Reeling on Patch.

Oi you lot, have you seen the mess those humans down there are making of our city? To think they had the nerve to ask for us to be moved after I'd white washed the flat!

27th Apr. Bird song is reaching a climax on patch with numbers of Willow Warbler songsters seeming to now be out numbering Chiffchaff. Other songsters included Song Thrush, Blackbird, Wren, Dunnock, Robin tits and finches. I found a silent male Blackcap, but no Whitethroats in their usual territories as yet. I heard the reeling of at least one (possibly two) Grasshopper Warblers. I thought I’d picked up reeling as I walked along the roadway, but everything was being drowned out by traffic. Once down the wagon-way it was unmistakeable. I’ve never heard them before, in what is in fact an ideal area for them. Watched for a sighting for sometime and even moving to a bit of high ground giving excellent views over the area brought no luck. I’ll keep an eye on this spot and the area along the wagon-way I found the Grasshopper Warbler last year.

Last Saturday I was in town and purchased my Admiral Collingwood book that I promised myself and couldn’t resist another look at the Kittiwakes.

On The Waggonways.

Peacock Butterfly

Garlic Mustard

Russian Comfrey

22nd April. The afternoon was too good to waste so I decided to have a walk along the patch waggonways. My walk began quietly apart from finding a pile of feathers from a newly plucked Wood Pigeon. Initially the birds in the main were tits, pigeons, corvids, Blackbird, Robin, House Sparrow, Chaffinch and Greenfinch. I did eventually here the song of a single Willow Warbler. There were quite a number of butterflies about in Small White, Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock. Near the farmland I found the patch of Russian Comfrey Symphtum x uplandicum that I discovered last spring. I learnt that this plant was used for cattle fodder and although it now grows behind someone’s house I assume the area was until recent years all farmland.

Once I reached the waggonway which leads to holystone things began to pick up a little with numbers of singing Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Linnet. As I walked down the track I picked up the song of a Grasshopper Warbler. I reached an area where the song rang out clearly and spent some time trying to track the bird down. I reckon it was either in the hedge or directly behind it as I had no luck. Still, I count song as important as sightings and it is another patch tick for me. The nearest to the patch I have found Grasshopper Warbler in the past is at the Rising Sun Country Park. As I spent some frustrating time looking for this bird I watched a Skylark in display flight just above head height over the field. It was still there on my return. I also found a stunningly coloured Pheasant in the longer grasses and began to find the first of a number of Reed Bunting seen today. This area is very good for farmland birds and long may it stay that way. I had no Yellowhammer today and I’m still looking for my first Whitethroat of the year.
There was a number of Lapwings around in and over the fields and I found a party of 4 Stock Doves feeding in the fields. I’d have spent a bit more time with the Grasshopper Warbler, which again frustratingly sang every time I moved from its vicinity, but dinner called so I had a quick walk home. The flash is all but dried up and there is much Cuckooflower Cardamine pratensis growing around that area. I noticed quite a bit of Garlic Mustard Alliaria petiolata growing in the hedges on my return and heard Chiffchaff. 'Twas a good afternoon.