Sunday 23 November 2014

Hard Yards

Sometimes its hard to keep birding on your patch when just down the road at Ashleworth and Coombe there are birds aplenty  ,that has not been the case here this week ,it has been a very quiet week with the Autumn turning (well on the calendar anyway ) turning into winter. As such most migrants seem to have passed through so if we are to reach the magic 90 species this year on the patch we are reliant on birds moving due to the weather etc. , well the weather has just stayed the same , mild and wet , not at all like the hardest winter we are supposed to be having, that being said there has been a report of 3 Waxwings on the Gloster Birder so I am going to  keep scanning all those Starling flocks  .
So over the last week visits to the patch have been few and far between with work etc getting the way ,the only high lights in my brief visits were good numbers of Redwings with most days offering 3 figure counts ,lesser numbers of Fieldfares and an obvious arrival of Starlings onto the patch on Wednesday.
Willow and I hit the patch on Saturday around mid morning ,later than normal and I always feel that I will have missed something good.
The most prevalent birds were 57 plus Redwing ,20 plus Fieldfare and 21 plus Blackbirds most were feeding on the Hawthorn berries of which there are plenty. Other Thrush present were 4 Mistle Thrush and a nice sprinkle of Song Thrush some of which were singing . The influx of Starlings I mentioned seem to have disappeared with very few around . Other birds in the hedges were 8 plus Robin ,well down on recent counts and 2 Bullfinch well away from their usual haunt .
Overhead a soaring male Sparrow hawk was nice to see , and the usual 2 other raptor species showed with a lone Buzzard and a nice male Kestrel.
A couple of Jays passed over and 4 Raven menaced the patch passing low over gronking , I love them , great lumps of bad ass , almost saying "come have a go if you think yer hard enuff " .
 On the pastures it was very quiet with 5 Meadow Pipits and just 2 Skylark . It seems an age ago we were seeing large flocks of the former as they passed through. A lone Stock Dove and a Pied Wagtail made up the pasture brigade .
As I neared the outer limit of the patch I decided to walk on the very edge of the patch as the field in question has been under crops ,there is a nice area of Silver Beech and rough ground on the margins of this field and I was rewarded with a superb flock of 15 plus Lesser redpoll feeding on the birches, I really must look there more often ! .
The best of the rest for Saturday were 2 Green Woodpecker and a good count of 4 Greater Spotted Woodpecker  .
So Sunday dawned wet after over night rain and again super mild. It seemed to be a repeat of yesterday with nice flocks of redwings ,140 plus feeding on Hawthorn berries ,good grub for a hungry bird .Fieldfares numbered just 8 today and Blackbirds remained static at 19 plus .The latter seems to at around 20 plus birds wintering on the patch this year. 4 Mistle Thrush and around 6 plus Song Thrush made up the wintering Thrushes today. There were more Starlings about with 250 plus feeding on pastures and in the old orchards  .
 In the hedges 2 Bullfinch were pewing gently and 13 plus Robins ticked at each other .
On the pastures were 4 Stock Dove and 5 Pied wagtails feeding on the manured fields. A flock of 26 Linnet paused briefly before diving for cover, these are the first birds of any number for a few weeks . 5 Red Legged Partridge crouched beneath an hedge row ,they are very under rated birds ,so pretty when you look at them .
We seem to have got our gang of Ravens back with 4 over and around the patch. Lets hope they stay for the winter.
The best of the rest were a Jay, Green Woodpecker, 2 Buzzard and 1 Greater Spotted Woodpecker.
So after a quiet week we live in hope for something exciting and wintery.

Monday 17 November 2014

White Ghost

Sorry for the late update, but I have been feeling under the weather so have not felt like updating the blog. Last week although generally quiet did have a couple of high lights the chief one being a superb Barn Owl which has been hunting along the field margins beside the magic hedge. Its also fair to say that winter Thrushes have arrived on mass with good counts of both Redwing and Fieldfares during the week .
By the time Willow and I managed to get out onto the patch Saturday it was mid morning ,much later than is normal and in truth I did not expect to see much given the migration season is all but finished .
In the hedges I still managed to find 11 Robins dotted about, the winterers having now settled in for next few months. A good count of 4 Bullfinch were seen ,their fan should be smiling for a while .
On the Thrush side 20 plus Blackbirds were about although a neighbour tells me he had counted a whooping 40 in a small copse next to his house the morning before so maybe they are still arriving .Their northern cousins put in a good show with 238 plus Fieldfare and 60 Redwing ,5 Mistle Thrush and a sprinkling of Song Thrush completed the set for the day.
On the pastures 21 plus Skylark were  nice to see ,although there were more around but I did not connect with them ,also seen was a good count of 12 Stock Dove on the stubble.
The only other birds worth a mention were a Green Woodpecker and a very vocal female Kestrel which was getting a good kicking from the local Jackdaws . There were a small number of Meadow Pipits with 5 been seen and 6 Pied wagtail bounced around the area.
A small flock of 9 Linnet seem to be wintering and a flock of 250 plus Starling were on pasture'. The final 2 birds seen were 2 Buzzards which sat  in a dead tree like the Vultures in Jungle Book.
Sunday dawned mild and grey ,still no frost .It appeared that Blackbirds had arrived overnight with 10 just on the lawn and in the end I counted 35 plus in the end ,there must be have been more around . Other Thrush seen were 102 plus Redwing and again 238 plus Fieldfare and 2 Mistle Thrush . Starlings stayed at 270 plus on the pasture , still  way down on previous years.
Other winter visitors about were 12 plus Robin dotted around in the hedges .
It was overhead which surprised me with 768 Woodpigeons moving east or south east, maybe I had missed more yesterday morning with the late start ,but it seems very late for a count of this size.
Just 3 Meadow Pipits moved over but not in any particular direction , so they must be wintering birds.
A Raven was heard ,the first for a few days and 2 Jay were heard but not seen . 16 Skylark were on the top fields and 3 Pied Wagtails were feeding in the same fields.
The usual invisible Green Woodpecker called and the local pair of Buzzards scanned the area. The final bird was the best of the day when a female Blackcap showed in the garden for a short while .A nice sighting for the time of year .
So lets hope we get some cold weather and then a few wanderers may appear on the patch

