Thursday 23 April 2009

A trek over to the scrub area this afternoon didn't provide me with the awaited migrant Turtle dove, despite sitting and listening for 40mins, but they will be here soon enough, saying that though, the earliest record was on the 17th April back in 2003, with the mean arrival date being the 24th and the latest date on May 1st. I looked at the Lesser Whitethroat records, and found that the arrival date this year, was the same as last, with a mean arrival date of the 24th. While I sat listening to the limited singing going on around me, a KESTREL flew fast and low over my head, not much more to mention than that!

Over at migrant alley...... (One or two people have asked about the name 'migrant alley' . It is a set of fields - Horse paddocks, sheep pasture, and a field for crops, bounded by fences and young hedgrows. It is here that in spring and autumn migration times, that I can record scarce passage migrants, such as Wheatear, Whinchat, Stonechat, Redstart, Blackredstart and Yellow Wagtail as well as a few flyover rareaties. Passage is better in Autumn than spring, and Migrant alley is my own name for it.)......Anyway, the day has finally arrived when the gas pipeline work has started in earnest, I arrived today to find, lorries, dumptrucks, diggers and bulldozers all over the place. Hundreds of meters of fencing has gone up and workmen were everywhere. All this has to be lived with for the next 6 months, I just hope it doesn't affect the migrants when its all finished.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't see an awful lot, I could still get to my seat and skywatch however, and I saw both PEREGRINES over the workers, high up though. Also the SPARROWHAWK put in it's daily appearence. I only stayed for half an hour, lets hope it's a bit quiter tomorrow.


Below is a photo of the Kestrel that went over my head, too fast for me- i only got the back end of it!


Above is one of the Peregrines.....very high up!

Below is some of the choas at Migrant alley.







7 comments:

EP Andy said...

Hi Warren

Don't worry too much about the gas pipeline, the area soons gets healed over by nature. I remember when they put it through East Peckham, it soon disappeared AND the birds liked the bare soil for feeding. By the way my Cuckoo turned up at last last night but by 2am I was just getting a little fed up with it. I expect by the end of June I'll be ready to shoot it!!!!!

Warren Baker said...

Guess your right Andy, I hope the ongoing work isn't going to be disturbing. I know what you mean about Cuckoo song, it drowns over everything else!

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Finally got an answer to your orchids . They are definately Early Purple and their colouration is unusual , though not unknown . As I said , I have never seen any that colour .
Hoped for a Cuckoo today , but didn't get one .

Ken. said...

Hi Warren.
Sorry to hear that the workmen have finally started, still the sooner they start, the sooner they finish.
You didn't do too badly with the raptor shot's. I'd be happy with them.

ShySongbird said...

I thought the photo of the Kestrel in particular was very striking Warren.
I was sorry to see the work going on though and know how I would feel if that was on one of my regular walks, a lot of our beautiful countryside round here has been ruined by developers.
Thanks for the info on migrant alley, I expect a lot of places got their names originally by local people giving them nicknames.

Kelly said...

...I love the name you came up with. We have a "Migrant Alley" too. It is our Little Miami River Bike Trail and seems to be a magnet for the little migrating birds. Too bad they didn't do the work in the off season...then Mother Nature could have started the healing process in the spring when everything was growing.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: Those little hawks move so fast they are hard to capture, nicely done.