Tuesday 14th December 2021.
A Jay showed very well for both me and Isabelle last Sunday afternoon.
Tonight, I thought I would catch up with some of my sightings over the past few days, including a nice walk with our Isabelle last Sunday afternoon around Highland Road Cemetery. The weather has been quite mild of late, with most days being quite overcast and damp and with bad news all around due to a new outbreak of Coronavirus dominating the news, it is nice to grab some sightings of some lovely birds to keep a smile on my face. Even a moth popped up on our kitchen window one evening!
A familiar Robin popped up in front of us during our walk around the Cemy.
Isabelle wanted to take her pushbike for a spin and so I took her over Highland Road Cemetery in the afternoon, before we took her to see Father Xmas at Keydell Nursery in Horndean. As per usual, I took my camera along with me and I was lucky enough to grab a few nice photos of an obliging Jay that stole the show. The Green Woodpecker made itself known with its familiar ‘laughter’ echoing over the Cemetery, but sadly, no sighting of the bird. Apart from the usual cast of birds, it was fairly quiet, but I was quick to point out the Squirrels for her, of which she is always fascinated.
Another photo of the obliging Jay in the Cemetery.
Yesterday, I was busy driving one of our vehicles over Portsdown Hill and came across another haul of raptors. Up to two Kestrels were noted hovering by the roadside; a Common Buzzard was also seen hovering over the Hill with another seen perched on one of the lamp posts along the M275 and finally, yet another Red Kite was seen close to the roadside, soaring south bound over the Hill. So, this winter, I have seen up to 6 species of raptor up to now. Other sightings yesterday included a flock of 14 Redwing flying over our Gosport branch and though they are fairly common at this time of year, to see them at this location is unusual. And a nice surprise.
There were plenty of Wood Pigeons present in the damp Cemetery.
Today, I was well out of the area as I was asked to work at both our Ascot / Bracknell branches in Berkshire. A Ring-necked Parakeet squawked overhead not far from the Ascot branch, which is now a familiar species here in Berkshire. Easthampstead Crematorium, near Wokingham, was where I spent two visits here today and there was a good variety of bird life within its grounds. Redwing were abundant with several flocks flying over including one flock of 15 birds overhead. There were also sightings of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Grey Wagtail, Mistle Thrush, Siskin and a large flock of Goldfinches that enjoyed feeding in the Silver Birch trees. By our Bracknell branch, the only Red Kite sighting of the day flew over; lazily flapping overhead against a lead grey sky, but always a beautiful sight.
A Light Brown Apple Moth was a nice surprise perched on the kitchen window.
There was interesting news today coming from the shipyards of Southampton where a White-throated Sparrow has been present here since August, but it has no intentions of flying from the shipyard. These birds are well known for being ship assisted and some birders agree that it cannot be added to the British List, whereas others totally disagree. I have seen two of this species in the UK now, including the long staying Old Winchester Hill bird many years ago. Also in Hampshire, two Black-throated Divers were still present in Chichester Harbour along with two Great Northern Divers. Inexplicably, there have been some very large flocks of Barnacle Geese being seen in both Langstone and Pagham Harbour, with 324 counted at the latter site and I can only assume that they are genuinely wild birds. We shall see. Hopefully, they might linger into the weekend.
As I mentioned earlier in my post, there was a moth on my kitchen window last night and quickly potted the said moth. It was a Light Brown Apple Moth of which I took a few photos and released it early this morning before I made my work.
No comments:
Post a Comment