Breezy! Had to fill up the nuts at the feeding station. Only caught 11 birds - "a" squirrel was about. Ugh! Ten or more Goldfinches in/over the rough. Tits busy inspecting boxes and holding territory. One female Great Tit had a well developed brood patch; she was an "old bird", too!
So far this year, I have caught 27 new Great Tits and re-trapped just 14. The majority of these have been "adults" (i.e. 3CY or older). It is a phenomena that we tend to catch or retrap the vast majority of our Gt. Tits at this time of year, especially if we put nuts up. Nice one - caught a pair of Bullfinches, both 2CY, and she also had a well developed brood patch.
David B. will fill in the rest of the day:
It was another very quiet morning. As I cut across the fields to Fingers there were a number of Blackbirds and Thrushes on the meadows including a couple of Redwing which flew to the hedges at the back of the visitor centre. At Fingers I disturbed a pair of Gadwall which were in the section by the Sedgewick seat. At Kramer hide the only action of note was the pair of Little Grebe which mated at least twice before a Canada Goose crashed their party. That CG was one of the "gang of six". Another Little Grebe, in winter plumage, was also about. Only other birds were Mallards, Moorhen and the pair of Mute Swans. One pair of Mallards were prospecting the large central reedbed for a nest site. The Green Woodpecker was hammering on the nest box for short time again and a Pheasant passed along the spit.
The female Sparrowhawk was evident for most of the morning putting on a fine display of climbs and dives over the Long Hedge at one point. She flushed half a dozen Redwing which headed off towards Kingsmead. On Kingsmead there were 12 CG's, 9 Moorhen and a couple of Pheasants.
Plenty of Goldfinch all round the park, or the same group following us round! No sign of any Frogs in Fingers although a couple of balls of spawn was evidence of their activity last week. West Fingers held a couple of pairs of Canada Geese, a Pair of Little Grebe, the pair of Great Crested Grebes and a few Moorhen. Only a couple of Mallard on east Fingers. It is now possible to walk around the crescent without getting wet feet, and we were treated to the site of a Water Rail which flew from the path to the centre of the reed bed.
The main lake was also very quiet with just 2 Pochard, 3 GCG, 13 Cormorant and a couple of Mute Swans. Some Kingfishers were making a lot of noise along the leat. There were at least half a dozen Teal on Fenlake.
Little else of note, we did stay dry though which was unexpected!
1 comment:
If you're interested - I caught a Swedish Siskin in Jen's Norfolk garden yesterday. In 4 relatively short sessions, I have now caught 105 unringed Siskins and 2 controls, using a small net. NOA bods also caught ~60 more new birds in the next wood over on Wed.
Post a Comment