Friday 14 September 2012

BITS AND PIECES AND 99 SPECIES

 The purchase of our new house at West Farleigh has curtailed my ramblings of late. Especially as we still have our other one at Larkfield for the time being, where we are continuing to live while we get some work done at Farleigh. I've already started a  garden list there, where Coal Tit and Nuthatch, a bird never seen at Larkfield, are the current stars. There have been good numbers of Mistle Thrushes over the house too and Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers have visited briefly. No doubt more goodies will turn up as we make the garden more wildlife friendly.


Here in Larkfield we had a garden visit recently from a juvenile Green Woodpecker. 


I think they breed in the old trees around the lake here, as the Great Spotted do. I regularly see them flying from that direction and often here them yaffling loudly at the crack of dawn as if they were just outside our bedroom window, i'm not quite so keen on them then.

I 've managed a couple of brief visits to New Hythe lakes over the last couple of weeks but as elsewhere things have been very quiet. Last saturday I had a call from Terry Laws to say he had a Spotted Flycatcher in the sunken marsh. This is a very good bird for NH, i've only seen one since I started watching there about five years ago, so I was a bit miffed about missing this one. All wasn't lost though when I got a call from Jerry Warne on thursday afternoon to say it had turned up again in exactly the same spot. A quick (trolley) dash from Tesco's followed and I was soon on the footpath near the bucket wood admiring this cracking little bird, my 99th species at NH this year. As I said, not one I see very often, more's the pity. Many thanks Terry and Jerry.
Highlights today from a circuit of New Hythe with Terry included a Kingfisher over the corner of the marsh, where later a mixed flock of Gt Tits, Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were seen making the most of the Blackberries and Elderberries. A couple of unidentified waders , probable Green Sandpipers along the river and a couple of early Wigeon on Abbey Mead lake. Raptors were well represented by a super Hobby along the river, a Sparrowhawk or two hunting high and a couple of distant Buzzards. While over in the east scrub we sat for a few minutes watching another Sparrowhawk, another distant, probable Buzzard and the star of the show, another or the same Hobby. This time treating us to a stunning aerial flying display while catching and eating dragonflies on the wing. This merited a round of 'raptorous' applause I thought.

4 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Are you going to start a new patch at West Farleigh Phil, find a bit of river or water and a few fields, bring along your bucket seat for some sky watching and off you go - a fresh patch :-)

ShySongbird said...

Raptorous applause! You're incorrigible Phil :-)

It certainly sounds like the new garden is going to have some interesting visitors. I have always wanted to see a Nuthatch in my garden but never have and a Green Woodpecker would be just amazing but not at all likely unfortunately. Great captures of the juvenile!

Well done with the Spotted Flycatcher too.

Hope you soon get settled into your new home without too much hassle.

Greenie said...

Phil ,
I trust that the trolley didn't end up in the marsh or the river after seeing the Sp.Fly .
Mind you , it will take longer to respond to calls from West Farleigh .
BTW , which of your two houses will you use as your weekend retreat ?

Jason K said...

Weel done on the spot fly phil. I'm with Warren, I think a new/additional patch may be required near your new abode