A Very Local Update

We are of course still in lockdown here, local exercise only, which means i'm yet to spot a Mallard or a Coot this year, both of which would be early list birds and common as muck on my normal travels! At the end of the month rules will relax a little so we should be able to travel places......but of course so will everyone else!

In the meantime the garden has been filled with activity as has my walk to work. We've had a week of snow and ice back in February, which was great for bringing Redwings to the garden and even a couple of Song Thrush - rare visitors. 

Redwing

Song Thrush

House Sparrows flocking to the bird bath after I defrosted it for the third time that day!

Starlings

A Blackcap pair have been around the gardens for the past three or four weeks, mostly the male with the odd appearance from a female. This happened around the same time last year too. The male has devoured the berries on the honeysuckle and they have both gone through a lot cotoneaster berries. The male has even treated us to his song a few times. 

Male

Female

This past week a pair of Bullfinch have been at the feeders, more rare garden visitors, beautiful ones too! We've had the odd Chaffinch and Greenfinch, both also infrequent visitors.

Chaffinch

Bullfinch

I spotted Hedgehog poop in the garden at the end of February and a few days later spotted the actual Hedgehog itself drinking from the water dish we have in the garden, i've seen it regularly since, followed recently by a second. Here's hoping they do as well as last year. 

The gutter Starling has been singing from it's gutter perch and has been clearing it's spot out, i'm assuming it's the same one again? A large conifer at the end of our house row has been chopped down in recent weeks, lots of Starlings and Sparrows roosted and nested in there, I wonder if it will have any effect on their numbers over the coming months as both did very well with lots of young last year. Woodpigeons have been carrying nest materials into the same tree as previous years, nothing much seems to come of it though.

Long-tailed Tits

Collared Dove

Woodpigeons & Feral Pigeons

Starling catching the early morning sun

Elsewhere around town several pairs of Magpies are nest building, one pair in the supermarket car park right above a busy spot! As of last week a few Redwings are still around in the park, I think the lastest i've seen them there is early April. I heard my first Skylark near work recently too, despite the increase in traffic!

I'll leave you with our inquisitive Squirrel!

Around the Patch

The first patch update of the year and there's plenty going on.

The first bird of the year for me was a Blackbird - calling in the garden before it got daylight. I took my usual walk around the town early New Years Day and then went down into Churwell Woods just after lunch. In the woods a Grey Wagtail was pottering about in the stream - a rare visitor here though this one must like it as it's still about now.

Redwings

Chaffinch

More Redwings - this year there has been more than usual and they've stayed around several weeks now.

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Crow

Pied Wagtail

Rook

Magpie

Some of the Black-headed Gulls near home

Dunnock

Robin

 A good start to the year with 27 species on that first day.

The garden has been busy, a constant flow of birds (and Squirrels) and it's daylight early enough in the day now that I can garden watch a little before I leave for work.

Woodpigeon

Collared Dove

Long-tailed Tit

Blackbird 

Collared Dove - this one perched on the hanging basket by the house and had a good nosy through the window!

Not the best shot but it's all a managed to get of this Chaffinch - a rare garden visitor

We've only had very light covering of snow and some hard frosts so far this year and at the moment the weather seems to be warming up.

 

In the garden flowers are starting to bloom, Snowdrops have spread themselves all over my flower beds, most haven't quite opened yet. The Hellabore however is in full bloom. Bluebells have been showing for about three weeks.

Hellabore

Bluebells

Snowdrops

Back to the birds and I had a very nice patch tick of a Peregrine back in January and it seems to have taken up residence for now, it'll be interesting to see if he stays around more permanently! Last Friday I managed to tick Pink-footed Geese from the bathroom at 10pm at night, luckily for me they were making a lot of noise as they flew over. 

My daughters swears she saw a Owl fly past the house one morning at dawn a couple of weeks ago, now we know there is a couple not too far from us, just off the patch, so it's not out of the realm of possibilities, something to try and check out further. 

So far so good and I still haven't managed to check out one of the parks properly yet!