Tuesday 30 April 2013

A good walk with plenty of species seen today , I visited Coombe Hill Meadows on Sunday but failed to see the Great White Egret that is there but I did see plenty of other good birds (see gloster birder).So I was lucky today as it was a Dutch bank holiday so I was off work today .I debated where to go but in the end I opted to walk the patch.
The first birds I saw were 2 Greylag Geese which flew over the house a new year species for the patch.
Blackcaps were plentiful today with 9 singing today,perhaps migrants moving through. The Buzzards were making use of the strong breeze today with 4 soaring around today. Skylarks were singing well with 9 in the fields today and scanning the hedgerows found 6 Whitethroats .
Still hardly any House Martins with just 1 but there were 6 plus Swallows ,some were seen taking mud from puddles for their nests.
I went to the very edge of the patch today something I should do more often as it brought 1 singing Willow Warbler and views of a Lesser Whitethroat .
As I made my way home I checked to see if the Wheatears were still there and was pleased to see 1 male, I was wondering whether it was the same bird as of  last few days when after scanning one of the top fields  I found another 5 birds including a cracking Greenland male, its amazing to think that this bird may end up breeding in Greenland or even Arctic Canada 
The patch list now stands at 74.
One last thing a warm welcome to the new readers from the Tirley village website. If you have any sighting or questions just let me know.