Things started well this morning when I heard a Crossbill as it flew over me on my way back from the paper shop.
I joined Dave at the patch just after 09.00am and we had hardly walked fifty metres when Dave spotted the bird of the day, a Wheatear.
 |
| Wheatear |
In a normal year this might have seemed less impressive, but it scores points for being only the second here this year, and for being fairly late in the season.
We continued that theme as we reached the gap in the hedge by the beehives. A Whinchat and a Stonechat were waiting for us, and we went on to record a total of six of the latter on the site.
 |
| Whinchat |
 |
| Stonechat |
There's no doubt that Morton Bagot is a very good place for chats as they pass through in spring and autumn. Overhead movement of Meadow Pipits continued, but the numbers were small, and there were also still quite a few Lesser Redpolls and Siskins around, plus a flock of at least 150 Goldfinches.
 |
| Lesser Redpolls |
We found ourselves inadvertently dog-walking this morning as one of the hamlet's resident dogs adopted us and followed us on the full circuit. It proved quite good at flushing Pheasants but less useful at finding us anything rare.
 |
| It's behind you ! |
The flash field contained no surprises; the Little Owl, two Wigeon, 44 Teal, and a Green Sandpiper, while the only Snipe was flushed from the weedy field by a Sparrowhawk.
Although the northerly breeze kept the temperature pegged to 14 degrees, the sunshine did encourage plenty of insects out including numerous Hornets and several species of butterfly. The most unexpected of these was a Brown Argus, notable due to the late date.
 |
| Brown Argus |
The dog flushed a Green Woodpecker out of the ridge field, but was blissfully unaware of a Kingfisher which unexpectedly whizzed past us few minutes later. A number of "common" birds were seen for the first time in a while. Five Mistle Thrushes flew high over Clowse Farm, a Song Thrush was the first for ages signifying the end of their moulting season when they seem to become invisible, and a party of 40 Starlings was accompanying 16 Lapwings in the field beyond the flash field.
 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
Finally, I can't resist putting in this male Great Spotted Woodpecker which was less wary than they usually are.
No comments:
Post a Comment