Garden/Yard List 2020 (1 Viewer)

[halftwo]

72: Hobby !!

 

[RyanI]

It looks like I've hit my target 6 1/2 months early!! It appears i missed out the first two from previous months. Just as I thought the excellent spring was all over this week returned to form, Crossbills, Siskins and a couple Mistle Thrush have been moving south, a Reed Warbler and Marsh warbler took up residence in my garden for a day and last night, while watching a fantastic spectacle of 1500+ swifts moving south in an hour, they were joined by 3 Spoonbills. What a spring in east Norfolk!!!

144 Black Tern (was actually #125)
145 Grey Plover (was actually #140)
146 Red Crossbill
147 Marsh Warbler
148 Eurasian Reed Warbler
149 Mistle Thrush
150 Eurasian Spoonbill

 

[Richard Prior]

It looks like I've hit my target 6 1/2 months early!! It appears i missed out the first two from previous months. Just as I thought the excellent spring was all over this week returned to form, Crossbills, Siskins and a couple Mistle Thrush have been moving south, a Reed Warbler and Marsh warbler took up residence in my garden for a day and last night, while watching a fantastic spectacle of 1500+ swifts moving south in an hour, they were joined by 3 Spoonbills. What a spring in east Norfolk!!!

144 Black Tern (was actually #125)
145 Grey Plover (was actually #140)
146 Red Crossbill
147 Marsh Warbler
148 Eurasian Reed Warbler
149 Mistle Thrush
150 Eurasian Spoonbill

Congratulations Ryan, that's a spectacular total that we 'inlanders' can only dream of. Mind you, I bet those Spoonbills had their work cut out joining the southbound Swifts, a bit of slipstreaming might work I suppose..... Lovely shot of the Marsh Warbler too, nice chunky bill:t:

 

[Warixenjalka]

72: Hobby !!

So, it was a worth to wait. :t:

 

[KenM]

72: Hobby !!

Better late than never H! :t:

 

[halftwo]

Noc migging unintentionally last night produced a strange brief sound, which after searching through some candidates on Xeno canto, I was fairly sure it was a

73: Shoveler

Still within striking distance of HALF of Ryan's score - so not bad!

 

[Steve Lister]

June 25th.

73. Oystercatcher - one called several times just after I went in having processed my moth catch but couldn't spot it when I got back out.

Steve

 

[halftwo]

74: Garden Warbler

 

[Richard Prior]

Breakfast bonanza

Late June sometimes turns up oddities at our altitude we’ve found, both here and at our previous place, presumably post or failed breeding wanderers from lower down but to get two in five minutes while eating our porridge this morning was a nice surprise. I was curious as to why the ‘Great Spotted Woodpecker’ arrived in the cherry tree was not shimmying up the trunk as usual but staying pretty still, so got out the bins and was chuffed to see it was only our second ever

78 Middle Spotted Woodpecker

My wife kept an eye on it while I scrambled for the camera but of course it moved off before I was sorted out :C.Still, when the second surprise arrived in the same tree a couple of minutes later I was able to photograph the visitor, an adult

79 Spotted Flycatcher

Usually it’s August before I see them here as they head south, so this was a first June record for the garden.:t:

 

[KenM]

Late June sometimes turns up oddities at our altitude we’ve found, both here and at our previous place, presumably post or failed breeding wanderers from lower down but to get two in five minutes while eating our porridge this morning was a nice surprise. I was curious as to why the ‘Great Spotted Woodpecker’ arrived in the cherry tree was not shimmying up the trunk as usual but staying pretty still, so got out the bins and was chuffed to see it was only our second ever

78 Middle Spotted Woodpecker

My wife kept an eye on it while I scrambled for the camera but of course it moved off before I was sorted out :C.Still, when the second surprise arrived in the same tree a couple of minutes later I was able to photograph the visitor, an adult

79 Spotted Flycatcher

Usually it’s August before I see them here as they head south, so this was a first June record for the garden.:t:

Clearly...both “well spotted” then Richard.

 

[Richard Prior]

Clearly...both “well spotted” then Richard.

