I would class my local patch as anything within about a mile of home, in particular the area to the north. The area is composed of fields, lanes, hedgerow, a small river, a SSSI area of flood meadow including an area of reeds, small woodland / carr and a sewage works.
I try to have a walk every week (not always possible) and maintain records for my own benefit, I will try and share some of these on this forum in future.
Over the years I have recorded the following species on my patch:-
Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Egyptian Goose, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Pochard, Honey Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Kestrel, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge, Pheasant, Water Rail, Moorhen, Crane, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Snipe, Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull,, Herring Gull, Common Tern, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Cuckoo, Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Swift, Kingfisher, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Skylark, Swallow, House Martin, Meadow Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Stonechat, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Spotted Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Treecreeper, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin, Linnet, Redpoll, Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting
Roe deer and Muntjac are also quite common, plenty of rabbits, hares, grey squirrel, the occasional fox, I have even seen Otter on the river (also the unwelcome mink). In summer the meadows are alive with butterfles and dragonflies and I will update with individual species in due course.
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag" Mary Poppins
6 Feb
As we have a family trip to Duxford planned for tomorrow and I needed to get on with the new garden fence today I knew I wasn't going to get a chance to check out the local patch much, unfortunately as the weather was so nice when I looked out at 7:30 this morning I decided that just an hour before I started on the fence would be O.K. A grey Heron from the bedroom window feeding in the paddock over the lane was a good start.
There was a real feeling of spring this morning, frost, no cloud just a gentle haze and plenty of birds were singing in the lane - Robins, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Great Tit, even a Skylark above the field and a Great-spotted Woodpecker drumming in the distance, I'm sure there is still some bad weather to come but mornings like this really make you think that spring is just round the corner, well if not this corner certainly the next corner.
The path between the river and the sewage works provided the usual species - Robin, Blackbird, Pied Wag, Blue tit, Great tit, Long-tailed tit, Wren, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Moorhen and Mallard. The flood meadow was covered with a light mist (a real barn owl morning, but sadly no sign of one, in fact it has been several months since my last sighting so a bit worrying). A handful of Snipe zipped about ahead of me and I managed to get the bins on one that landed in a clump of weeds on the river, also some distant footage on the camcorder, although as the bird sat motionless and was so well camouflaged it looks like I have taken to recording clumps of grass!!
The resident Little Egret was also on the river but clearly didn't want to be filmed and soon moved away, a small flock of Siskins (my first of the winter) were in the carr but too high up to record, much more obliging was a Treecreeper who was quite oblivious to me just a few feet away, clearly wanted to be on the big screen.
Yes I did exceed the 1 hour by about 15 minutes, but I'm blaming the Siskins and the Treecreeper for that, and in case you were wondering the garden fence is coming along nicely, want to get it completed in the next few weeks so that I can get the border replanted ready for 'the real' spring.
I am sure you were excused the fence work for just over an hour's walk. You certainly saw plenty in that time. We haven't seen any siskin anywhere yet ! I had to laugh about your 'clumps of grass', but I certainly envy your walk.
Hi ND, sounds like a lovely start to the day and you certainly saw lots of birds on your patch today. I keep meaning to get up a bit earlier than usual and go for a walk in the village as we have a river and water meadows as well as downland but somehow it never seems to happen! Pleased to hear your fence is taking shape, keep up the good work.
There is something new to learn everyday...
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14 February
The garden fence is now finished, so that's another job ticked off the list, but why is it when you complete one job at least two more find their way on to the list.
This mornings walk was quite frustrating, a bit dull and misty and one of those days when everything dissappeared off in front of you before you had a chance to identify it, I saw a large flock of somethiing over the paddock and a small group of something else dissapear through the carr, a bird of prey (I'm assuming was a buzzard) from some distance, I did catch up with this bird and was perced with it's back to me and was less than 20 metres away as it dissapeared again without a trace. I'm also suspecting that a Green Sandpiper was on the sewage works, but once again I only got the briefest glance as it flew away and I was unable to relocate it.
On the plus side, I did see my first Marsh Tit of the year, and the garden fence is finished.........have I already mentioned that, well I thought it was worth mentioning twice..........
..............Actually when I say finished, it's sort of finished, I still need to add the trellis but need to wait for the wood to dry out a bit more before I can make that, then there's the border in front of the new fence to replant for spring, and the greenhouse to tidy, the apple tree still needs pruning. Did I say there were always two more jobs to add to the list..........think I may have underestimated.
Oh, and the rugby..................
ND
Hi ND, just in case I didn't quite get it right, Did you finish the fence ?
Sorry your walk was not quite as successful as you would have wished, but you did see your Marsh Tit. Now go and do the other two jobs before the rugby. No time to eat.
Hi,
just watch the last 10 minutes of the rugby highlights :))
S
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21 February
Only managed a brief walk this morning before the snow started to come down in bucket loads, was lucky enough to see my first Goldcrest of the year and a brief view of a Kingfisher as it Zoomed by, apart from that things were fairly quiet. Something that was quite noticable this morning though was that many of the Black-headed Gulls on the sewage works are starting to look a little bit like,..........well, Black-headed Gulls as they start to change into their breeding plumage.
The worst news of the days however, was the list of jobs to do just got significantly longer, we have been aware of a damp area in the bathroom near the shower and we are planning to lay some new flooring, on closer inspection today it is worse than I thought and will now involve replacement of a number of floorboards!!
ND, great you saw the goldcrest but it must have been very pleasing to see the Kingfisher.
Sorry about the bathroom floor, sounds like a big job. We didn't get the snow, just continuous heavy rain all day.
28 February
Was very wet and windy, so I left it to lunch time to see if the conditions had brought in anything interesting, as the weather was so bad most things were quite sensibly keeping their heads down. The flood meadow was living up to it's name and doing it's job as the river level was so high, when this happens the result is large temporary lakes which often bring in interesting birds especially wildfowl, today (as far as I could make out against the lashing rain) the large group of Black-headed Gulls and small group of Mallards were joined only by two Greylag Geese.
Speaking of Geese, Saturday evening we spotted (well, I say we, I actually mean our 10 year old son who has no interest in birds did from the trampoline) a group of about 40 geese flying very high in the classic V formation directly above the house, unfortunatley we did not have our bins to hand and were too distant to ID. We get several Greylag and Egyptian Geese on the patch but certainly not in such large numbers, judging by the size of the flock, the way they were flying and the lack of noise we suspect they may have been Pink-feet, a real shame we couldn't positively ID as this would have been another first for the patch, and garden (fly overs count).
Isn't it always the case that you have no bins when you really need them. What a shame you missed the ID, but well done your son for spotting them from his trampoline.
Also a shame the weather was against you yesterday. It's always the same here when it's very windy.
Cheers, Linda.
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