8th Visit to Lytchett Fields the last for Month

Went off down to see the Water Pipits this afternoon to spend some time learning there plumage and ID features so I could familiar myself with them so I now what  I am looking having only ever seen one before. But they were not there this afternoon I scanned the Pools field thoroughly and only found a lone Collared Dove which was a surprise, a long the pool there were 16 Redshank and 6 Black-tailed Godwits.

 A long the lane I found the usual garden species like Blue Tits, Great Tits, Blackbirds and a Nuthatch along with Bullfinch.

Record Shot of a Bullfinch

I decided to go and look over French's and Sherford view points to see if the Water Pipits had moved over to there,but Alas they were now where to be found. Here I had a good view of a large flock of Dunlin wheeling about and some Lapwing again. I think there must of been c200 Dunlin scattered between the two site.

I managed to find and add four new birds to my Patchwork Challenge list today giving me a species count of 69 so far. The new birds are in bold

Collared Dove
Reed Bunting
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Feral Pigeon

A old shed

An Afteroon Visit to Longam Lakes

Dropped in to Longham Lakes on the way home from work this afternoon both lakes seemed very quiet on the wildfowl front.  The reason soon became apparent as the Water board were out on the big lake fixing/maintaining their solar panels out in the middle of the lake.
 Most of the birds were on the larger of the two lakes though numbers were still down I think though and it did seem that there was a good numbers of gulls out on the water mostly Black-headed Gulls but I did not have my scope to check them all. I heard a couple of Mediterranean Gulls calling and saw some darker grey backs but was not sure if they were Herring or Lesser Black-backed not having the scope. 

I was hoping to add a few more birds to the Patch list but I only managed one new bird this after which helped bring the list up to 54 species seen. The birds seen today are as follows

Tufted Ducks, mainly on the large lake

Coots, again mainly on the large lake

Mallard – 21 SL

Gadwall – 8 SL

Pochard – 6 SL

Shoveler – 6 SL

Grey Heron – 1 HF

Little Egret – 4 HF

Teal – 2 HF

Buzzard -1 being mobbed by gulls over South Lake

Kestrel -1 Male searching the cause way

Plus some of the hedge row species

And the new bird was a Reed Bunting.

View of North Lake

Think this is Common Reed

 Here is a full list of the birds I have seen so far at this site for my Patchwork Challenge.

1      

Mute Swan

Greylag Goose

Canada goose

Wigeon

Gadwall

Teal

Mallard

Shoveler

Pochard

Tufted Duck

Little Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Cormorant

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Buzzard

Kestrel

Moorhen

Coot

Lapwing

Black-headed Gull

Mediterranean Gull

Common Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Feral Pigeon

Woodpigeon

Collared Dove

Kingfisher

Green Woodpecker

Meadow Pipit

Grey Wagtail

Wren

Dunnock

Robin

Stonechat

Blackbird

Song Thrush

Redwing

Chiffchaff

Long tailed Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Magpie

Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Starling

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Reed Bunting

 

  

7th Visit to Lytchett Fields

Saturday 20th I took another trip down to the fields to see what I could find, it is only my 7th visit so far with only being able to go Friday afternoons if I'am lucky or it is weekends only, so way behind those that go regular . It being a weekend the weather was grey dull with light drizzel at times turning in to rain on the way home.
Despite the weather I still managed to have an enjoyable few hours looking for new species to add to the list.
While walking down Slough Lane I was seeing all the usual suspects like blue and great tits, goldfinch and some siskins and it was not long before I added the first new bird with a Nuthatch in one of the Oak trees along the lane, at the bottom of the lane I spotted a Great Spotted Woodpeck and 3 Bullfinch.

  I scanned the Pools Field for the Water Pipits and Rock Pipit that had been seen by others but at a distance and on such a gloomy afternoon, I could only make out what I thought were Meadow Pipits.
So I went and had a look out in Black Pipie Bay and here I ticked off another for the list and a first for this bay in the form of 5 Red-breasted Mergansers. Also here I watched 22 Wigeon come flying in and it was a good exerise to watch there jizz and plumage patten as they came in and land on the water.

Walking down the lane

The Yellow Boat

 After  this I made my a back down the lane to the other  view points at Frenches Point and Sherford Pools. The first view point I went to was Frenches Point to look over the mud were I found 68 Shelduck and 2 Greylag geese tucked up over on the far side of the mud sheltering from the wind. The third species found so far, but the fourth was a easy one I should of recorded on the first visit and all the other visits it was  Mallards
While watching over Sherford Pools I was treated to a large flock of Lapwing with a good group of Dunlin mixed in ,come flying in and wheel about here and there before landing, a wonderful site .
And then the rain started and so I made my way back along the lanes and back home as it was starting to get late.

