Highlight on the Friends Spring Birds walk today were two Spoonbill (below, apologies for the poor image) seen at the northern end of Castle Water at about 1:30 this afternoon. They fed briefly before taking flight and heading off to the east. Also here, the pair of Marsh Harrier showed well from the viewpoint. Other notables included a Merlin on the shore ridges, 47 Knot on the Quarry, eight Brent Goose offshore and my first Blackcap of the year singing in the Wood.
The end of March means that I have participated in the BTO garden bird watch scheme for one year now. This involves counting birds in our garden over a similar period of time each week and recording the results - I chose 20 minutes. Only two species were constantly recorded throughout the year - the house sparrow and collared dove. A pleasing point given the continuing national decline of the former species currently recorded from just over 60% of UK gardens, compared to almost 85% at this time of year in 1995. The other top five birds in our garden were blackbird (98% attendance), starling 96% and robin 91%.
Over the past quarter the Read the rest of this entry »
A cold and gloomy morning. 2 Wheatears on the seawall, a Merlin over the sea and a mixed flock of c25 Swallows, House Martins & Sand Martins at Carter’s Flood. Several Chiffchaffs but, surprisingly, in view of the report from RHNR, no Willow Warblers.
Otherwise, lots of Med Gulls, Avocet, Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Raven.
Another murky early morning on the Beach Reserve and Willow Warblers were a feature with several grounded migrants taking advantage of the available cover, even the dead valerian plants along Shore Ridges being selected by two desperate individuals. A superb male Redstart was also making the most of the bushes near the Wader Pool Hide. Later in the morning at Castle Water a Bittern gave flight views from the viewpoint, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Sedge Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler and Bearded Tit were aslo in song or calling. From the footpath at the norhern end of the main pit 9 Swallow and 4 Sand Martin passed overhead. From the hide several Oystercatchers put on a rather noisy display.
