no further than 6 foot above my head bloody fantastic. It would be great if there is a pair nearby .They are great birds and I think that maybe at last they are spreading our way ,about time too !
There are 4/5 pairs of House Martins nesting on the houses close by ,its nice to see them over the garden in the hot weather, I just wish they would choose my cottage ,here hoping for next year. I may invest in a Martin nest box for next year.
So Autumn in the bird world is approaching fast and in a few short weeks the first Autumn migrants will appear on the patch. Our patch list stands at 77 ,will we beat or even equal the 88 we got last year. It had better be a good Autumn .
