Tealshank

Just trying to get back in to the swing of things with this blog.  I’ll post more updates from the last month or so soon.

Today’s lunchtime visit was fairly quiet – just a single drake Teal on GLE, a Greenshank on Peacock’s Lake, and the Common Terns finally look like they might be settling down to breed on Peacock’s Island.

Finally ! A Warbler

And not the hoped for Sedge Warbler , which seems strangely absent from Lodge Lake this year ? In a full visit last week I counted 10 Reed Warbler territories , 3 Common Whitethroats , 2 Garden Warblers and 9 Blackcaps singing. 3 COMMON TERNS were present on the lake last night , but didn't hang around ! These are the first there this year ! Best of all today , I finally found a singing LESSER WHITETHROAT (YT - 78) in Bancroft Park , 3 Common Whitethroats, 3 Chiffchaffs and 1 Garden Warbler also heard. Swifts are now numbering upwards of 10 over my house and I saw nearly 40 in my journey through the Bancroft section of the patch today. Only easy one left is Sedge , which is really not easy !! Si

Common Cranes

3 of the Cranes over my Garden - too close to get all 5 in the frame :-)

And they are turning out to be a common sight - my third sighting this year and all were over the garden!

I have my pager set to beep on any Swanton Novers news, so was outside the moment the news came across of 6 Common Crane flying South-West over Swanton Novers at 11:30. No sign of them at first and was about to go back in (they were not even a garden year tick...) when they appeared over the trees to the South, slowly circling and drifting South-East. Frantic shouting and running about meant that the senior half of team Wilson finally added Common Crane to his parish and garden list!

One of the six birds split off and headed off North, calling loudly and the others continued South-East towards Melton Park.

About half hour later the 5 drifted back North, directly over my garden, calling loudly. This time I had presence of mind to actually point my camera at them. Awful light but at least managed some record images.

5 Cranes heading North

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Is May the new June !!,

The blog has been quiet of late !! I have only managed a few trips onto Patch , notable birds have been NORTHERN WHEATEAR (75)REED WARBLER (76) and GARDEN WARBLER (77). The latter 2 species were noted about 2 minutes apart around the main reedbed and the Wheatear was a bedraggled female on the waste ground , clearly lost and doomed ! Swifts are now back over Bradwell, and Swallows are seen daily flying thru. A least 2 Canada Geese have fledged young ( a brood of 2 and 4 ) the Great Crested Grebe that was nesting on the Tern raft has now turned into Coot :-) no idea when that happened ! Survival of the fittest I guess ! I really must get out on patch more in next few days ! There must be a N'gale out there somewhere ! Steve, you must have loads of updates ? Si

more of the same

My first visit to Linford for a while this evening.  The water levels are still very high, with only the highest branches of the bund now showing.  It could be a couple of weeks before we see any bund, as Linford is slow to drain.  The peripheral ponds on the reserve though are nice and full, like they used to be 10 years ago.  Maybe this could lead to a bumper season for dragonflies.

Birdwise, not much to report.  Plenty of Swifts feeding over the reserve, and a pair of Cuckoo showed very well, the female being especially vocal.  We watched one bird in the front meadow for about 10 mins as it hopped clumsily about a tree, picking off insects.

Reed, Sedge and Garden Warblers were in full song, as was a Whitethroat in the front meadow.  Still no Lesser 'throats yet.

Tickety tick

The first House Martins (PYT 86) appeared at home yesterday, although none are prospecting for homes yet. Also the Swifts are now here, with 3 or 4 flying around the village.

A Little Egret flew south over the house this morning at 07:45 - 87 for the year and my 94th species in the Parish :-)

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Still not a lot

A quick jaunt around the lanes yesterday produced my first Swift of the year (before Sand and House Martin!). The pair of Oystercatcher remain on Tin Shed Lane, although they (or another pair) flew over the garden a few times yesterday.

The senior half of team Wilson is doing a big sit from his patio/conservatory today and was on 33 species by 07:00, although he did miss a Cormorant - I did shout it from my office window at 06:00!

I'll be spending the rest of the day preparing for tomorrows bird race in Bucks with Si and Rob from The Weakest List and Ben 'I don't bird my patch enough' Miller. We may even post and tweet progress...then again we may not.

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Ticking along

Added Grey Plover and Scaup to my Broom yearlist yesterday. What are three Scaup doing here in May? Crazy!

They're not purple

...or heron shaped, but six Blackwits and two Dunlin have just gone straight through Broom tonight.

Lesser Whitethroat

Singing at Rudd's Farm.

Other than that it was dull, grey and cold. And very quiet. The cold North wind really suppressed avian activity this morning.

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considerably less than thousands

Not quite as exciting as Simon's ticktastic day, but at Linford this evening, 2 singing Garden Warbler were new in.  The Cuckoo was still calling and a Kingfisher zipped past the hide.

The water levels are the highest I've ever seen them though, so whilst a few Coot nests are still visible, I imagine Oycs, Canadas, swans and possibly even the Kingfishers have had their nests destroyed.

Linford is normally very slow to drain too, so I don't expect to be seeing the bund for a couple of weeks.  Hopefully though the newly arrived Acro's have got plenty of time to nest successfully once the water goes down.

No sign of the Pochard, the Garganeys or the Wigeon either.

Migrants ! thousands of em !

Wow !

What a day on the patch .....

But first a mention of the two GADWALL that were happily swimming around the Flood Plain @ 05:40 yesterday (30th April) (YT-71)

Spent a few visits this am on visiting the Flood ! but other then a pair of Canada and 6 Mallard , not much happening , the water had receeded by about 3 feet , but still covered a lot of the hollow.

@ 3pm i went to pick the kids up from school and decided to stop at the Abbey Paddocks , after scanning the field a few times i had almost given up when a bit of buff jumped out from behind a horse turd , it looked good through the bins , got the scope on it and confirmed  it was a Male WHINCHAT (YT-72) - Great looking bird , it looked as though it was calling a lot and kept looking skywards , not one i was expecting at all this year ! Still need a bloody Wheatear though !

Whinchat Baby ! With attendant Horse Poo

Wondering where the hell it is !

I then saw a Single BARN SWALLOW cross the road as I headed away.

At 17:35 a chance phone call to Rob meant that i was outside in the Garden , while chatting away about Migrants and stuff , i happened to look up , Common Tern , i nearly shouted , but then it banked about 40 feet in the air and a second one joined  , showing grey body gleaming white tail streamers and wings ! I struggled to find bins while on phone to Rob and the birds headed off south ! ARCTIC TERN tastic ! (YT-73)

While getting over the shock , 5 BARN SWALLOWS flew over northeast , closely followed by 4 SWIFTS !! (YT-74)

A further 8 BARN SWALLOWS were seen as I drove to pick up Jessica again !

Wish i had the time to check the patch properly today ......