....well sort of anyway!
Bun texted me last night to say I had missed Purple Heron off my patch life list on Bubo. Quite how I did this I don't know, because that Purple Heron (April 2011) was one of the best birds I've ever seen here! It is just so great when you get a lifer on patch, and Purple Heron was a bird I always said I'd never twitch because one day one would surely drop in here (and be twitchable). And to see it so well too - one epic bird! So, thanks Bun for the text (and Phil for finding the Purp!), patch life list on 244.
A little more birdie news for yesterday. I dipped on the three Little Ringed Plovers on Black Hole Marsh last night, but three Swallows north were my first of the year, and at dusk 40+ Sand Martins descended upon Black Hole Marsh.
Now to today, and I was hoping to wake up to cloudy skies and lots and lots of birds! A quick peek out the curtain at 06:30 revealed clear skies and just a whisper of high cloud - so I tucked myself back into bed! When I did get up an hour later, and after an hour of laptop work, a quick look at the Portland Bird Obs website showed a tweet from Martin saying they'd had a pulse of migrants through this morning. So that tempted me up to the Beer Cemetery Fields.
We either hadn't had this 'pulse', or I'd missed it. Three Willow Warblers, two Wheatears and the usual Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were all I noted. The Wheatears were rather nice - both very smart males. On this blog, the average Wheatear photo usually looks something like these...
Bun texted me last night to say I had missed Purple Heron off my patch life list on Bubo. Quite how I did this I don't know, because that Purple Heron (April 2011) was one of the best birds I've ever seen here! It is just so great when you get a lifer on patch, and Purple Heron was a bird I always said I'd never twitch because one day one would surely drop in here (and be twitchable). And to see it so well too - one epic bird! So, thanks Bun for the text (and Phil for finding the Purp!), patch life list on 244.
A little more birdie news for yesterday. I dipped on the three Little Ringed Plovers on Black Hole Marsh last night, but three Swallows north were my first of the year, and at dusk 40+ Sand Martins descended upon Black Hole Marsh.
Now to today, and I was hoping to wake up to cloudy skies and lots and lots of birds! A quick peek out the curtain at 06:30 revealed clear skies and just a whisper of high cloud - so I tucked myself back into bed! When I did get up an hour later, and after an hour of laptop work, a quick look at the Portland Bird Obs website showed a tweet from Martin saying they'd had a pulse of migrants through this morning. So that tempted me up to the Beer Cemetery Fields.
We either hadn't had this 'pulse', or I'd missed it. Three Willow Warblers, two Wheatears and the usual Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were all I noted. The Wheatears were rather nice - both very smart males. On this blog, the average Wheatear photo usually looks something like these...
The two from this morning
So it was nice when one of the birds allowed me to take this...
Not pin sharp - but nice and close nevertheless!
Also saw my first Speckled Wood of the year. I know I'm quite late at this - but it's a good excuse for another photo...
The Lumix is great for subjects like these - as long as the auto focus picks the right bit to focus on!
To mop up all the bird related blog worthy news, whilst writing this blog post I've had a net up in the front garden. And I've just ringed Bullfinch number 34! A cracking 5 (2cy) female.
I realised in my last blog post I didn't mention the content of my moth trap last Friday night. So here it is. 26 moths of 9 species included;
1 Water Carpet
1 Shoulder-stripe
3 Double-striped Pug
3 Early Thorn
7 Common Quaker
5 Small Quaker
3 Hebrew Character
2 Clouded Drab
1 Pale Pinion
So nothing outstanding, but it was nice to see a few new ones for the year.
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