Sunday 22 March 2015

Winters last /Summers first

The  last week has seen a few birds move through the patch with winters birds overlapping the first of the spring migrants.
On Wednesday in a quick lunch time dash on only part of the patch I found the first 3 Chiffchaff of the year ( number 57 for the year ) along the magic hedgerow , they were feeding quietly all in the same bush ,one bird looked very grey but I am not brave enough to claim a Sibe , along side them was another migrant Gold crest .They were obviously newly arrived birds as they fed very close to where I was standing ,unconcerned about my presence. also seen on my dash was another Sparrowhawk which passed over and a good count of 11 Buzzards were up enjoying the conditions. Add to that a pair of displaying Ravens and it turned out to be a good little half an hour.
So when Saturday arrived Willow and I were out by 7.30am .We emerged into bright sunshine if not a little colder than of late.
The first bird to hit the radar was a calling Green Woodpecker but as usual we did not see it ,we did however see another later on in the walk .The other member of the woodpecker family we see here The Greater Spotted got into the act with 1 drumming bird and then a flyover pair .
Winter Thrush have still been passing through and after seeing small numbers of Redwings  ( 1 to 5 birds), it was a surprise to find 28 plus birds including one flock of 21 that passed over due north. Fieldfares have been seen in just ones and twos of late so when  I entered the top field s I was not expecting a large flock of 141 plus ! They have been in much lower numbers of late so these must be passing migrants.
Along side them were a nice number of 9 Skylarks many of which were singing . A small number of 7 Meadow Pipits passed over north.
From somewhere in the hedges called a Red Legged Partridge and a nice showing of 8 Stock Dove was nice. After a few days of double figure counts of Pied Wagtails it was back to earth on Saturday with just 2 seen .I have not found a White wagtail yet in amongst the smart Pied yet.
After the winters absence it was great to hear the song of 4 newly arrived Chiffchaffs ,they will increase over the next few weeks, although looking back they were 3 days later than last year.
On the raptor front a female Kestrel was seen getting a good kicking from the local Jackdaws and 3 Buzzards were up and about. Species number 58 then appeared on the radar when a Little  Owl was heard calling from one of the old trees ,it must have had a bad night as it was calling at 8.45am.
A single Jay was seen flying strongly northwards. On the pastureland a good size flock of 30 plus Lesser Blacked Backed Gulls and 18 Herring Gulls were present.
 So with a good Saturday in the bag it seemed only right that we would find our first Wheatear on a grey but milder Sunday morning , well we didn't and overall it seemed a fairly quiet and disappointing walk, but as usual the patch will always find a little something to keep you coming back.
The first part of the walk was pretty quiet with very little to report apart from the good numbers of Skylarks which were singing, I counted 8 in the end. There appeared to be a few more Pied wagtails passing this morning but we still only counted a total of 6 in the end.
On the pastures were a Red Legged Partridge ,a count of 11 Stock Dove which is almost usual now.
As I neared the old orchard an unfamiliar song rang out ,I knew from  it somewhere  and it proved that I was right in searching the old grey matter when I saw a Redwing in full song .I had heard when in Northern Finland a few summers ago. In the end I counted just 4 Redwing in total will they be the last until the Autumn ?
As I walked further on a single Meadow Pipit passed over northwards, but my attention was then drawn to a further flock of 30 plus which landed a ploughed field. They seemed to have dropped from on high as I had not even clocked them until they were almost above me.
From the nearby trees and hedges 2 Chiffchaff  called there numbers down from yesterday ,no doubt the other birds had moved on.
Getting to the top fields I soon picked out a few Fieldfares but all of sudden they all erupted into the air and over 240 plus were counted along side 80 plus Starling ,at first I was annoyed with myself but suddenly realised it was not me that had put them to flight but a superb male Peregrine Falcon which screamed through the centre of the wheeling flock. Bloody fantastic !
The best of the rest were 2 Green Woodpecker, 2 Greater Spotted Woodpecker and 2 Buzzard.
 So winter birds still linger with us and the first summer migrants are starting to arrive and we found 2 new species for the year although I think we may be a bit behind last year at his same point.
Things should start to quicken up in the next few weeks, so in the words of Shaw Taylor "keep em peeled".

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