View of Frenches field from the birdge

The wooden bridge I was standing on taking the above picture

 The list now stands at 65 species seen with 73 species point accumalated so far
The new birds for today.
Nuthatch
Red-breasted Merganser
Greylag Goose
Mallard

Longham & Lytchett Weekend Patchwatch

Saturday 13th February,

Had a trip over to the lakes today after going to the vet ( I am alright by the way) to see if I could added any more species to the PWC list.  I was surprised how cold it felt this afternoon with the wind cutting right through meas I stood on the west bank looking over Hampreston Fields, and also that most of the water in hampreston fields had gone back in to the river.
About half way along the west bank I stopped and started to count the Black-headed Gull which was a good decision as among the c130 I found 3 Mediterrenean Gulls so it just goes to show it is worth count gulls
I had a good walk with 33 species found and three new ( I forgot about the Wren) ones bring my Longham list up to 53 species so far which I am pleased with as last year I only managed to find 63 species which is very poor I think for a sight like Longham.
this is just some of the high lights

Pochard - 30
Tufted Duck - 62
Gadwall c33
Shoveler - 5
Black-headed Gull c130
Buzzard - 2
Kestrel - 1 male
Redwing - 20
Greenfinch - 4
Meadow Pipit - 1


Mediterrenean Gull - 3
Collared Dove -  2
Wren -1

Meadow Pipit

South Lake the Largest of the two lakes

The same Meadow Pipit above

Sunday 14th February

 Patchwatching 

This morning early afternoon I had to go to Holt Cemetery and had a great view of a female sparrowhawk that flew in front of the car and then flying along the hedge row just in front and to the side of me of course I slowed down to watch though did have a job to keep me eyes on the road. Also at the cemetery 2 Ravens flew over and 3 Buzzards circling over head.

After this I went to Lytchett Fields were I finally added Greenshank and Buzzard to my PWC list. Other birds seen were a good number of Lawings wheeling about after a wildflower let off is shot gun some were out in the bay area.   I added two new bird to the list which I should of got a lot earlier I am sure doing tow patch watchies I am missing good bird at either place. The new birds are in bold.                 Avocet - 2 PF
Black-tailed Gwits - 2 PF
Greenshank - 1 PF
Redshank - 4 PF
Lapwing - 28 settled on PF more on SP but kept flying about.
Snipe - 3 SP
Goldcrest - 2 one in the lane the other in approach field
Kestrel-1 in approach field
Buzzard - over fields along the lane.

Longham Lakes PWC 7th February

Today I managed another visit to my other PWC site at Longham Lakes and Hampreston Fields with my son. We went early afternoon to avoid the rain that was forecast for approximately 3.00pm,it was very windy walking round south lake making it a little chilly in this wind. Walking long the cause way and looking out across the North lake I was surprised to see the Pochard back again though not many 14 counted on this lake and one found up by the small island on South lake making a total of 15 Pochard seen.
The Hampreston fields were flooded again and these contained lots of gulls in fact I tried counting them and got to 153 of a mixture of Herring, Great Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls but there was a lot more BHG that I did not count and a group out on the lake,  so I would of thought there would of been possible c180/200 gulls out on the fields it was a impressive group.There was 42 Mallards with 28 of them on the flooded fields while standing here scanning the fields and the large Island a flock of 14 Shoveler came flying in and dropped in to the flooded pools.

Sleepy Pochard

   

We made our way along the west path scanning the scrub and wood on our right for any birds, as three birds still allude me at this site and they are Nuthacth, Treecreeper and Bullfinch which the latter I saw last year. At the top south west corner I found a Chiffchaff catching flies flitting in and out of the scrub, along with a Blue Tit and a Great Tit. We continued onwards toward the island and suddenly I found a Buzzard soaring towards us making this my first new bird of the month for the list.

East Path leading back to the car

Walking back down the east side of the lake there was not much else about except for a couple of feral pigeons which can go on the list which is good as it will give me an extra point. The one thing of interest I did find was right in the waters edge among the winter reed was a large patch of frogs spawn.

 

 

Frog Spawn

The species list now stands at 48 and a 49 species points
today's bird and some counts as follows

Redwing - 10
Pochard - 15
Great Crested Grebe
Teal - 19
Tufted Duck - 30
Canada Goose - 4
Gadwall - 14
Mallard - 42
Kestrel - 1
Little Egret - 2
Moorhen - 2
Shoveler - 14
Chiffchaff - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Great Tit -1
Buzzard -1
Feral Pigeon - 2
Cormorant - 5