Bank holiday Monday and I had to work so I did not get out until lunchtime, a hot cloudless day greeted me and although Idid not cover the entire patch ,there were some cracking birds around today. Number 75 for the patch came in the form of a cracking male Whinchat in the same hedgerow as last year .
Warblers were represented by 6 Blackcap, 6 Whitethroat, 4 Chiffchaff and still 2 Lesser Whitethroat, although Willow Warblers seem to have moved on .
A fine male Yellow Wagtail flew over calling and there were up too 5 Buzzards around. At least a few House Martins were over the village , stll only 3 though , 4 Swallow went over.
There were 2 male Wheatears both away from the usual place one in the horse paddocks and one in a hedgerow.
The best of the rest were 3 Skylark, 2 Stock Dove and a Red Legged Partridge .
The patch list is now 75

A breezy day ,with an annoying strong south westerly wind , it has been a really poor spring and we seem to have lost all our House Martins this year , it has not been helped by the destruction of the largest colony by the local householder, over 50 nests , all because of the mess they make ,so very sad .I really feel that when you move to the countryside that you have embrace the other inhabitants that may live near or next too you.
On the patch migrants continue to filter through and in the hedges I found 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Whitethroat,  a good count of 3 all singing Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Blackcap.
In the top fields there were 4 Wheatear 2male ,2 female, and a Yellow Wagtail flew over calling. Still only very few Swallow with only 5 recorded today and just 2 House Martin.
The best of the rest were 3Skylark, 2 Red Legged Partridge, 2 Linnet, 7 Stock Dove and a male Kestrel. 

A fantastic day ,with  light winds and a balmy feel, due to work pressures it was just an hour on the patch early afternoon .
Warblers in the hedges were 3 Chiffchaff, 6 Whitethroats, 4 Blackcaps and best of all 2 Lesser Whitethroats , one in a new location and one chortling away behind the house early morning.
It must of been perfect for Buzzards as I recorded 13 today including a flock of 8 together soaring together , no doubt some were migrants passing over .
Still very few Swallows only 4 today, where are they ? . I wondered up to the top fields but there was only 1 male Wheatear today ,the rest having moved on.
The best of the rest were 3 Red Legged Partridge, female Kestrel ,3 Skylark

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.    

A late walk around the patch today , and to be honest I was thinking how poor this spring had been , and how to keep writng the same thing over and over again . In the end I managed to find three new species for the patch list.
just 2 Blackcap were singing (it was late afternoon ), but for the first time this year I managed to get into double figures with Swallows with 10 plus over/through .I got nice close up views of Stock Dove (4), they really are fantastic.
A Raven was mobbing a Buzzard (5 today), but no sign of the Kestrel today. Walking across the fields turned up 5 Skylark and 3 Whitethroat in the hedges.A nice suprise was a calling Curlew close by, did not see though .There was a small flock of Gulls on ploughed fields with 25 Lesser Black Backed and 1 Herring Gull present.
It was then things picked up with 4 Chiffchaff and then a male and female Wheatear on the top fields(3 weeks later than last year). A brief sound alerted me to a Lesser Whitethroat in the hedgerows . So by this time I was feeling pretty pleased with myself having added 2 new species to the patch list so as I was almost home  a bird darted from some hawthorns , a quick glance through the bino"s and there was a cracking male Redstart .
So it turned out to be a cracking walk.
The patch list moves to 73

A great day , after a cracking visit to Ashleworth on Sunday (please see gloster birder), it was back to the patch .The first thing I  heard were 2 Blackcaps singing and after a walk around the patch it was obvious that more have arrived with a total of 8 being seen or heard . t he next most striking thing were Buzzards with at least 10/12 passing overhead some were migrant heading at very great hight north east.
Still only a few Swallows with just 2 been seen ,although the first House Martins were welcome with 2 over the old vicarage A single Skylark still sang and I found 5 Chiffchaff dotted about and also 2 singing Willow Warbler.
Whitethroats were down to 4 today ,but most would appear to be local breeders as they are in the expected places from last year.
The best of the rest were a pair of Stock Dove and a flybe female Kestrel
 The patch list now stands at 70

The first proper Spring morning, clear sky and a light south wind , just a pleasure to be out. I was out at 7.30 am and the first thing that greeted me was a singing Blackcap , in the end we ended up with 4 . 2 Drumming Greater Spotted Woodpeckers were nice to hear and the female Kestrel was on a post. There had been an overnight arrival of Common Whitethroats with 5 been found . A Curlew was heard calling from the river meadows .
There were at least 7 Skylark about and a Meadow Pipit headed north.As far as  other Warblers there were 2 singing Willow Warblers and 3 singing Chiffchaff. The best bird of the day was a male Yellow Wagtail which was near last years breeding area.A small suprise was a Fieldfare which flew over , a bit late now he /she should be on his way north by now.
The best of the rest were a flyover Mute Swan, 6 Red Legged Partridge , 2 Stock Dove and around 8 Linnet.3 Buzzard
 The patch list is now 69