Testament to the poor Spring I’m having here (in West Suffolk) is the fact I’ve not posted in over a week. So here goes:-
I’ve had 2 Marsh Tits together on a couple of occasions, usually almost always a lone bird. One Bird was wing-quivering, which I’m taking as a sign for breeding. I expect they will breed nearby, just across the road, and therefore just off patch.
Long-tailed Tits are certainly breeding here, I’ve seen them nest building. I would think they breed somewhere in the grounds every year but it’s the first I’ve seen them doing it.
Blackbird is another breeder that I’ve actually seen nest building this year, as opposed to just assumed to breed.
A strange thing with another would be breeder is Buzzard. My neighbour told me about one nest-building, I thought he meant a big cluster of sticks in a crook of a tree, see previous post #448. However it was a different nest! The one I assumed It was, was the first on site Carrion Crow nest. Turns out the Buzzards got evicted by the Crows, which is why I never saw the Buzzards. Hopefully it will be the other way round next year. The nearest local pair of Buzzards were displaying the other day. There is a single bird hanging out at the back of the scrubby area, which I often see worming on the Cricket pitch behind us, or sitting on the fence of a Horse field, I suspect this was the bird that attempted to nest.
3rd April saw a Raven flyover the town early morning. My first April record but not a year tick.
Also earlier this month 30-40 Fieldfare, and later, a Redwing flew East, that’s them probably gone until September/October.
Chiffchaffs are well entrenched now alll around, but Blackcaps either passed through or fell silent for a couple of days after they first arrived, but seem to be perking up again, a couple of singers around plus a female seen.
On the 8th a couple of immature
#71 Great Black-backed Gulls flew over, it really has been poor for large Gulls this winter locally, so no surprise it’s taken this long to get them on the yearlist. Together with August, April is the best month, birds moving in and out of winter territories I guess.
Yesterday I was up and out early, walked around the back to check my Tawny Owl box. No Owls but Jackdaws seem to have set up home! (Buzzards and Tawny Owls around here need to grow a backbone and not get usurped so easily by Corvids) Something in me said just walk up to the corner of the patch, one day there could be a House Sparrow in the gardens bordering us. I did, and there was! Only the 3rd record of
#72 House Sparrow in my 5 years here. Ubiquitous in the other half of town and in adjoins villages, just not here. Bizarre.
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I’ve also been checking the stables that I can see from the back of the patch, Swallow has bred there since they were built a couple of years ago. Yesterday saw the first of the year
#73 Swallow, followed by 5-6 more hawking around our property later.
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Spring has finally sprung, though I am still a long way short of a normal year. The weather is not conducive today for improving on the yearlist, so my struggling Spring continues.
) which is where they headed after their breakfast.
