Garden / Yard List 2015 (3 Viewers)

[BrendaA]

Green finches

The greenfinches are still here since beginning of the week . First day throught 50 but must be about 150 !
Since several months seen five green finches two adults three young but dont ever remember seeing so many together as this week !
Any ideas of why they suddenly arrived here and from where ?

 

[halftwo]

66) Spotted Flycatcher! a nice start to the morning before the rain came.

Funnily enough I had my scope out today to try to id a bird across the valley which was a possible Spot fly - but it had disappeared by the time I was set up!

Brenda - my local Greenfinches are beginning to flock now the young are in the wing - could be several family parties.

 

[Richard Prior]

The July heatwave finally came to an end here on Friday evening with cool winds and thunderstorms, just right for 'shaking things up' a bit bird-wise. Mind you, I didn't anticipate seeing the first of this weekend's additions to the 2015 list as it's a rare visitor to the garden, usually in the depths of winter. The second addition was much more expected, and our first 'autumn' migrant, 5 days later than last year's:

82 Common Treecreeper
83 Willow Warbler

 

[halftwo]

No Spring WWs, Richard ?
I'm hoping a Treecreeper will pass through my garden any time soon too.

 

[Richard Prior]

No Spring WWs, Richard ?
I'm hoping a Treecreeper will pass through my garden any time soon too.

In 9 years here we've only had W Warbler twice in the first half of the year, both times it concerned singing males in late May(!?) - I think the reason is probably that it's still b ---- y cold here when the spring migration is in full flow.
The first Nutcrackers since January sailed past the window this morning, gliding lower down the hill to check out gardens and hedgerows for hazelnuts, it looks as though there's going to be a bumper crop this year, so this will be a feature of the next few months. A young Song Thrush managed to crash into the said window about an hour ago, falling down from the balcony afterwards, I held it in my hand and was sure it was about to expire, but put it in the 'bird recovery' shoe box in the dark of the garage anyway. I've just had a peek in the box and it is standing up looking quite alert, so my bedside manner must have done the trick (no jokes please Ken M)

 

[KenM]

I held it in my hand and was sure it was about to expire, but put it in the 'bird recovery' shoe box in the dark of the garage anyway. I've just had a peek in the box and it is standing up looking quite alert, so my bedside manner must have done the trick (no jokes please Ken M)

I don't know where you were heading with that one Richard

However I momentarily "strung" this am, foreshortened and coming toward over the trees, Hobby I exclaimed!..but then the "bulk" became apparent...Peregrine at last! No.67.

 

[RyanI]

June and July have been unusually kind to me this year and with the wader passage in full flow hopefully add a few more in the next few weeks!

103 Willow Warbler
104 Manx Shearwater
105 Hobby
106 Redshank
107 Common Crossbill
108 Stonechat
109 Red-legged Partridge
110 Lesser Redpoll
111 Sedge Warbler
112 Stock Dove
113 Lapwing
114 Common Sandpiper
115 Black-tailed Godwit
116 Greenshank
117 Arctic Skua
118 Black Tern

 

[BrendaA]

Had a rare day out yesterday up above Cauterets at Pont d'Espagne and vallee/ plateau du Marcardau
Saw more than 40 black kites together and three European Griffons.

 

[BrendaA]

Starlings

Starlings about 75 plus since yesterday , they seem to come here when been stormy in other places near by. At the moment they are enjoying berries etc off a big old tree.
Interesting to see the differences between them some all brown , other juvenile with brown wings but with already adult plumage on front or just a brown head rest all adult plumage.

 

[Richard Prior]

Starlings about 75 plus since yesterday , they seem to come here when been stormy in other places near by. At the moment they are enjoying berries etc off a big old tree.
Interesting to see the differences between them some all brown , other juvenile with brown wings but with already adult plumage on front or just a brown head rest all adult plumage.

Yes Brenda, they can look quite odd at this time of the year, we had one pair breed nearby this year, but they left at the end of June and we haven't seen a Starling since!
Migration starting to tick along here now, willow warblers and common Redstarts every day, plus frustratingly two species in the nearby fields which both would have been new for the year's Garden list if they'd come closer, yesterday a Lesser Whitethroat (which would be a garden tick!) and this am. a Spotted Flycatcher. Still, I'm happy now, as a:

84 Pied Flycatcher

has just turned up on the wires over the garden, maybe it will persuade its spotty cousin to pay us a visit!

