Friday 5 March 2010

NEW HYTHE 5th March

The sun was shining, the air was (nearly) warm, a light breeze brushed the surface of the water which sparkled deep blue in the reflection of a cloudless sky. Caribbean? Maldives? No, Brooklands Lake, but if you closed your eyes and didn't think of England............................!



This Robin and it's mate were at the entrance to the lake when I arrived, they were the first and last birds I saw today, I think their official role was 'meet & greet' which they did very nicely with a pose and a song. A small charm of about 10 Goldfinches which seem much scarcer on site now, were also here. Again no sign of the Water Rail in the NE corner, I wonder if the considerably higher water level has something to do with this. The tide was about two thirds out which meant a few birds were about on the mudbanks and exposed islands, these included 3 Redshank, a Shelduck and a Gt Black Backed Gull which was on the exposed island trying its best to swallow what was either a flounder or the head of a larger fish. I do struggle to separate these from Lessers when they are by themselves with nothing to compare them with but there was a Herring Gull alongside this one which looked noticeably smaller so i'm fairly confident the ID is good.

Several Cetti's Warblers were singing from within the Sunken Marsh as were the resident Dunnocks, a female Pheasant exploded from the undergrowth and whirred away and two Kestrels made a brief appearance overhead before disappearing as suddenly as they had arrived. The Long Tailed Tit and the Chiffchaff below were both seen in the SW corner of the marsh below the mound.




Over the railway line and the East Scrub produced a flock of about 20-25 Fieldfare with a few Redwing mixed in and a smart Green Woodpecker which clearly wanted it's photo taken, but not with the two Greyhounds that decided to try and get in on the picture, I don't blame it really. I went down to the Bittern watching area where I spotted this Treecreeper (below) just as Den & Doreen Capeling came down the path from the opposite direction, this was quite fortuitous in a way because the bird then moved into a better position for me to get my first ever picture of a Treecreeper. Not the best one i've seen recently but it does show off the long rear claw quite nicely.


TREECREEPER


The return journey down the river didn't produce too much apart from another couple of Shelduck, a noisy Redshank, further views of one of the Kestrels, the one and only Jay of the morning and a possible Snipe which took off out of the reeds but came back down and disappeared before it could be identified.

The handsome chap pictured below was on the far side of the river and has probably the best Brush i've seen on a Fox in a long time.

According to my Reporter's Notebook (Greenie!) I saw 42 species in all today, one of which i.e. the GBB Gull was my first of the year at New Hythe so i'm pleased with that. Hopefully in the not too distant future i'll be telling you about my first Sand Martin of the year, watch this space!











3 comments:

Greenie said...

Phil ,
Glad to see the medication was taken , and worked today .
Also that the new camera and lens is working very well together .
Agree with the great brush .

Warren Baker said...

Nowt wrong with that 'creeper' photo Phil! Well done with Gbb Gull, I always look at the leg colour, Yellow - LBB. Fleshy - GBB

Forest the Bear said...

Great shots Phil...Loving that fox photo, especial being a Leicestershire boy!!!