Several good hours were spent today down at Holywell with Cain. It was hot down there! Bird of the day has to be the Mandarin Drake spotted by Cain from the members hide, but watched later at closer quarters. It’s quite some time since I’ve had a Mandarin Drake on my list.
Other birds seen at the pond were Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch and Greenfinch at the feeding station, Oystercatchers, Shelduck and Redshank/Greenshank flying over and Little Grebe, Grey Heron, Mallard, Shoveller, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, and Coot at the Pond. There were also several singing Sedge Warblers and Chaffinch. Swifts, Swallows and House Martins were around in numbers.
Reed Bunting was seen as we walked to the North Pool where more Shovellers were found. Lapwings were being disturbed by the crows in one of the fields. I lost count of the numbers of Whitethroat about, many singing and one or two displaying. Yellowhammers were also seen and Skylarks were heard and seen. A vole entertained us running from side to side of the pathway.
The dene was hot and humid and fairly quiet of birds. Wrens were heard and amongst other birds were Blackbird Robin, Blue Tit and pigeons. As I say it was hot, and we both ended the walk yawning. The cause of this was the heat and not the conversation, I think anyway!:-) At this stage we were taking more of an interest in the plant life than the bird life because of a future Holywell Birding led project. I think I will let Cain talk of this in the future when he writes up his blog hint, hint, nudge, nudge. :-)
There were lots of Orange Tip Butterflies about today. Also several Wall Brown and I saw my first Painted Lady Butterflies of the year. Large White, Small White and Green Veined White were also seen.
We ended our trip at Earsdon Church grounds. By some miracle Cain’s binoculars survived the journey from Holywell to Earsdon on the roof of his car! A good day. I’m sure I’ve forgotten things and can only blame the heat
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