Redwing, the surprise bird of the morning.

Wednesday 16th March 2022.

This Redwing was a nice suprise during my walk around the Cemy this morning. Just look at the colour of the sky behind the bird, which was laden with dust from the Sahara desert! 

With heavy rain showers coming in this morning, I decided to do an early walk around Highland Road Cemetery with Scruff. The sky, however, was an eerie yellowy grey colour which was due to the Saharan desert dust high in the clouds, which will soon be deposited all over Southern England later in the day. Hence, why a lot of my photos look as though they have a ‘sepia’ look to them! 

It was most certainly a lot darker than normal due to the sky. 

The Jays put in an appearance again.

It was still rather cool this morning, roughly around 10 degrees with an easterly breeze blowing across the Cemy, but I had my coat on to keep the worst of the cold out. I counted up to 20 species of bird again, either heard or seen during my walk, though there was no sign of the Firecrest this morning, despite a good search around the Holm Oaks. The surprise of the morning was a late Redwing seen flying high across the Cemy heading north and then settling high up in the bare branches of one of the Beech Trees.

Another photo of the surprise Redwing this morning.

Someone's been feeding the Feral Pigeons here.

The Green Woodpecker showed well again, over on the east side for a change, but because of the hazy light conditions, the photo of the bird was a little dark. Two adult Mediterranean Gulls flew low over the Cemy, heading eastbound towards Langstone Harbour, I presume, with another heard later flying over, but there was no sighting of this individual due to the trees being in the way. Up to two Jays showed occasionally, but were always skittish. The following birds were seen or heard in the Cemy this morning:

• Herring Gull
• Black-headed Gull
• Mediterranean Gull
• Wood Pigeon
• Feral Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Carrion Crow
• Magpie
• Jay
• Goldfinch
• Greenfinch
• Wren
• Robin
• Blackbird
• Redwing
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Dunnock
• House Sparrow
• Starling

Both Winter Heliotrope and Mallow plants were in leaf around the Cemetery, the former in its usual spot under the Holm Oak clump, while the latter was scattered in a variety of areas within the Cemy. I could not find any new plants on show, bar the usual Daisies and Common Groundsel, but it will not be long before more plants begin to flower, especially with the weather forecast looking good for the rest of the week. 

The ever vocal Green Woodpecker was first seen over the east side of the Cemy this morning.

Mallow growing at the base of the one of the Holm Oak trees.

Earlier today, the moth trap held no moths again, but close by, near the moth box there were up to 10 Common Plume’s and just the one Light Brown Apple Moth. There was a Double-striped Pug last night but it seemed to have disappeared. Surely an Early Grey or Hebrew Character moth sometime soon? The moth guys in the north of the County are faring a lot better than I am, though I assume they are near woodland, which does produced more moth species?

The male Greenfinch 'wheezing' from his song post.