Out early in Atlasland
11th May 2008, Sunday
This week I have mostly been getting my feet wet in the dew while wading through TQ81 landscapes perfumed with Bluebells, Garlic, Gorse and (lately) Hawthorn, screwing my ears up to differentiate the dozens of songs curling out of the greenery before the traffic noise predominates. Crowded tallies of Wren, Robin, Blackbird and Chaffinch were dealt a near-death by dissolution when I dropped my note-book into the selfsame dew - my own fault for writing in pen rather than the pencil proper bird-watchers are meant to use.
Certain birds, like Nuthatch and Marsh Tit, I have found to be very, very quiet and hard to locate, so the eventual Breeding Atlas is likely to show their distribution as sparser than it really is, while the Fancy Species have been lying completely doggo. We have however managed to track down LS Woodpecker and Grey Wagtail.
During the first week of May, I recorded Siskins going north every day. I have in the past seen occasional individuals in the breeding season, but this is the first time migration has continued so late. I also saw a few Collared Doves moving over high with migrating Woodpigeons.
Yesterday, May 10th, Tony Hill & I spent several hours in the Pett area but found that the variety of birds was less rich than is usual at this time of year and struggled to get past 80. A Peregrine was sitting on exactly the same pylon where we saw it/one last year (but never on intervening visits), a flock of 9 Crossbills flying W was a surprise (though we saw some last year too), and at least 4 Turtle Doves, but we somehow missed Linnet, Redshank and Swift. Many young Long-tailed Tits had chosen this morning to leave their cosily woven nests and we encountered several broods stringing through the hedgerows whereas, to that point, I’d seen only frazzled parents.