Well after the excitement of my last two outings I thought I better calm things down and have a walk round the Patch. Arrived at the parking spot, on the Old London Road, at 10 mins after 6am, Little bit of mist around, with a Fox across the road the first siting of note!
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| Misty start, pretty atmospheric if I say so myself!! |
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| Fox in the mist |
I headed along Cutler's Brook, more water in it than I was expecting to be honest, although still low, not much activity here, turned left at the crossroads and headed up the track, still pretty quiet, the derelict Barn at the top of the hill still refuses to have a Little Owl in it, but the Sun coming through the window looked nice!
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| Okish Sunrise |
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| Sun through the window! |
I headed down the hill opposite the Barn, the area at the bottom on my last visit was full of birds hopes were high. I spotted a white blob on the bank, sitting in the brambles, a Whinchat!! it was rather buried and soon flew along the bank toward the bottom of the hill where it showed alright, been an excellent weekend for Whinchats and nice to get a local one!!
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| I'm fairly pleased with this shot, taken on manual focus not bad with my eyesight😊 |
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| Showed better at the bottom of the hill, they are cracking little birds! |
I reached the bottom, was a bit of activity, notably, a small flock of yellowhammers, including a couple of Juveniles. a few Blue and Great Tits, a Robin and a few Linnets and Goldfinches although no where near the amount on my last visit.
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Blue Tits |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Robin |
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| Yellowhammer and Whinchat |
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| Blue Tit, Yellowhammer and Whinchat |
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| Couple of Yellowhammers |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Linnet |
I headed through the Vineyard, devoid of birds, though did hear a Green Woodpecker, the view from the top is good though and the Grassland here had Swallows zipping about it!
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| HPP Church |
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| Swallow over the grass |
Headed up and around Church Lane, again very quiet, the patch itself was very quiet as well, with a couple of Whitethroats and a Green Woodpecker on offer!
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| So few birds that I got arty with the Spider Webs of which there were many! |
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| Green Woodpecker, Come into the light I said, did it? |
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| Nope flew up to the highest tree and made funny noises at me for 5 minutes! |
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| Skulky Common Whitethroat |
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| Dunnock, not many of these about though I did see about 8 Wrens none of which would pose |
I walked down to the Church, a bird on the fence next to the Church turned out to be a Spotted Flycatcher, bit tricky to get pics of but I did another manual focus special!
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
This gave me a bit of a moral dilemma, should I walk away at this point happy with the pic I got or walk through the churchyard risking damnation and hellfire, to get a better shot, although there is a footpath through the middle of it. In these situations I usually ask myself "what would Margie say?" I figured she'd say "go for it"😀 ( she definitely wouldn't say "go for it", she rarely says "go for it" on any of my hairbrained schemes, such as minor incidences of trespass to get a better view or leaning over cliffs to get a slightly better shot of a Gannet!) So very careful I picked my way through the graves, don't think I stood on any, although John, serf of this Parish, may, back in 1853 have given a little shudder and said to his his mate "ooh someone just walked over my grave" in which case apologies. That said in 200 years time if a handsome, young birder wishes to walk over my grave to get an average shot of a not very rare bird I won't object, although as I'm probably going to be cremated or left out for Vultures and there may not be many birds left in 200 years time, it may be a moot point!! Anyway I got a few pics and that's the main thing!!!😊😂
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
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