April 24 2011

When I left the house this morning, I had no real plan, other than to stay away from the coast, as I thought that it would get very busy.

I stopped briefly at Arcot, where a Lesser Whitethroat in the hedge was new for the year, before carrying on and ending up at Beacon Hill.

I wasn’t prepared for a Cuckoo, that flew over as I was getting the gear out of the car. It landed out of sight and called for a short while, before it then moved off into the distance. I gave it an hour in the hope it would come back to the top of the moor. While waiting, a Tree Pipit was displaying. A few pictures were taken…

Tree Pipit, in a tree, this reminded me of a shot I took the other day…

…of a Meadow Pipit in a tree.

Walking back towards the wood, a Tawny Owl is heard calling, in broad daylight. I spend ages looking for it, and failing to see it, so I give up and check out a couple of Redstart.

Walking back to the car, the owl starts to call again, this time I find it…

 

Marty and Liz arrive on their bikes and I spend a while talking with them, until another birder came back up the hill to say that he had another Tawny Owl…

Not long after I arrived first thing this morning, another car pulled up behind me and a birder got out, no “good morning” or “anything about”, no none of that. “Has someone posted something about this place on a website? Every time I come here it’s dripping with birders” I nearly chose to not answer but it just slipped out “Yeah, I’ve been coming here for thirty years and I’ve never seen you here before”

So, anyway, after I left, I followed a tip off from Marty, I went and saw Little Owl. It didn’t sit still for pictures, but I did have a good look at it.

I then drove home via the Wryneck-less West Hartford.

And then, this evening I went out for an hour. Lesser and Common Whitethroat, Sedge and Grasshopper Warbler recorded and my third owl species of the day; Long-eared Owl.

I’m still unable to upload the bird songs, still no idea why.