Drive by patching ...

a very quick stop in the layby that overloooks the big arm came up trumps today ! Joining the 3 Great Crested Grebes and the 8 Canada Geese were a pair of TUFTED DUCKS (YT-60)

Tufted Ducks - obviously lost and confused.

Going out owling later .....

Si

Falco...

...peregrinus.

Out admiring my new windows and doors with my parents when my dad called an interesting raptor overhead. It turned into a male Peregrine. Nice!

Species 66 for the year, 73 for the garden, 85 for the patch.

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A shank

My five minute look at Gypsy Lane East this lunchtime produced a single Redshank amongst the loafing gulls.  Gripping stuff.

Where's that come from?!

Huge surprise this morning, whilst I was gazing out at the Goldfinches scarfing all our nyger seed - a Snipe flying over the garden.  Que?

In 13 years this is probably the most unusual garden flyover.  It was flying relatively low too, making me wonder where it had come from.  The grassy tussocks of CMK (less than a mile away) are the most likely habitat.  This area held a few Snipe in the past, before the half-arsed development went up.

So a reminder to self - sneak through the fences and check CMK, before winter finally fades away.

Getting bigger !

Not my list , but the Canada Goose flock ! Now numbers 9 birds, is that a flock or a gathering ;-) Common Gull over in the 2 minutes I scanned.

Talking of Crossbill…

Looking out of the window this morning whilst on a call and noticed 2 chunky finches land in the top of a tree. Grabbed my bins and was surprised to see one green and one red finch. They perched long enough for my brain to work out what I was seeing before they flew off on plain dark wings.

 

Number 65 for the year and only one easy resident left (Treecreeper).

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3.5 Hour patch visit - Part 3

Sorry if these posts are getting boring with all the pics , but I figured I could just reference them from now on !
Anyway , Part 3 deals with the return walk on the southern part of the Patch , there is a large strand of conifers on the right as you walk back under the Conifers with no exit at the other end , subsequently no-one ever goes up there , a haven for warblers in Spring , on Monday there was 10 Long Tailed Tits , a Goldcrest and a Buzzard ( this is just the other side of the A5 from the Far paddock so possibly same - although there is def a pair in this area) I will keep checking conifers for next few weeks for Siskin and the floor looks good for Woodcock !

Path to CP

Small part of the CP

The North section of the river walk runs past the Hills and Hollows, today a Female SPARROWHAWK, LITTLE EGRET and a Great Spotted Woodpecker were the only birds of note ( incidentally , I think I recorded a minimum of 4 GS in total , nothing compared to the 80+ Estimate of Great Tits - they were everywhere , good (40+) numbers of Blackbirds also , I also saw or heard in excess of 10 Wrens)

River walk North

The last section of the walk took in the Bradwell Abbey complex as well as the Cricket pitch and Avenue

Abbey Woods had Great Spotted Woodpecker, Abbey Paddocks had Another or Same SPARROWHAWK, Mistle Thrush and 40+ Redwings

Abbey Pool - this normally has a Moorhen on it !

Abbey Paddocks - pinning my Yellow wag hopes on here

Abbey pond - there was nothing here !

Bradwell Abbey buildings viewed from Abbey Woods

Abbey Bridge leading back into Bradwell and the Cricket pitch

Once under the bridge you are back into Bradwell proper i.e the housing estate , the walk around the Cricket pitch and along the avenues didnt cause any heart stopping moments was good to see CPSLE there (Cricket Pitch Stream Little Egret ) 6 Blackbird, 8 Redwing and 10 Greenfinch were feeding round the edge of the green and the afore mentioned CPSLE was in a tree , the only other bird of note was a single female SPARROWHAWK coming off a bird table as I walked back through the estate.

I am house bound today waiting for a delivery ! so no visit possible yet ;-(

Abbey Field - saw a collared dove here once ....