 

[Jos Stratford]

The now annual autumn Water Rails have turned up in the last days, but otherwise still very quiet. Moorhens stills calling in the reeds, so doing okay ...this I ma chuffed about, my first ever breeding pair seems to have been successful (first ever record totally was just last year)



117. Water Rail.

 

[Jos Stratford]

...maybe it will persuade its spotty cousin to pay us a visit!

Plenty here, perhaps I could pop one in the post?

 

[Richard Prior]

Plenty here, perhaps I could pop one in the post?

You're too kind Jos, I think they don't visit our garden because 'there's no flies on me'.
(I'll get 'me' coat :-C )

 

[BrendaA]

Yes Brenda, they can look quite odd at this time of the year, we had one pair breed nearby this year, but they left at the end of June and we haven't seen a Starling since!
Migration starting to tick along here now, willow warblers and common Redstarts every day, plus frustratingly two species in the nearby fields which both would have been new for the year's Garden list if they'd come closer, yesterday a Lesser Whitethroat (which would be a garden tick!) and this am. a Spotted Flycatcher. Still, I'm happy now, as a:

84 Pied Flycatcher

has just turned up on the wires over the garden, maybe it will persuade its spotty cousin to pay us a visit!

I would willing send you 50 or 60 spotty starlings tomorrow if you would like to keep them . I would still have more than enough !

 

[Richard Prior]

Spotted another Spotted Flycatcher yesterday and a different one today, still out of sight of the house though (sigh).
Plus the first Grasshopper Warbler of the autumn near the same spot beside the fields behind the house, that makes three species added this month to the patch yearlist but not the garden's.
My friend Mike came up to try and find a Gropper this morning, and immediately found

85 Whinchat

perched on the wires at the bottom of the garden! So, it's true what they say, two eyes are better than one.


Err, make that two pairs.
Quite early for our first autumn Whinchat, 22nd August was the previous earliest.

 

[joannec]

85 Whinchat

.

Nice one! Is it annual for you?

 

[Richard Prior]

Nice one! Is it annual for you?

Just! Some years just the one, only three times in spring, but usually each August (all between 22 and 30th until today). Like everywhere it's in decline locally as a breeding species, there's been a survey taking place this summer to try and assess the population in Haute-Savoie and the habitat préférences etc.

Northern Wheatear by contrast is very rare from/in the garden, only two or three sightings in our nine years here, even though it's much more numerous in the Alps than Whinchat. I think the Whinchats like the fence posts around the local fields to hunt from - the grass is often a bit too lush for Wheatear's liking (at least that's my theory!).

 

[BrendaA]

Heard several times today a peewit call ,could there be a lapwing around here ? I've never seen a lapwing , any other birds have a similiar call ?

 

[Richard Prior]

Heard several times today a peewit call ,could there be a lapwing around here ? I've never seen a lapwing , any other birds have a similiar call ?

Hi Brenda, I wonder if you're hearing Green Sandpiper, it's a bit Lapwing-like, 'peewit teet teet', they're migrating at the moment and will stop at any small pond or irrigation ditch etc so that may be what it is.
Very wet up here this past 3 days, even though we can see the sun shining lower down towards Geneva.
Still, migration is underway, both flycatchers again nearby, and I found my second Grasshopper Warbler of the month the other day in a boggy field edge less than a mile away (see photo, taken while I knelt in the mud being bitten by horseflies, see how I suffer for my art!).
Nice surprise this afternoon, only our second - ever:

86 Common Whitethroat

feeding in the garden.

 

[Jos Stratford]

The now annual autumn Water Rails have turned up in the last days, but otherwise still very quiet.

Well, well, well ... heard the Water Rails squealing in the reeds again this weekend, but to my ear, some of the squeals sounding like begging calls. Sneaked to a small hump that affords a little better views and quite some time later, a very remarkable view unfolded ...a pair of Water Rails with three chicks!!!

Fantastic, only previous records are autumn birds in 2013 and 2014, so a cracking first breeding record ...sneaky birds though, they have managed to breed and hatch chicks without me getting a single hint of their presence until just a week ago!

Also Cranes with a single chick, Red-backed Shrikes with recent fledglings and the first Nutcrackers of the season, four stuffing their faces on the hazel crop.


118. Nutcracker.

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