Friday 25 May 2012

Great weather for kites

Went for a walk around the fields in Greenhill again Wednesday after getting home early from school. I walked up to the bridge near Bullockstone and back. Birds I saw were Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Whitethroat, heard a single Nightingale, I could also hear distant Chiffchaffs, plenty of Cormorants flying over, the water by the bridge produced a pair of Mallards, no wagtails or warblers (wishful thinking again) and the bushes around the bridge area produced quite a few singing Yellowhammers but I only saw the one. I was lining my camera up for a picture of the Yellowhammer that I saw as to my amazement it was sitting right on top of a bush and close to me and as I put my camera up to my eye a cyclist went past and spooked the bird! Just my luck, so the quest still goes on for a good picture of a Yellowhammer. As I was walking back I stopped at an opening in the bushes seeing if a Whitethroat would pop up and I could get a picture and I saw a distant bird flying towards me. This bird turned out to be a big bird so I got my binoculars on it and it turned out to be a Red Kite! I phoned my Dad who was at the house but working and he couldn't believe so he ran down the road with his binoculars but the visibility wasn't the best as it was so hazy and he didn't see it or the other one that turned up whilst I was on the phone to him, to say he was gutted is an understatement.

From there I walked to the overflow water at Molehill Road in the hope of wagtails but this was not the case but I did get a new one for my 1 mile radius list, Reed Warblers were at the water along with a female Mallard and about ten ducklings. On the walk back I managed to see a Chiffchaff and get a picture of it. Other birds of note on the way home were Skylark, Goldfinch, Swift, Wood Pigeon and Swallow.

Red Kites

Chiffchaff

Swallow at the local paddocks

And then when I got home there was a lovely Goldfinch on the feeder.


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