Week Ending 02/03/14

The week was a mixed one on the weather front but with a couple of days off in the middle I was determined to drag my wife off somewhere for a walk. So on Wednesday we decided on a walk from Reculver along the coast.It was a glorious, sunny day.I took my camera and binos just in case and was glad I had when we stumbled upon a single Snow Bunting 100 yards from the tower.

Snow Bunting

It was a lovely walk for a couple of hours and we even got to have a picnic on the beach before the turned for the worst. On the insect front we saw a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly.

 Anyway, back to the patch and a quick walk earlier on Wednesday and the Redpoll flock was re-found with at least 25 Lesser plus 2 Commons feeding on seeds on the dam end.
On to the weekend and not much had changed around the patch except for two Reed Buntings singing at the southern end of the lake on Saturday.

Singing Reed Bunting

Eventually I saw 44 species so went home very pleased with my efforts.

Sundays walk down through Kirkins and 6 Reed Buntings were in the hedge behind the cottages. As I walked down Furnace Lane the Greylag and Canada pair flew over towards the village.I Also added Water Rail to the list for the weekend but on the way back towards home I was delighted to stumble across the first Chiffchaff (68) of the year as it made its way along the hedge singing as it went. Fantastic!!

In the afternoon after feeling a little restless I went for another walk  finding 5 Yellohammers in the top field and had a Grey wagtail over down by the stream. On the lake and I found a redhead Goosander(69) which must have flown in after I had left in the morning.Unfortunately I couldn't get within 100 yards of it so had to be content with this distant shot as I didn't want to spook it. 

It was a great end to the weekend and in total I saw 51 species.