On the West again

Been a strange Spring at the farm this year. Normally the wind direction that will drop the highest amount of birds is a North Easterly, closely followed by Easterly and the South Easterly. Chuck in some low cloud and drizzle and it should be a bonanza. Though this year it has been somewhat different. All our good birds are coming in on South Westerlies and occasionally Westerly winds. So yesterday a crew gathered in the hide, the wind was South West to South East and there was low cloud with occasional heavy rain and drizzle.

So Myself, Sicknote, Frankie, Pinpoint, Dave and Prof gathered expectantly. We weren't to be disappointed. With the day total ending up on

2 Bar wits, 1 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Ring Plover, 10 Whimbrel, 3 Dunlin, 4 Common Tern, 2 Great White Egrets, 20+ Swift, a host of Sand Martin and Swallow, Wheatear, 2 Hobby, Yellow Wagtail, singing Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler.

Call of the wild

Yesterday was an enigma regarding the birding. There was a North East wind blowing, not too hard and not too strong, the rain was a mild drizzle, not too hard and not too soft, the cloud cover was low, not too high and not too low - basically the goldilocks condition, everything was just right. But still no birds came to the farm. It was after i left that i realised the rain had been falling hard to the South and nothing was going to fly through that. The only bird of note was a Cackling Goose that came in with a small flock of Canada Geese.

     Walking round with Pete it became pretty dam obvious that a) this bird was used to humans being close or b) it was obviously tired after such an epic migration and couldn't be arsed to fly away. I elected for option b. Even when the bird marched past at a range of 4 metres it was obvious that it was a very tired individual, yet still retaining that wild glint in its eye.. Heres some pics

Bit behind

Our first 3 whitethroat of the year turned up at the farm this morning. Gorgeous little birdies and i hope you agree. While processing the pics i looked through some of the earlier raptor shots from during the week. I had mentioned to Frankie that one of the birds had a rather long tail and today it revealed itself as a gorgeous Marsh Harrier - right photos time - shit loads ...

On the 7th we had 20 blacklist and a Sandwich Tern

Last four days have seen 52 Buzzards - mostly high and flying North

Some days have been gorgeous

Some have been a tad foggy

 Ooh Marsh Harrier

Hmmm nice moult 

 A few Red Kites

 And the Whitethroat

Slowly but Surely

Well it seems that spring migration is slowly starting. Its still early in the year, but already the list of birds coming through the farm is starting to build. Recent sightings of Raven, Goshawk and Grey Partridge ares certainly helping. The supporting cast are also slowly revealing that they are around. Blackcaps and Chiffies are in full song. Yesterday a small number of Sand Martin passed through and today 3 Wheatear were on the mound. Im sure this weekend will bring a few more year ticks and who knows what else..

The first Wheatear

It had to happen at sometime this week and today was the day. A quick circuit of the mound this morning revealed nothing of any note and it was only while scanning 4 gorgeous pied wagtails that this birdie popped up for a look. Walked back over with Frank and Roy to relocate it and take some snaps..

Gosh Hawk

Whilst at the farm on Friday with the Frankstar all the gulls and corvids went berserk and flew up from the mound. This was made stranger by the ducks swimming to the near shore, something big was obviously coming into the farm. A scan of the north east revealed what i originally called as a buzzard. ( i know, schoolboy error ) As the bird was flying in only a side profile was viewable, but then, oh my, then the bird turned in the air revealing its true shape and identity!!! It then started to fly south on massive wings with a flap, flap, flap, glide action..... This couldn't be, having only just had one in August and the last record before that was 1960!! As it flew through the clouds the camera kept loosing focus which isn't surprising as the bird was so high. But eventually i managed to persuade the camera to focus and these are some of the shots - ok, i know I'm not going to win any awards but hey.....

Check out the depth of those wings

That head protrudes so far

Looks like it has just eaten a buzzard

And some pics of last years one - once again, so high its almost unfair

Something strange at the farm

A quiet day at the farm today. It soon became apparent though that the Black headed Gulls were having a field day collecting sticklebacks from the surface of the water. Im hoping it isn't a major pollution incident at the farm, but we counted 100+ fish within a few hours being consumed.

 Okay so this is badly framed and out of focus, but the swan just popped his head up in front of the lens