The patch week 4

Jan 22^nd  Lesley and I went for a walk around Nortonbury and Radwell, it was v ery quiet bird wise, a few pairs of Pochard  and Gadwall and the usual two pairs of swans plus one Little egret were noted, we also saw a flock of eighty woodpigeons on the winter greens and a small mixed flock of winter thrushes

Jan 23^rd rain stopped play

Jan 24^th  First stop the blue lagoon, six tufted ducks, three cormorants and two green woodpeckers were the only birds of interest beside the large numbers of coot, I think the tufties are moving between Standalone and the lagoon. Next was a stop at Standalone, lots of birds but nothing new so I wandered on along the Pix brook and found three separate chiffchaffs, the first was a very buff character and the last one seemed to have a green tinge but both were difficult to study as they kept flying off, when they did stay static for short periods it was good to see just how many small flies they were managing to find to eat.

I popped into the hide upon my return but the only new bird for the day ws a bullfinch female. The pasture fields around Standalone were thick with winter thrushes and there was a pied wagtail in the car park.

Jan 25^th A warm day, gloves barely needed, duck numbers were down at Standalone, Mallards were down to 11 from the 100 of the 21^st but they do fluctuate wildly, there were only two gadwall in view and the shovellers appear to have gone.  The flocks of finches, larks and rooks could not be found upon the greenway paths.

Jan 26^th A foul day of largely heavy rain – no visit

Jan 27^th Just time for a quick trip to Standalone, there was a flock of 155 mixed redwings and fieldfares on the meadow between Standalone farm and the Two chimneys PH together with about thirty starlings. I counted 121 Black headed gulls from the hide, and not a single common gull amongst them but nothing else of note.                                            

Week three on the Patch

Jan 15^th – no visit

Jan 16^th An afternoon visit started at Standalone and I saw my first cormorant there, and 34 teal and 7 gadwall.

My main target was the finch flock and I put three pints of seed out as a trial to get them closer, I did watch for an hour and did see them again at scope distance and made notes on the mystery finches but could not positively i.d. them.

Jan 17^th started at 0715 at the blue lagoon with 5 possible meadow pipits that I could not approach close enough to i.d. Next I checked Standalone and then walked the Pix brook which was also very quiet, annoyingly I ran out of time to check the area I had put out the seed.

Jan 18^th to 20^th away in Norfolk

Jan 21^st started with Lesley at Standalone which had 5 new feral geese and two pairs of bullfinches, a pair of shovellers and a water rail along the l/h side.

We then walked the Piux brook and the greenway path to the point where I had put the seed but the only thing there was a lot of guano!

We popped back to the hide on our return and were rewarded with a

COMMON SNIPE

Which was along the back edge, also there a quantity of 100 mallards   Patch total 61

Patch - week two

8^th Jan  08.15 The blue lagoon

A fine morning after our first dry night for a while, the only new bird of interest was a

CORMORANT

Standalone farm next, I was greeted by a very confiding

GREY WAGTAIL

The only other sighting of note was a superb dog fox that strolled straight toward me apparently unperturbed by my presence                                                    patch total 54

Jan 9^th Radwell

Two and a half hours on the patch brought nothing new, but it was a very fine day

Jan 10^th Standalone at dawn

I saw what appeared to be a monochrome blue tit in a little tit flock which turned out to be a Long tailed tit with a very short tail, also in the flock was a  GOLDCREST.  I heard my first  SONG THRUSH  singing.                                                                                            Patch total 56

Jan 11^th  Standalone

A quick early trip to Standalone was rewarded by a   KINGFISHER  flying across the lake in front of the hide and perching in the tree opposite                                   patch total 57

Jan 12^th Blue lagoon

On a beautiful morning I found a   GREAT CRESTED GREBE  with little else except a large number of coots

Standalone was next after I had picked up Lesley and we saw a  WATER RAIL from the hide.

The greenway path was our route homewards and we saw our first true ‘exaltation’ of Skylarks, approximately 100 birds                                                            patch total 59

Jan 13^th Greenway path

An early walk turned up another large flock of golden plover, and double figures of skylarks, mixed amongst them were a number of   LINNETS   I also think I saw something like twite but could not prove it conclusively                                                                    patch total 60

Jan 14^th Greenway path.

Two visits for the finch flock went unrewarded, I certainly saw them but not close enough to I.D. Other birds of note were a large flock of rooks and more large numbers of skylarks, Lesley managed to spot her first fox of the year here.

Patch - week one continued

Jan 2^nd I started at Radwell pond

LITTLE EGRET, GT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

Next Standalone farm

YELLOWHAMMER, ROOK, PHEASANT, FIELDFARE

GREAT TIT, MISTLE THRUSH, GOLDFINCH, CHIFFCHAFF

CHAFFINCH     total 42

 

Jan third was a day of violent storms and I was driven home so the only bird was the humble

HOUSE SPARROW     Total 43

Jan fourth Heavy rain all day so no visit

Jan fifth A short trip out to the Blue lagoon and Pix brook found:-

TUFTED DUCK, COMMON BUZZARD, JAY   Total 46

Jan sixth was another day of foul weather but I persevered and visited the Blue lagoon and Standalone farm:-

COMMON GULL, GREENFINCH     Total 48

Jan seventh brought foul weather all morning but an afternoon trip to Standalone and the Greenway path brought :-

GOLDEN PLOVER, PIED WAGTAIL, SKYLARK, SPARROWHAWK Total 52

So in summing up at the end of the first week I have probably seen half of my total for the year, the highlight was the flock of sixty Golden plovers flying high over the field and turning in the light and showing  a sort of golden glow in the sun

A patch for a year

Two friends of mine did a patch last year which is a local area, basically the North Letchworth greenbelt. The idea was to see how many species could be seen on the patch in a calendar year, Ken, who is retired managed a superb 98 species and Tim, who is still employed got a very credible 92.

I retired in August and thought this would encourage me to get off out for some exercise, in what is a cheap form of entertainment.

My patch will include the area North of my house including the Standalone farm and the area inside the Pix brook which runs parallel to the Stotfold to Hitchin road, A507, A1 and a line around the built up areas to the South and the 'Blue lagoon' a disused chalk pit (now owned by a fishing syndicate) which is linked to the remainder of the patch by a footpath to the farm.

Most of the patch is arable land with small amounts of woodland, two ponds two brooks and the Blue lagoon.

I will be updating the sightings every seventh day.

Jan 1st to 7th.

Jan first, I left home at 0735 for the Blue lagoon and the first birds were :-

ROBIN, CARRION CROW, COOT, BLACKBIRD

MUTE SWAN, LITTLE GREBE, MAGPIE, MOORHEN

BLK HEADED GULL, WOODPIGEON

Next stop was Standalone farm STOCK DOVE, BLUE TIT

GREYLAG GOOSE, DUNNOCK, KESTREL, REDWING

CANADA GOOSE, JACKDAW, MALLARD, TEAL

REED BUNTING, GREY HERON, GADWALL, SHOVELLER

LONG TAILED TIT, POCHARD, BULLFINCH, WREN

GREEN WOODPECKER, STARLING, COLLARED DOVE   total 31