Sunday 9 November 2014

Northern invaision

Another week passes and in the last week there has been the long awaited arrival of Fieldfares .The first real numbers were seen on Thursday when with the east wind 200 plus passed southwards with a few  Redwing (20 plus),tagging along .I was woken on Thursday at 4.45am with a Tawny Owl calling from just outside the cottage.
On Friday it was not until 4pm until I got onto the patch after work but this turned out to be a great thing as at 4.15pm the 87th species for the year for the patch turned up in the form of a hunting Barn Owl which cruised back and forth along the magic hedgerow , a great bird , just stunning.
Fieldfares passed south even at that late hour with 220 over and 50 plus Redwing passed in all directions.
I had intended to hit the patch on Saturday but there was torrential rain  even with hail thrown in so it really was a quick jaunt but it was obvious that the rain had grounded a large number of Fieldfares and there were up too 600 plus feeding around the top fields ,to see these birds Willow and I had to get very wet and very dirty as the mud was very deep .It was only a few weeks ago it was as dry as a bone up there .  
So we were up and at em on Sunday and after all the rain the day dawned clear and there had been a frost. It was a lovely sight with a mist over the river meadows and the sun rising through it ,the Moon was also clearly visible and when flocks of Woodpigeons started to appear from north and pass over in a southerly direction I thought we were going to get another vis mig spectacular, as it happened 500 plus passed over in quick time but the passage then petered our as quickly as it had started.
I was ready for a mass Thrush invasion but was left a tad disappointed with totals of 74 plus Fieldfare, 25 plus Redwing ,4 Mistle  Thrush, 20 plus Blackbird and 7 plus Song Thrush which included some rather grey continental birds.
Around 100 plus Starling passed over in a westerly direction, we do not seem to have had the usual numbers this year.
On the pasture maybe a sign of cold weather to come with an influx of 53 plus Skylark including a flock of 35 plus , but only 4 Meadow Pipits today .The rest seem to have moved on. The freshly tilled field attracted 6 Pied wagtails down on the 22 that were around on Wednesday. A small flock of 7 Stock Dove were present .
 The invasion of Robins seems to have abated with a rather measly 10 seen dotted around ,but otherwise the hedges were very quiet with just a small flock of 8 Linnets been seen .
Other notable birds were a Raven ,the usual ever calling Green Woodpecker , a calling Jay (it was not seen ) ,2 Buzzards and a flock of 8 Magpie .
So we are at 87 for they year which is already 2 ahead of last year and we still have time to get to the magic 90 ,can we do it ? bring on a good cold snap and we may just get there.

Sunday 2 November 2014

late arrivals .Sunday Morning

Having Read that 22,000Woodpigeons had passed over nearby Painswick Beacon by 8.20am on Saturday morning Willow and I hit the patch at 7am. We were greeted with frequent rain showers but it was not as cold as I had expected .Needless to say we saw no Woodpigeon passage and overall the patch is still in its hiatus as far as exciting birds are concerned .
So the highlights for the proceeding week were a Lesser redpoll which visited the garden on Wednesday and a flock of 100 plus Redwing on the same day .On the same day there were a few Blackbirds liberally scattered about including some rather continental looking ones in the garden .  It was the first Autumn day to actually feel like it should although by the end of the week it was back to being all weird again ,far too mild for the time of year.
So the first bird we were greeted by was a Greater Spotted Woodpecker feeding on the fat balls in the feeders. As we left the cottage I heard the familiar sound of Fieldfare and as the walk proceeded 3 flocks of 6 , 35 and 76 appeared from the north ,its great to have them back and it now feels like Autumn proper .The other winter Thrush the Redwing numbered 84 plus birds appearing out of the murk and heading east towards the river meadows. There were Mistle Thrush passing south and 5 plus were seen passing over due south .There was a fair scattering of Blackbirds with at least 23 plus around, just a single Song Thrush this morning .We live in hope of a Ring Ouzel .
There were more Starlings of late no doubt some of our winterers having just arrived and at least 300 plus were feeding in the old orchards or passing straight over south west.
A flock of 23 plus Chaffinch dropped out of the sky from high from the east and the usual flock of 28 plus Linnet put in an appearance. The other bird that has put on a good show this Autumn,  the Robin numbered 24 plus .
On the pastureland 18 plus Skylark, which look like the wintering flock this year and just 8 Meadow Pipits put in a showing. It still looks as if Pied Wagtails are still on the move with a dozen moving around the patch .
The best of the rest were 2 Bullfinch, 7 Stock Dove and a calling Green Woodpecker .It will get better if the winds move to the East or North .