Saturday 12 May 2012

Drama

Saturday was a really great Spring morning, with even the sun being seen. The title refers to a amazing sight of a HOBBY giving chase to the local flock of 7 SWALLOW and 2 HOUSE MARTINS it missed a kill but not by much.
In the top fields there was another WHEATEAR present , it:s been a good spring for them this year. Just 1 PIED WAGTAIL today the rest having moved on.
In the hedges today were, 4 CHIFFCHAFF, 1 WILLOW WARBLER, 6 BLACKCAP, 6 WHITETHROAT, 2 Male YELLOWHAMMER and a singing GOLDCREST. However the highlite of the walk was a TAWNY OWL in the open being mobbed by the local BLACKBIRDS etc. There were still 2 SKYLARKS singing from the rough pasture that had not been mown. Other bird seen were 2 BUZZARD, GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER, 5 STOCK DOVE, 1 RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE.. 

Destruction

The above refers to the fact Capt Twat the farmer has mown all his grass fields thereby destroying the nests of the 3/4 pairs of SKYLARKS that were nesting there .He really is a wanker .Anyway rant over it was back to the top patch this afternoon ( Friday ), It appeared that there were a few birds moving with a few departures and some arrivals . The hedgerows held CHIFFCHAFF, 3 BLACKCAP, 3 WHITETHROAT,WILLOW WARBLER but all in low numbers. The top fields produced 2 WHEATEAR ,the first for a few days, a mixed flock of 12 SWALLOW, 1 HOUSE MARTIN ,1 SAND MARTIN moving north ,as were 7 SWIFT . A lone LAPWING moving in the same direction was a rather odd sight. A small flock of 5 PIED WAGTAILS were also feeding there.
Raptors were represented by a female SPARROWHAWK and 4 BUZZARD.
It was nice to see both GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER and LONG TAILED TITS both feeding young . The usual 2 REDLEGGED PARTRIDGE and STOCK DOVE were also present. 1 BROWN HARE showed a clean pair of heals to Willow

Top and Bottom

I decided to and try to get a part of the top and lower part of my local patch into one walk today( Thursday), as driving past I could see that alot of the flood water had receded , in the event it had not receded enough for me to access the whole area. The species list was a little different but some of the hoped for species were still missed. Sadly I found that the only regular place where Lesser Whitethroat are in my patch had been cut back /destroyed , so I guess that is the end of that. So a healthy 5 BLACKCAP were again the commonest warbler, it appears to be a very good year for them , as it is for WHITETHROATS with 4 seen/heard on the walk. Although very late in arriving they appear to have done so in force this year. On the other hand only 2 CHIFFCHAFF and I think they appear to be down in numbers this year.A singing male REDSTART was nice , its good habitat in the old willows for them .Just 2 SWALLOW over but 14 plus HOUSE MARTINS near to their breeding colony was nice. On the floods themselves were 1 COOT, 3 MALLARD ,2 CANADA GEESE .A large female SPARROWHAWK zipped through the trees. Other odds and sods were PIED WAGTAIL, 2 RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE, STOCK DOVE and a GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.