Sunday 15 March 2015

Glad to be back

With 2 weeks being off the patch due to working abroad, Willow and I were out early by 6.30am . The weather was grey ,with cold north wind and the odd bout of drizzle .It was in stark contrast to the weather I had enjoyed when working in Holland.
I was hoping to pick up the first spring migrant but I failed in that quest but I did however manage to see a few birds on the move.
Overhead there was some movement with a good steady flow of Lesser Black Backed Gulls moving north ,some where in the region of 100 plus moved over along with smaller numbers of Herring , Black Headed and Common Gulls . Along side them were a good number of Starlings that headed north for about an hour just after 6,30am  , some 850 plus were counted .Winter Thrush are still about with 50 Fieldfare which flew over due north and a further 20 plus were on the top fields. In sharp contrast were the small number of Redwings with just 4 seen this morning ,3 over north and a single bird in cover.
On the pasture land were up to 6 singing Skylarks , many have now left to their breeding grounds else where . In the top fields (which is looking good for Wheatears right now ), there was a mixed flock of 10 plus Pied Wagtails and 10 plus Meadow Pipits .
At last I have something to report from the hedgerows with the finding of 2 migrant Gold crest,  I was hoping for an early Chiffchaff but it was a sign of some spring migrants moving ,it also brought the number of species seen this year to 55 .
Its pleasing to also report 3 Ravens around after a few weeks absence. As I walked along the edge of the top fields 2 birds leapt from the field edge and into a nearby hedgerow, getting my bins onto them brought me a cracking view of 2 male Reed Bunting ,with a good number seen on  a fellow birders patch at Hartpury , it was nice to eventually borrow a couple. They are most likely birds moving to their breeding grounds elsewhere as they do not as far as I know breed on the patch . So in 2 brief moments two new species were added to the year list with Reed Bunting taking us to 56 .
We still seem to be hanging onto a few more Stock Doves than normal with 8 plus seen around the patch .There were some that were singing and displaying around the breeding areas.
On the Woodpecker front there were 3 drumming Greater Spotted and 1 plus calling Green Woodpecker although once again I never caught sight of it.
The best of the rest was a single Buzzard.
So the species list jumps to 56