Not gonna beat around the bush I found a Nightingale on my Hurstpierpoint Patch today!!! Whoop, Whoop, Whoop!!!😁😁😁😁 Unfortunately the blighter was camera shy, but managed a video of him singing!!
So bit of ahead of myself there, another early start failure, so was 8 o'clock before I was "on Patch" the first field had nothing going for it, though could hear a Skylark , this field has been poor this year, last year there was a good field margin this year it has been planted right to the edge which I think is the main difference.
The glades are looking good with swathes of Buttercups and what I think is called Campion though could be wrong, still a bit boggy down here though the rest of the area was pretty dry!
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| The Glades |
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| Buttercups |
Plenty of birds singing along here but difficult to see in dense foliage, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, possibly Garden Warbler though I struggle to tell the difference on song alone and everyone I got the bins on was a Blackcap! Was a nice Whitethroat which perched up nicely, if briefly!
A Red Kite flew over low however the overhanging trees prevented a clear shot and by the time I got into the open there was no sign of it!!! Annoyed I continued out onto the "patch" proper, but was pretty quite with the exception of the Nightingale obvs!! Overall so far this spring things are a lot quieter than they were last year, there are at least 4 places where Common Whitethroats were last year that didn't have any today and numbers of Blackcap and Chiffchaff seem well down as well, even local birds such as Bullfinch, Greenfinch and Goldfinch seem thin on the ground this year, I'm hoping it's the cold, wet start to the spring hopefully things will spring into action now it's warming up!
The Red Kite did take pity on me and return but was pretty distant, it's presence causing the local Buzzard to take to the air in half-hearted pursuit!
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| Red Kite |
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| Common Buzzard |
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| Lot of Hawthorn still in full blossom at the patch! |
I headed out onto Church Lane more Demoiselles here, a Willow Tree full of them, they were pretty much everywhere today!! Was a very vocal and showy Robin here as well.
I continued around to the Church, The gnarly tree which, even though it has a perfect perch for excellent photography no bird will land on it, particularly annoying are the Swallows which zooming about the area refuse to land, even though they land all the time on the cables just a few feet away !! I thought for a minute my luck had changed when a Nuthatch landed on the tree,but loitered around the side rather than heading for the top😡😢!
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| Nuthatch |
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| Swallow on Cable! |
I went down the path next to the churchyard, the large dead tree where the Stock Doves usually are, though devoid of Doves did have another of our finest Songsters holding forth and he wasn't as shy as the Nightingale!
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| Song Thrush |
I decided with the Blue Skies and a bit of breeze a walk up to the Vineyard could be productive for a bit of Raptor watching, could hear a Skylark singing here, sadly however the farmer has already cut the grass on this field, so I imagine any attempt the Skylarks, who were singing here last month, had made to breed will have ended on the mowers blades. Still a Rook seemed to be enjoying the freshly mown field, probably tucking into smashed eggs and chicks!
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| Cut grass |
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| Rook |
The Raptorwatch started well with another Red Kite appearing and a Cormorant flying over, however it was extremely hazy, I picked up 3 Buzzards spiralling up in the extreme distance,but apart from that it was disappointing.
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| Red Kite |
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| Cormorant |
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| Buzzard in a Tree |
No sign of the Linnet flock in the vineyard presumably dispersed to breed now the weather has improved, there were a couple of Whitethroats singing in the field at the bottom of the vineyard and Skylarks could be heard as I walked back up to the car but the weather was well hot now and think the birds had taken the the sensible option and headed for the shade which I thought was an excellent plan so headed home!!