Indeed, well worth letting the porridge go lukewarm :t:

 

[KenM]

Indeed, well worth letting the porridge go lukewarm :t:

I suppose the excitement of a double whammy!...was just a prelude to you enjoying your oats later.

 

[Richard Prior]

I suppose the excitement of a double whammy!...was just a prelude to you enjoying your oats later.

Quite so Ken, mind you at my age the expression has a more nutritive sense than when I was a young whippersnapper! No sign of yesterday’s surprise visitors today but an unseasonal pair of Siskin over.

 

[halftwo]

75: Common Crossbill

NINE over!!

June has been good!

 

[RyanI]

What an end to June! An unexpected busy period with waders returning in decent numbers, including my second ever patch spotted redshank in nice summer plumage too. Crossbills and siskins have been going south in small numbers but the undoubted highlight has been the swift passage, unusual for here in June. Over a 12 day period between the 18th and 29th over 28k flew south past my house with a peak day count of 11956 and included an Alpine Swift the previous day (house tick #210) that lingered in the area in to the next day.

151 Common Greenshank
152 Spotted Redshank
153 Alpine Swift
154 Northern Lapwing

 

[Richard Prior]

Congratulations on the Alpine Swift Ryan, your garden life list is double mine!!

I’m always one of the last to this particular party:

80 Hobby

I have yet to see one here before mid-June and typically I also saw the first fledged Swallows nearby yesterday, Hobby are not daft

 

[KenM]

75: Common Crossbill

NINE over!!

June has been good!

Envious H!....especially as a colleague logged a baker's dozen a week ago barely a few hundred metres behind my drum.:-C

 

[Euan Buchan]

Stock Dove was back in the garden yesterday morning.

 

[Richard Prior]

Another life tick for the Garden List this morning, though not as exciting as the others this year. Our neighbour claimed to have seen this bird about three weeks ago but in my arrogance I thought she must be mistaken. But a loud whirring of wings as we were working in the veg patch and there it was sailing across the road!

81 Common Pheasant

Presumably a survivor from a hunters’ release group last autumn at lower altitude rather than a vagrant arrived from Georgia or Azerbaijan on the recent easterlies
With a best ever annual total of 86 species here I stand a very good chance of breaking the record this year, especially as some guaranteed (famous last words) ones are yet to be added - Common Redstart, Tree Pipit and Pied Flycatcher to name but three.

 

[birdmeister]

I think I said quite a while ago that I'd give my official yard spring hawkwatch results when the season was over. Well, it's been over for over a month and it's been crickets on my end! Here's a summary of sorts.

My spring hawkwatch was conducted from the backyard on 56 days from February 23 through May 30. I counted a total of 1,295 raptors in just under 136 hours. The average number of raptors per hour was about 9.5, not bad! This is especially good considering that I included dawn watches that were good for passerines and waterbirds, but often had very few raptors. I'll include species totals and one-day high counts below.


Black Vulture - 2 (2 on 3/20)
Turkey Vulture - 203 (137 on 3/20)
Osprey - 72 (16 on 4/25)
Bald Eagle - 30 (19! on 5/10)
Northern Harrier - 24 (8 on 4/12)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 120 (24 on 4/12)
Cooper's Hawk - 23 (4 on 4/19)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 21 (5 on 4/12)
Broad-winged Hawk - 641 (308! on 4/19)
Red-tailed Hawk - 21 (4 on 3/20)
American Kestrel - 62 (10 on 4/25)
Merlin - 12 (3 on 4/19 and 4/25)
Peregrine Falcon - 1 on 3/10, actually headed ESE but clearly on the move and none were seen for the rest of the season
Unidentified Accipiter - 21 (5 on 4/12 and 4/19)
Unidentified Buteo - 14 (3 on 3/20)
Unidentified Falcon - 5 (1 on five dates)
Unidentified Raptor - 23 (8 on 4/19)

These numbers were fairly comparable to other spring watches in PA, and I had much fewer hours for the most part.

Hopefully I'll get to posting some photos soon. If people are interested, I can send a summary of my non-raptor migrants too. I've already listed species in earlier posts but often didn't get into numbers details. It was a fascinating experience, though!