Ready? So I shall begin.
After neglecting the blog for a few weeks, I thought it might be an idea to scribe some nonsense as to what I've been up to - don't get excited!
Rewinding back to nearly two weeks ago, the weekend of 16th-17th April was spent scouring the patch. Highlights over the two day period consisted of (16th)a single Barnacle Goose that arrived with two Canada Geese (This bird remained for only c30 minutes before flying off. It was later seen heading over Bentinck Pit Top) 1 LRP north, a Jay thru SE, 3 Yellowhammers & 5 Whitethroats. On the 17th, the only highlight really was 2 LRPs that zipped thru SE & the first Sedge Wblr of the year. Throughout the weekend, 4 pairs of Teal were present along with 2 pars of Gadwall. Greylags had increased to 12 and 2 Snipe were mucking about in the SW corner. Late morning on the 17th, I headed to Willington GPs in D*rbyshire in order to have a squint at a pair of Garganey but infuriatingly, the pair of summer ducks had been flushed by a bitch with a dog shortly before I arrived at the Canal Pit! Other bits here included 2 Reed Wblrs, up to 7 Sedge Wblrs, 2 Groppers & 4 Oystercatchers.
The first four day bank holiday weekend began pretty quietly with a visit to KMR on the 22nd. It was once again a sombre affair with the highlight being a single LRP in the SW corner. Later that morning, myself & Feely did some snooping around the meadows adjacent to my house in Tibshelf and discovered two singing Groppers & 2 Lesser Whitethroats.
The morning of the 23rd was spent melting at Padley Gorge where we kinda bagged the lot - Curlew, 5+ Redstarts, numerous Tree Pipits, a male Merlin, 3 Pied Flycatchers, 4+ Stonechats, a very showy male Ring Ouzel & a singing Whinchat.
The afternoon was spent monging out in the garden where the highlights were a Yellow Wag over and Mikipedia getting his ears lowered....
On the 24th, I awoke to the sweet sound of a male Cuckoo singing from the paddocks behind my house. Sadly, that was as good as it got as I chose to stay within the confines of Castle DUNNington and indulge in a spot of gardening/housework for the day. That afternoon at c4.45pm, news of a Black Stork seen flying SE over Beeley Moor would have had me screaming off NW in order to intercept the beast....had the news not been two f*ckin' hours late! The usual excuses about the gimp not being a twitcher and not having any contact numbers have been thrown about on that Bird Forum thing but as you can imagine, I believe that excuse as much as I believe in the fairytale about that bloke called Jesus (thought I'd use that example with it being Easter 'n' all).
The 25th saw me at Attenborough NR early morning, strategically positioned should the Stork be relocated in south Notts/north Leics. This proved to be ineffective as the creature had allegedly not even left D*rbyshire - I was gonna write a bit more on this but really couldn't be arsed to humour the cunts who held it back for 7 fuckin hours!. However, Attenborough did prove to be pretty productive with a fair few bits - a stunning drake Garganey snaffled around the margins of a reed fringed pool while a Common Sand & its Greener Cousin grubbed about nearby. A couple of Garden Warblers vocally scrapped with the far more numerous Blackcaps who in turn were outsang by the copious volume of Whitethroats. A few Groppers reeled from dock and fence post and a Cetti's Warbler showed its tits off as it sang from the outer fringes of a Hawthorn clump. Common Terns were noted on every pit, scrabbling amongst each other for the prime spots on the 'Tern' platforms and a White-fronted Goose was noseying about in amongst some scruffy geese over the Trent. With the hands of time slipping by and the temperature rising, the volume of Joe public insidiously increased thus I quickly vacated leaving the dog walkers, joggers and picnic people to enjoy their freedom away from their city constraints. I headed to Long Eaton Gps where I picked up a Hobby foolishly heading towards Attenborough but very little else. With the overspill from Attenborough encroaching on my space, I did one back home.
Sat at home later that afternoon, I updated my very poor 2011 year-list on Bubo and realised that I was only c25 birds away from being back in the top ten, with an awful lot of easy dross still to collect.....
Could I? Would I? Should I? Perhaps not but..........
No comments:
Post a Comment