The light winds continue from the west. Very misty to start with, gradually clearing during the morning, with the sun not completely breaking through till lunchtime. It then remained mainly sunny all afternoon.
An early check of the foreshore and saltmarsh to see if anything was grounded located just 1Rock Pipit!
There was grounded stuff just inland though, the best being:
Lesser Redpoll 4 - near the pond behind Red Nab but immediately flew into the power Station grounds.
Chiffchaff 2 singing
There were lots of birds in this small area from Red Nab to Moneyclose Lane. So I decided to list all the species seen in a 10 minute amble along the tracks (MD).
Resulting in a reasonably impressive 19 species, without counting the gulls and waders passing overhead.
Tits - Great, Coal, Blue, Long-Tailed
Finches - Green, Gold, Redpoll, Bull, Chaffinch
Corvids - Carrion Crow, Jay - no Magpies despite several along Moneyclose
Thrushes - Song, Blackbird
Chiffchaff
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Wood Pigeon
Robin, Dunnock, Wren
Middleton Nature Reserve
Mute swan - 6 adult plus 3 juvenile on the main pond.
Plus two pairs nest building on two of the other ponds
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| One of these has a blue ring, it seemed that everything I photographed today was ringed! |
Coot 3
Moorhen 7
Mallard 5
Teal 4
Tufted duck 1 male
Pheasant 2 males calling (I can't bring myself to cal it singing!)
Chiffchaff - at least three singing males (one near the bottom car park), plus one silent bird
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| Chiffchaff |
This fine male Chaffinch was calling. Plus a Chiffchaff singing at the start of the clip.
Goldcrest - at least 1
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| Goldcrest |
The Bullfinch are still eating the tree buds, these look like blossom buds, I don't know the species. A wren provides a couple of bursts of song.
Female Bullfinch
There have been lots of frogs around, but this is the first toad I've seen this year.
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| It looked like it was warming itself on the road surface, between the marshes, probably after emerging from a pile of landscaping chippings close by. |
