OK, so east Northants isn’t quite Eilat as a migration hotspot, and I’m restricted to my house and garden, but I’m supporting the Champion of the Flyways (cancelled) event by promoting their cause through the day (and I’ve donated).
The cause is the conservation of Steppe Eagles in Kazakhstan and Uzbekhistan – a good, no a great, cause.
I’ll be popping in and out of my garden to record birds during the day. I’ve already been out from about 0530 to 0620 and recorded 7 species but one of them is a lifer for the garden so I already feel chuffed to bits.
At 0536 it was still dark, the daisies in the lawn had their flowers tightly closed and there was just one distant Blackbird singing. And then the new bird for the garden flew over calling – I didn’t even see it. By 0550 there were lots of Blackbirds but no Song Thrushes (there were lots of Song Thrushes a fortnight ago), lots of Robins and a few Dunnocks. A bit later a Wren started singing and a while later still there were two Wrens.
Woodpigeon was next and the Jackdaws got up and left their chimney pot nests at 0610 – suddenly there were quite a few of them. The daisies were opening up but the celandines were still tightly closed. The Blackbirds had had their 30-minute songfest and were calming down.
Soon after, I came in to get warm and to write this blog post.
I’ll go out again soon to make the most of the early morning and then I’ll be popping in and out through the day. I have a phone call to take and a piece of writing to finish around all this birding.
List so far:
- Blackbird
- Gadwall
- Robin
- Dunnock
- Wren
- Woodpigeon
- Jackdaw
I won’t see a Steppe Eagle but you could donate to them here.
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Very interesting to have a gadwall on your list Mark. Either it was a bit lost or you have a very large lake in your garden.!!! It was probably the former I think.
I too am making a donation via your link to the Steppe Eagles,
I too would be chuffed to bits if a Gadwall flew over the garden anywhere that I had lived. Its a scarce bird here in Mid Wales but even when I lived in North Yorkshire where it is a not uncommon duck a fly over the garden would have been greeted with cheers and a big smile—- nice one Mark.
Meant to say the Portland Bird Observatory are still doing a short daily bird watch report which is very good. Worth a read. However very few if any migrants coming in at the moment. I guess while the wind is as strong as it is and in the N/NE direction it is in, there won’t be much till that changes, which could be by the end of the week according to the weather forecasters, so what “this space” then.
The Skokholm Blog is also always well worth a read.
Ooh, that’s a bit of a blocker. Checked all my various house lists – I’ve lived in a few – and I’ve never had a Gadwall.
My cumulative total for all houses is 113.
My lockdown list now stands at 37 but I started on 22nd so I’m a few days ahead of you – but slowing down to a crawl until the migrants arrive.
Tim – 113! Do you move around a lot and choose your new houses by their prospective bird lists/ MAkes a lot of sense actually!
Six houses in 40 ish years. Four in the Vale of York plus Herefordshire and Isle of Mull. More a function of just dossing around in gardens – something we are all doing now. Plus checking moth traps at night has turned up quite a few waders going over.
I must add mine together 3 in Harrogate, two in Birmingham, one in Wales and 4 different houses in Bowland. Rather like Tim I’m sure Gadwall is not on that list.