Wednesday 10 September 2008

Above and below; A Cormorant over Migrant Alley


A HOBBY flew low across migrant alley this morning, and a GREEN WOODPECKER was on one of the fence posts, but there were no scarce migrants. As I walked through the college grounds both COAL TIT and GOLDCREST were calling.
This afternoon, just for a change I walked over to the lake and scrub area, before going to Migrant Alley. I need not have really bothered though, little was seen, just a GREY HERON on the lake with 6 MALLARD, and a few MOORHEN. CHIFFCHAFF and BULLFINCH called from the scrub but that was about it.


I walked back through the wet woods, its not infested with mosquitoes now, so I had a quick walk round the half that my mate George owns. He's a good bloke, lets me walk round his woods whenever I want to, so i thought I would give him a mention as I know he reads this blog. I was hoping to find an early teal or maybe a mandarin duck, but I found neither.

When I got to Migrant Alley, all was quiet, apart from a flock of 13 LINNETS. I sat and watched the fence posts, paddocks and sky, and a few minutes later the second Hobby of the day went shooting through, and a while after, a CORMORANT flew over. An hour later I called it a day, but just as I was leaving the maize crop a YELLOW WAGTAIL flew over, with possibly 3 more following, I didn't get a good look at those and they didn't call. So it was worth a visit after all.

Folowing the late SWIFT sighting yesterday, I looked back at my records and found that it was the first ever September sighting, the previous latest date was 31 Aug. back in 2004. The mean last date is now the 20th Aug. I look forward to seeing them next spring!

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