Cricket Pitch Stream - the Egret is in a tree on the left towards the bend

CPS looking back down it , the Egret is still in the tree , this time on the right

CPSLE

The Cricket Pitch

Looking North from the bridge towards bancroft park - the Grey Wag was below the underpass

 

The Avenues - Bird rich bushes near end of walk ( or beginning depending on route !)

3.5 Hour patch visit - Part 2

Welcome back ! we had finished part one as I was heading under the A5 onto the south section of the river walk and then into lodge lake

River Walk - South Section - Conifer Plantation is on the right up a hill

Looking towards Lodge Lake Sluice

Typically there was very little along this section , its the most open after the Stevie Wonder school of butchers have been let loose with a chainsaw , but the tension that mounts as you walk into lodge lake proper .......

I split Lodge Lake up into 5 sections - Big Arm , Smew Arm , Southern Pond, the Channel and Reedbed - the channel is actually part of Smew arm , but it breaks the sections down - Mondays haul was as follows - Big Arm - 3 Great Crested Grebes, 5 Cormorant, 145 Black Headed Gulls, 2 Mute Swans and 6 Canada Geese

Big Arm looking North

Bully ! all this Mute Swan does is chase a pair of Canada Geese around !

 Moving round the Big arm you come to the Southern Boundry Sluice and Southern Pond area , the pond area drew a whole Coot and 2 moorhens, while the sluice bushes held Great Spotted Woodpecker and 6 Bullfinches

Southern Boundry

Southern Pond looking a lot better then it is !

 After walking round Southern Pond i had a nice surprise in the start of the channel - a smart summer plumaged LITTLE GREBE (YT-59) it eventually followed me all along the channel out into Smew Arm

Channel pond - the Little Grebe was under the water on the right when I took this

The Channel

Tree resting Black Headed Gulls!

The Channel opening out onto Smew Arm - You can just see fishermans island

 The Smew arm is much less busy then Big arm, the Little Grebe moved out to the hidden bay , there was a WATER RAIL along the northern edge which flew between two reedbeds and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over , from here a quick walk round fishermans Island brings you to the Reedbed

Hidden Bay on Smew Arm - the Little Grebe is in this picture !

View of Smew arm from Fishermans island looking north

The reedbed is made up of 4 areas - Fishermans bed , Cettis left and Cettis right and then the Clump.
On Monday there was 4 Reed Buntings and 2 Bullfinches in various bits !

Fishermens Bed

Cettis Left (the other side of Fishermens bed)

Cettis Right ( the Clump is the tall trees in background)

The Clump ( this was where the Treecreeper was a few days ago)

And then we are back on the Loop back to Bradwell - which will appear in Part 3

View looking north across Smew Arm - The Water Rail was in this front bed.

View looking west down northern shore - the underpass is just on the right

I thought Teal were scarce on my patch?

A quick stroll around the Church block this morning, to get a bit of woodland and a bit of farmland…and to walk past the Pond. I also had a quick look at Little Wood where the work party has been clearing – first thought is that they need to clear faster. Its starting to look very good for Nightjar ;-)

 

Second thought was where all the ducks are appearing from? There is a tiny pond in Little Wood, barely big enough to fit a couple of Mallard but a pair of Mallard were happily sitting there till I showed up. And, not wanting to be out-done by its rival Clay Pits, the Pond had a pair of Teal this morning.

 

As well as a nice Woodcock in Little Wood, I also managed to grab a year tick – two Pied Wagtails chasing each other around the field at the end of St Giles. I now only have a couple of ‘easy’ species and a couple of very scarce residents left to find, so roll on Spring passage!

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Oakgrove photo's

In common with other posts, here's a couple of photos.  Hopefully I'll post many more as the year goes on.  Some of them might even be of birds.

This is the central plain at Oakgrove, the dusty brown colour of the grass indicating how dry it is there now.  Still, I doubt there's a greater concentration of breeding Skylarks anywhere in MK, and a few pairs of Mipit breed too.

