Sunday 7 September 2014

After the lords Mayors show

A quiet benign morning ,with little or no wind ,grey skies and a quiet vibe. I get the feeling that things have slowed down somewhat after the relative rush of birds that my little patch has had recently.
As is the case at this time of year the main Warbler species that is passing through at the moment appears to be the Chiffchaff with 15 plus again today (down from yesterday),  I did manage to find a single Willow warbler today, the first for a few days. Also present were 2 Whitethroat ,and 2 Blackcap. So you can see its the quietest its been for a few weeks now.
However overhead a few birds were moving over ,if not in large numbers there are signs of the changing seasons . 2 Grey Heron moved north ,it would seem that they had roosted at the local fish ponds and 3 Cormorants passed over . Again a Pied Wagtail passed south west the forerunner of passage which gets going in October.   
Swallows trickled through with just 38 plus passing in all directions this morning and House Martins were still active around the local colony with 10 plus birds and another 2 passed high south west.
There are more Finches around at the moment and a fine flock of Goldfinch numbering 41 passed over and in the end there were  around 55 plus over in the entire walk .
It was also nice to see 9 Linnet pausing briefly and there were more Chaffinches of late .The finch compliment was made up of 2 Bullfinch . My Bullfinch fan will be pleased to know they seem to have taken up residence once again in the local vicinity.
Carrying on with the Autumnal theme I managed to see yesterdays Jay (or was it another one? ) ,  and today there were 11 Meadow Pipits on pasture but the Skylarks had moved on. The annual build up of Starlings has started and today there were around 220 plus around ,they are attracted by the fruit on the trees in some of the old orchards that we still have around here.
Raptors were a female Kestrel ,male Sparrow hawk and 2 Buzzard ,a couple of Raven flew low calling as they passed over.
We seem to be awash with Woodpeckers at the moment with 2 Green Woodpeckers and at least 6 Greater spotted seen this morning .
4 Stock Dove were last birds to make the log today .Just a small note yesterday I noticed that we seem to have had an influx of Robins onto the patch with at least 15 seen yesterday and it was the same today so it was not me just imagining it. I remarked to a visitor to the patch yesterday that one or two looked quite continental but surely its bit early yet for them to have arrived for the winter ?
Well lets see what next week has in store .