Friday 14 August 2015

It was another very dark, misty and gloomy morning, heavy clouds filled the sky, but it was at least windless!

I spent virtually all day out on my patch, returning home only for some breakfast then lunch, but it was an incredibly birdless visit, with just 40 species being found. Common and regular species like, Linnet, Songthrush, Whitethroat, Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit,  and the Geese species  were all absent today.

There were few Highlights, the KINGFISHER on the lakes was one, plus its always good to see the raptor species, of which KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and a pair of BUZZARDS were seen up hunting. A few HOUSE MARTINS and SWIFTS flew over late morning, but apart from LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS and HERRING GULLS, no other visitor flew over.

A TREECREEPER was singing in the Scrubby Woods, where NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, and a family of BULLFINCH were also seen. Plenty of BLACKCAPS fed on the Elder Berries there, but just 2 CHIFFCHAFFS were present.

At 16:00hrs I paid one last visit to Migrant Alley, my third of the day! I scanned the fence lines and hedges for a possible ''Chat'' and was chuffed to bits when I saw a WHINCHAT (65) perched up on a Hawthorne twig, now that made the day worthwhile!


Whinchat! The first of Autumn. My first few shots were taken in poor light, as the sun was behind a big cloud.


But as I stepped as near as I dared, the sun came out for a few seconds, allowing me a burst of images in better light  :-)



What a fantastic little bird  :-)

6 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Cracking shots of a bird that is generally very tricky to approach.

Pete Woodruff said...

I'm chuffed to bits too with this one Warren, and I've only seen the photograph.

Warren Baker said...

Pete,
I await the passage of Whinchat with great anticipation each year. They get fewer now, but I still get the odd one :-)

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Whinchat - nice!!!

Cheers

DaveyMan

Phil Barnett said...

Brilliant Whinchat photos Warren

Warren Baker said...

Cheers Phil / Davyman :-)