Here's the extensive hedge which borders almost the whole west side of Oakgrove.  You can see the thin sliver of reedbeds in front of the trees.  The ponds are tiny and very shallow, but do seem to retain water for most of the year.  Behind the trees lies a mature hedgeline of hawthorn , blackthorn and hazel.  This is classic edge habitat, and where I saw virtually all the birds on Sunday.  Surely those trees are good for a Redstart in spring or autumn?  


The tiny damp patch in the foreground is pretty much all that's left of the squelchy, sedgy, puddle-y habitat that once held up to 50 wintering Snipe, and 2 or 3 Jackers.  Sigh......happy days!

And here's a crappy shot of a Long-tailed Tit.  Such are my photographic skills, even this represents an achievement!  But every journey needs a first footstep (or some such facile guff).

3.5 Hour patch visit - Part 1

Church Green

Just got back from a mammoth slog round the south section of the patch , taking a few pics along the way Target species today was Woodcock - Kipper was chief Woodcock flusher ......... we didnt see Woodcock ..... I deliberately walked the long way and the entire loop of the south secion of NLVP starting off with the Church Green,  Today this held 47 Redwing including a very pale washed out bird the colour of milky coffee, Blackbirds , Great Spotted Woodpecker and 8 Goldfinch.

Next up is the churchyard 

Churchyard

Not a lot of movement today , but the pines are usually good for Goldcrest and Mistle Thrush in the summer

Magpie Wood

Bugger all @ the next spot which is locally called Magpie Wood by me ! as thats where the Magpies roost , saw a Great spot in there once ! Kipper trying to smell Woodcocks in the bottom left ! There was a Great Spotted Woodpecker at the next location - Horseshoe copse - Not much else though

Horseshoe Copse

Hidden Corner

I then walked a new new area and found hidden corner - no birds , but the breeding warbler habitat looks great , this is along the north side of the railway

 

Hidden Corner

Retracing my steps i then went over the railway bridge to an area called hills and hollows and the far pastures and Paddock.
The Far Paddock turned up the goods in the shape of a pair of STOCK DOVES (YT - 58),  good numbers of Goldfinches (22) and Redwings (20) and 1 BUZZARD

Far Paddock looking north

Far Paddock looking South

Far pasture 1 (Far Paddock is beyond the hedge)

Far pasture 2

 The Hills and hollows were dead ! I cant believe woodcocks dont like it ! Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest and a pair of Bullfinches the only bounty in here.  Part two to follow soon.

Open area in the hills and hollows.

Where are the woodies !

Bully for me

Slow going around Broom at the moment.  A few visits over the weekend didn’t reveal any surprises.  The highlight for me was a pair of Bullfinches in their usual spot by the moat.  Hopefully they will breed there again this year.

There is a tremendous Black-headed Gull passage going on currently.  On Saturday afternoon I had over 1000 pass north through the site, with a few hundred staying to roost.  I managed to miss last week’s Med Gull so was hoping I’d pick another one out of the passing groups – no such luck so I guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer for Med Gull to grace the list.

The mighty clay pits

The main pool at the Clay Pits, pretending to be a Scottish Lochan

A walk into Swanton Great Wood with Ness this morning was very pleasant – it really is feeling like spring is moments away. The Bluebells are already showing the first signs of green, Primrose is flowering in several spots and the woods are at that empty and open time where all last years growth has now died back and the ground is exposed ready for the explosion of growth in the coming months. Birds are getting ready for spring too with noisy antics as rival males chase females around the woods.

We had a pleasant encounter with 4 Roe Deer crossing Wood Lane beyond the Clay Pits – they could clearly hear us but not see us properly so they stood motionless for a long time before realising we weren’t a threat and carried on wandering through the woods.

Talking of the Clay Pits…4 small ducks came off the main pool as we approached. I was ready for them this time and couldn’t believe my eyes as I focused the bins on them. 2 pair of Teal!

Teal. Not a species I had even thought possible on the patch. But there they were and that will be species 63 for the year and 84 overall.

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