23rd April An early morning walk on Norton common
brought two additions to the Patch list, a Tawny
owl female that called and a coal tit, singing high in a fir tree. I also popped
down to the lagoon but the only interesting sighting there was a quartet of
swimmers in skin diving suits for warmth who were doing a lap of the lake, two
men and two women I think, and certainly hardier than me, that water must have
been very cold. Patch list 83
24th April
Another early walk around the common brought another coal tit singing
and also at least three tree creepers calling, very few warblers though, just
blackcap and chiffchaff
25th April Tim and I had decided that this should
be our big day out on the patch, I joined him on the common at 0420 and he said
I had just missed a couple of foxes and a muntjac passing where he was waiting.
It was a heavily overcast misty morning, not ideal for birding but we pressed
on. Robin was heard at 0430, woodpigeon mallard and blackbirds were heard by
0453 and at five we were fortunate enough to hear a woodcock.
Very soon afterwards we had a probable wryneck fly over us calling loudly but
the view and the call were too brief to say with absolute certainty which was
most unfortunate but encouraging. Blue tit, crow, great tit, wren, song thrush,
green woodpecker, magpie chaffinch and blackcap took us to 0452 and a minute
later we were surprised to hear a cuckoo calling
from somewhere towards the allotments. At 0546 a tawny owl called and we saw a
jay chase it form a nearby low bush. Mistle thrush, great spotted woodpecker and
Canada goose took us to twenty birds found by 0600 when we left the common to
walk to Tims and get the car as the weather forecast had determined we should
use it to maximise our time prior to the expected rain. Collared dove, house
sparrow and starling were added on the trip to the car and then we headed off
to Radwell lake. Mute swan, tufted duck, moorhen, coot gadwall and pied wagtail
were on the lake, pheasant, chiffchaff,
jackdaw and greylag goose were found in the surrounding area and then Tim found
a pair of kingfishers nearby at 0710. Our next stop was Nortonbury where we had
a bite to eat, we walked North west
along the Greenway in the hope of finding some resident little owls but they
could not be found, I then watched a female blackcap trying to pull animal
hairs off of the barbed wire for her nest.A pair of linnets were added, closely
followed by bullfinches, dunnocks, willow warblers, skylark and grey partridges
taking us to 40 species seen. A whitethroat called at 0847 and we watched him
briefly. We saw our first swallow at Nortonbury farm at 0901 and we then went
to check out the flooded horse fields adjacent to the farm, goldfinches were
added en route. Another pair of linnets on the horse fields lead us to seeing
four yellow wagtails, when we scanned the wet
edges of the fields this total rose to eleven, there was quite a large number
of swallows hawking over the flood and quite a few mallard ducklings dodging
about . Nearby were a lingering pair of fieldfares and a pair of greenfinches
were noted en route back to the car at 10.00. We then headed for the Standalone
area of the greenway, stock doves were calling at 1030, a drake teal and a pair
of little grebes were seen and a long walk brought us our 50th
species in the form of a Corn bunting at 1153. A number of rooks were seen
(1204) and grey wagtail at 1239. After a bit more light refreshment we headed
to the blue lagoon and quickly spotted great crested grebe at 1321. Tim then
spotted some house martins mixed in with the
swallows over the lagoon and while I was getting onto them he saw a pair of
buzzards being mobbed by crows (1324), I saw a long tailed tit below us under
the cliffs and then we headed back to the car finding a lesser whitethroat en
route at 1341. Our final destination as it turned out were the fields next to
the Norton to Baldock road near the dump. We found our last birds of the day,
yellowhammer and feral pigeon and the the predicted rains came so we headed for
the car at ten past two with a total of 59 species. Patch
list 87
26th April no visit today, we had a wedding to
attend
27th April I had a walk in the Nortonbury area,
Willow warbles had arrived in force and were singing from lots of places, there
were also a lot of swallows in the area but little else of note.
28th April
no visit
29th April
I had an early walk between Standalone and Stotfold along the Pix brook,
the weather was raining through a heavy mist but it was totally windless. There
were lots of whitethroats on territories, i disturbed a buzzard up from the
ground in a horse pasture, lots of skylarks were singing in spite of the
weather but I only heard two whitethroats. I was rewarded upon my return with
my first garden warbler of the year behind the old pig testing station. On my
way home i also saw yellowhammer and bullfinch. Patch list 88
This takes me to approximately one third of the year gone
and adding species will become a lot tougher now...............
