Apologies, apologies to my regular blog readers, who are now not really so regular as I haven't posted for such a long time and seem to be so far behind with every post. So hopefully over the next week or so I can briefly summarise the past couple of months and get back up together with things.
The end of February was pretty slow, with extra hours at work starting to pick up, and weather at weekends pretty poor, opportunities to get out around the patch with the camera seemed to come at a minimum. Reports of the Bittern on the river by Dad and the ex-river keeper Jeff where still coming in at least once a fortnight, and several fruitless evenings and sunday afternoons were spent wading up and down the flooded banks to no avail.
Whilst waiting for the Bittern I did manage to stalk pretty close to a young Roe Doe as the light started to fade, getting within 20ft before she spotted me, insisting on a stare off for a good 2 or 3 minutes before she decided she didn't like the look of me and disappeared off into the water meadows.
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| Roe Doe |
Plenty of Mute Swan activity on the river with the Cobs starting to look a little more enthusiastic about the forthcoming breeding season. Some interesting preening poses and plenty of wing flapping and postulating gave some nice photo opportunities.
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| The Conductor |
As seems to be the norm now, the sound of Goldcrest song seems to follow me where ever I go, at least 3 pairs still present in the garden, and one even popped out onto a low branch to belt out another sweet chiming tune. There definatly seems to be more Goldcrest about this Winter/Spring than I have ever seen before, which must be a good thing right?
As with the Goldcrests, numbers of Chiffchaff seemed to start to multiply towards the end of the month with at least a dozen seen and heard along one full length walk of the River, whether wintering birds starting to show off in hope of a mate or a steady but early influx of summer visitors.
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| Chiffchaff |
A slight random call was received one monday evening as I made my way home from football, Joe Stockwell a good twitcher friend of mine had spotted some Shelduck on a flooded corn field just outside the village. In such a bizarre place the next morning I was up bright and early and out to investigate. And sure enough as the mist rose off the frosty ground, 6 Shelduck swam and fed on a rather large puddle in the middle of this crop field. Not to bad a patch tick!
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| Patch tick Shelduck |
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