joannec
Well-known member
Very very sneaky to escape your eagle eyes!
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Garden / Yard List 2015 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter halftwo
- Start date
Very very sneaky to escape your eagle eyes!
Nothing new species for the year, but first real feelings of autumn (despite warm and sunny ...dew-draped spider webs early morning, White Storks all departed, Whinchats roving on flocks of a dozen or two, Nutcracker numbers rising (about 6-8 in the hazels these days).
Good mammal selection - mother and young Moose on Friday, Red Squirrel near the feeders, up to five Raccoon Dogs together at apples, one Beaver, both Stone and Pine Martens at night.
Good mammal selection - mother and young Moose on Friday, Red Squirrel near the feeders, up to five Raccoon Dogs together at apples, one Beaver, both Stone and Pine Martens at night.
KenM
Well-known member
Will have to get back up onto my windowsill Joanne.....am still languishing on 66...:-C
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
Snap H2 ! I also had my first Yellow Wags of the year here earlier, only problem I was up in the fields so not one for the Garden List just yet, to add insult to injury I also clocked 2 Tree Pipits up there, another one still needed for the 2015 GL. So, a bit like Ken perched on his window sill, I’ve got the windows open hoping they’ll fly over the house later.
However, I learnt something this week which came in really handy this morning, after over 50 years’ birding, nearly all within the Western Palearctic, I like to think I know the calls and songs, apart from those of species I’ve never seen of course, so last Monday when I heard a pleasant liquidy trill that I didn’t recognise coming from the sedges and reeds where the Marsh Warblers breed, I was ‘all of a flutter’.
After about 10 minutes up popped a Grasshopper Warbler, so when I got home I checked on Xeno-Canto.org and found the exact same song I’d heard, the little-recorded autumn song thought to be sung by 1st autumn birds apparently. If you’re interested, go to http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Locustella-naevia?pg=2 - it’s recording no. X172586. I heard the same song this morning just outside the garden, going across the road to an overgrown paddock I flushed, sure enough, a Gropper, my fourth of the month here!
Willow Tits seem to have had a good breeding season (like most species here this year), the young are beginning to wander about a bit now, so yesterday’s bird made up for the total absence of the species in the garden last winter :
87 Willow Tit
88 Grasshopper Warbler
Evening update: catching insects alongside 3 Whinchats, a nice smart young
89 Northern Wheatear
Can't match Jos for mammal sightings, though there were a couple of Pine Marten making a racket outside the other night. In the morning I found that one of them had left a 'present' in the middle of the water bowl I put out for the birds :eek!: - charming!
However, I learnt something this week which came in really handy this morning, after over 50 years’ birding, nearly all within the Western Palearctic, I like to think I know the calls and songs, apart from those of species I’ve never seen of course, so last Monday when I heard a pleasant liquidy trill that I didn’t recognise coming from the sedges and reeds where the Marsh Warblers breed, I was ‘all of a flutter’.
After about 10 minutes up popped a Grasshopper Warbler, so when I got home I checked on Xeno-Canto.org and found the exact same song I’d heard, the little-recorded autumn song thought to be sung by 1st autumn birds apparently. If you’re interested, go to http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Locustella-naevia?pg=2 - it’s recording no. X172586. I heard the same song this morning just outside the garden, going across the road to an overgrown paddock I flushed, sure enough, a Gropper, my fourth of the month here!
Willow Tits seem to have had a good breeding season (like most species here this year), the young are beginning to wander about a bit now, so yesterday’s bird made up for the total absence of the species in the garden last winter :
87 Willow Tit
88 Grasshopper Warbler
Evening update: catching insects alongside 3 Whinchats, a nice smart young
89 Northern Wheatear
Can't match Jos for mammal sightings, though there were a couple of Pine Marten making a racket outside the other night. In the morning I found that one of them had left a 'present' in the middle of the water bowl I put out for the birds :eek!: - charming!
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KenM
Well-known member
Last time I had one of those over and calling, was so long ago it doesn't bear thinking about!....my eyes (and ears) to the skies, got a lot of catching up to do :eek!:
joannec
Well-known member
Hope you have recovered from your 'all-a-flutter" Richard. I listened to that; kind of Wren like but not quite. Message to myself: pay attention next time!
A good day of movement here today, in between the showers, lots of Whitethroats, 2 more Whinchats, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and no 68) Common Redstart, only the second time seen here.....who needs to go to Seaford Head?!
A good day of movement here today, in between the showers, lots of Whitethroats, 2 more Whinchats, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and no 68) Common Redstart, only the second time seen here.....who needs to go to Seaford Head?!
Some nice movements in France and Sussex - Wheatear and Common Redstart are both species that I struggle to get in any given year, and have not so far this ...but best period for both is the next 3-4 weeks.
A bit of early autumn passage here, one ringtail Hen Harrier an unexpected August bird. Water Rail chicks still bleating away, and the Moorhens still present. Nutcrackers from the veranda a nice pleasure, little groups of them now roving.
One more mammal to add: Common Pipistrelle at dusk - new species for my land, mammal number 28.
119. Hen Harrier
A bit of early autumn passage here, one ringtail Hen Harrier an unexpected August bird. Water Rail chicks still bleating away, and the Moorhens still present. Nutcrackers from the veranda a nice pleasure, little groups of them now roving.
One more mammal to add: Common Pipistrelle at dusk - new species for my land, mammal number 28.
119. Hen Harrier
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timsg80
Gregor Tims
I'm sadly having to bow out of this thread for this year now as I leave the UK and head for a new life in Australia. I've ended up with just 57 species this year, and for the first time ever, no Cuckoo, Hobby or Whitethroat! Hopefully I will be able to build a more impressive total once I'm in Queensland!
KenM
Well-known member
Sorry to see you go Tim and the best of luck in Queensland...Hopefully you can grip us all off ''Down Under'',and FWIW...I'm still waiting?...for both Whitethroats!
Cheers Ken :t:
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
Yes, all the best Tim, and watch out for those spiders while you're feasting your eyes on Rainbow Lorikeets and the like!
Modelling myself on Captain Mainwaring, I was refusing to panic despite a second 'Yellow Wag plus Tree Pipit walk' in the nearby fields on Thursday, steadfastly standing like a stupid satue in the garden this morning for a good 30 minutes after dawn broke. Patience rewarded when two
90 Yellow Wagtail
flew over twice.
KenM
Well-known member
Not- a-cilla flava anywhere for me yet! :-C
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
:clap::clap:
No sign of them this morning Brenda, but a solitary Siskin was a slight surprise (though I think I read somewhere that they bred very successfully and early in Northern Europe this year, so have been turning up all over the place).
