With the nearest Twitchable bird I might want to see being in Cambridge, Margie having to work and the Sun blazing away meaning I would have to be in by 10 AM, the only logical thing to do was a local walk. I decided a stroll along Bullfinch Lane would be in order to see how things have progressed since my last visit!! I dropped Margie off at work and parked at the top of the Lane just before Seven, it was already too hot!!!!!🌞🌞 I bravely decided to proceed!!
The first bit of the lane is nicely under cover, I could hear plenty going on Greenfinch, Wren, Blackbird, Robin and Dunnock didn't actually see any of them! At the first junction I detoured left, the wires had a line of birds on them, brief dreams of Bee-eaters were quickly dashed as they were obviously Starlings! On my last visit there were a pair of Linnet here, today there were six!!! Couldn't swear any were juveniles though!! Nice to see some Goldfinch and House Sparrows along here as well and a couple of Swallows were zooming about the horse paddocks, after last nights attempt at the Swifts I made no attempt at photography😁 The fields opposite the Paddocks have been cut already, presumably for silage, hopefully the Meadow Pipits I saw last time, were just stopping off on the way North rather than attempting to breed!! Didn't see any today at any rate!
 |
| Always like to see the Moon in a blue sky! |
 |
| Wolstonbury Hill, this time last week I was on top of that!! |
 |
| House Sparrow |
 |
| Starlings |
 |
| A very chilled out Rabbit, saw quite a few today |
 |
| Linnet |
 |
| Male Linnet |
The best sighting here was a nice male Yellowhammer that posed nicely on a wire, he then retreated to a bush where there was another bird which I'm pretty sure was a young Yellowhammer, but was quite distant and the pics are quite shadowy so difficult to be 100%. I took loads of pics of the bird on the wire but in view of what's coming further down the post, I've only put up a couple😂
 |
| Yellowhammer |
 |
| Juvenile Yellowhammer( I think) left, Male on the right |
I retraced my steps and hit the Lane again, nice to see some more Sparrows at Pakyns Farm, and some more Goldfinches, also saw a family of Great Tits though they wouldn't come out of the foliage for pics😢
 |
| Goldfinch |
 |
| House Sparrow |
 |
| Collared Dove |
 |
| Not sure about this it's Demoiselle shape but not really Demoiselle colours? |
 |
| Hurst Church pic! |
I reached the open country at the bottom of the lane, immediately noted a singing Yellowhammer, but despite seemingly being right underneath it, couldn't spot it!! Headed on at the turn, spotted another Yellowhammer on a fence post Whoop! This bird was preoccupied sorting out his feathers and didn't notice me in full Ninja mode!! Things were going well, when unfortunately a dog walker came through the gate at the other end of the path, meaning time was limited!!! The tension was unbearable would I get close enough for decent pics before the dogs arrived ( would suggest some tension type music at this point) the answer was predictably no😢!! I got a few pics but feel I would have got a bit closer, but the inevitable happened and the dogs flushed the blighter over the hedgerow, to be fair I only saw a couple of Dogwalkers today and they were well behaved and the dogs were ok as well, boom boom!! 😂😂😂I think the birds are fairly used to them along this path anyway!! They are probably the reason the birds are fairly approachable, so can't really moan!! Although obviously I will😏😂
 |
| Yellowhammer having a preen! |
With the Yellowhammer and the Dogwalker departed I turned my attention to the Skylarks, of which there were loads, zipping about the place, chasing each other, the occasional song flight. I was trying to get one on the ground, but the grass was quite long and they disappeared on landing, but I winkled out a couple!
 |
| Skylark |
While I was hopelessly trying for Skylark flight shots, the Yellowhammer popped up next to me in the hedge, which was handy!!
 |
| Yellowhammer |
 |
| Nice with the Sun behind it! |
I decided I wasn't going to walk any further and hung around Yellowhammer corner, very pleasant listen to the Skylarks and Yellowhammers singing watching whatever flew by! Think there were at least 5 Yellowhammers singing in the area and saw several flying about!! Quite a bit went past including, Stock Doves, a Grey Heron, a Raven, a very distant Buzzard, a closer Buzzard, Linnets, Goldfinch, a Blue tit, a couple of Dunnocks etc etc.
 |
| Grey Heron |
 |
| Skylark, Probably the best out of about a million attempts! |
 |
| Raven |
 |
| Stock Dove |
 |
| Common Buzzard, saw it late come out of a tree right in front of me!😏 |
Scanning the fence line I noted my original Yellowhammer was back on his post and no dogs!! Nothing would stop me getting awesome pics now!!! Wrong!!!😂 Three times I stalked in on him, three times he flew off!!! No,not a complete failure of my fieldcraft!! No, his nemesis, another male Yellowhammer kept flying in and landing in the long grass right next to him!! At which point all hell breaks loose, fisticuffs a plenty, rolling about on the floor until the interloper is seen off, 5 mins later my boy his back, I go back into stalk mode, lo and behold the enemy is back, not sure who he was winding up most me or my boy!!!!😅😂😂😲The most annoying thing was all the violence happened in the long grass and I missed it all. no pics!!😢 Anyway after the 3rd time this happened I gave up!!
By now I was flagging, it was knocking on half eight and the sun was heating up, my Welsh genes were screaming at me to get under cover, heat stroke loomed. Foolishly, but predictably I had forgotten to put on Sunscreen, so decided to start the walk back, another Yellowhammer was feeding in the grass, probably the wind up merchant, there was a Song Thrush in the large oak and when I was trying to get a pic of it yet another Yellowhammer flew out of the tree and landed in a sapling opposite!
A very nice couple of hours spent with the best birds in the area!! I'm hoping the four fields at the bottom of Bullfinch Lane are not cut anytime soon as they are full of Skylarks. Fingers crossed🤞 they will get long enough to get a couple of broods out!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment