Things often happen unexpectedly. Last Sunday I headed off to buy a paper at the local shop and happened to notice about a dozen birds in the treetops on the road up I hadn't seen before. I couldn't make out much in the prevailing light beyond some pale colouring and shortish length. So having retrieved the paper I went back out with the binoculars and realised quickly they were siskins, feeling slightly annoyed I hadn't recognised their twitterings.
Siskin was also the first bird I saw on Tuesday, when I set off on a lone bike ride towards Annandale having decided the Wednesday group ride would be a washout. Two siskins were sitting on the ground on a farmer's field doing not much apparently.
Skylarks were much in abundance again. I heard them calling in five or six different locations, though only once near enough to observe. I also heard curlew and a lapwing that I saw briefly in passing.
The early afternoon was fine and there was a heron flyng over a field, a couple of magpies and a mobbed buzzard. Not observed however were tree sparrow or linnet, or indeed any form of butterfly.
On the way back there was a dead pheasant on the roadside so I pinched a couple of its tail feathers for the cat.
Friday 8 April 2016
Friday 1 April 2016
Friday 1st April
Mixed weather has again brought mixed fortunes on the nature front.
On Tuesday I did a tour of Mersehead Reserve in the hope mainly of seeing some lapwings displaying. There wasn't much around in the fields except a couple of flocks of remaining barnacles. There was more action on the ponds where tufted duck (maybe one scaup), shoveller, wigeon, pintail, whooper swan and shelduck were all apparent.
At the reserve building there had been a sign saying the first chiffchaff had been heard that day. I certainly heard one on the way to Meida Hide and managed to capture the song (though not the actual bird!) on this video in spite of competition from the background rookery.
I did manage to see one on the way to the seashore and think there were about three or four birds actively calling.
A couple of stonechats were playing on the fenceposts near the shore, the first time I've seen them there in several visits. But the most numerous bird on the second half of the walk was definitely the skylark, several of them plying the heavens with their songful ascents and sudden plunges that I still do not understand the meaning of. There were a few pipits and, yes, some lapwings too - but they weren't displaying.
The bike ride the following day was again affected by rain for half of the run, but there were a couple of red kites and a field full of about 50 greylags between Rhonehouse and Twynholm. I checked them over and could see no other species of goose among them.
On Tuesday I did a tour of Mersehead Reserve in the hope mainly of seeing some lapwings displaying. There wasn't much around in the fields except a couple of flocks of remaining barnacles. There was more action on the ponds where tufted duck (maybe one scaup), shoveller, wigeon, pintail, whooper swan and shelduck were all apparent.
At the reserve building there had been a sign saying the first chiffchaff had been heard that day. I certainly heard one on the way to Meida Hide and managed to capture the song (though not the actual bird!) on this video in spite of competition from the background rookery.
A couple of stonechats were playing on the fenceposts near the shore, the first time I've seen them there in several visits. But the most numerous bird on the second half of the walk was definitely the skylark, several of them plying the heavens with their songful ascents and sudden plunges that I still do not understand the meaning of. There were a few pipits and, yes, some lapwings too - but they weren't displaying.
The bike ride the following day was again affected by rain for half of the run, but there were a couple of red kites and a field full of about 50 greylags between Rhonehouse and Twynholm. I checked them over and could see no other species of goose among them.
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| Selection of Greylags |
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