Birding day.

20th March -and a very lovely sunny Sunday morning. It started with our usual dog walk on Hellenge and straight away several blue tits were seen flying in their busy way. There was  a robin singing loudly by the path, we also  heard and saw chaffinches and chirping sparrows.On the way back we saw a meadow pipit, then a skylark soaring up, singing beautifully before dropping down suddenly to the ground.

The violets were flowering all over the hillside, both the  mauve and the more unusual white varieties,  the first cowslip of the year was out, and along the path the blackthorn was out in flower.

 

Blackthorn in flower

 

White Violets

First cowslip

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Later that morning we drove over to Swell Wood where we watched the woodland birds on the many feeders that are hanging there. All the tit family was represented including a Marsh tit. 

We also listed:- several nuthatches,, a robin, chaffinches, dunnocks, sparrows etc.

There was a very loud pair of Greater spotted woodpeckers heard but not seen. 

We also spent sometime in the hide watching the herons nesting -much coming and going! 

In the small muddy pond  in front of the hide  the blue tits were bathing and drinking. From the hide we were lucky enough to spot a tree creeper and a goldcrest.

Foraging on the ground close to the water was a grey squirrel who disturbed the birds more than somewhat but proved to be very photogenic! 

Nuthatch 

Grey squirrel

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We continued our woodland walk and were amazed at the number of primroses and wood anemones that were in flower

Primroses

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After our picnic lunch we headed off to Stathe to see if we could locate the cranes but we had no luck. We were told that that came back to roost later in the afternoon , we were too early! We did however spend some time there watching a buzzard, as well as catching sight of mistle thrushes, pied wagtails and many more blue and great tits.

From Stathe we went to Catcott Lows and were lucky enough to see many wigeon, shovelers, teal and herons. The lapwings were displaying well in flight and there was a flock of black tailed godwits in full breeding plumage across the water.

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