week 20

14^th May  Les & I visited Fowlmere, two hobbies quartered the reed beds but nothing else of interest, there were no turtle doves, the first time we have failed to find one at this time of year,

15^th May  Les & I went to Rye meads. We found a gropper reeling from the warbler hide and I got some video of the kingfishers thro’ my scope on my iphone. The parents were busy feeding the fledglings and posing. There were also an impressive number of various ducks present but no waders or cuckoo

16^th May  An early start to Minsmere with Les in perfect weather. Britain may not be booming at present but the bitterns certainly were! Highlights were Little tern, Whimbrel, stone curlew, bearded tit. There were a number of common waders. We found Dartford warblers on Westleton heath and a family of stonechats hunting. Interesting insects were a Small copper, a Great silver beetle attempting to fly and Drinker and Garden tiger caterpillars.

17^th May  we watched the blue tits fledging from our box by the kitchen window, I saw the first one emerge at about 0650, there were already a couple out, Les shot out of bed to see the next ones emerge when told they were on their way out. There was a possible ring necked parakeet over the house but it caught me without my bins........... Then back to house hunting.

18^th May  I took the abandoned tit box down to clean it out and found three dead babies in it and sadly another that had fallen into the pond. Back to house hunting.

19^th May  i had an early walk around Nortonbury on the patch, young mistle thrushes were on the lawn at the farm, looking bigger than the parents. I videod yellowhammers and greenfinches thro’ the scope again.

20^th May  Little time for birding, but we did have a leucistic collared dove in the garden but it had vanished by the time I got back with my camera. We had never seen one before.