First great spotted woodpecker on the peanuts for over 3 months making 37 species since this started. No sign of the vulture reported (with photos) in Edale yesterday evening heading this way. It was seen near Coventry on Sunday.
First new bird for 3 weeks - no. 35 - a song thrush in the bushes behind the house. The blue tits seem to have fledged but one young one has already flown into the kitchen window. Fortunately it was a glancing blow.
Some unusual (for me anyway) heron sightings this morning. Within a couple of minutes, two both heading north, were mobbed by a crow and then a little later a high circling bird which, I expected to be a buzzard, also turned out to be a heron. No swifts from the house yet though two were seen from a nearby field yesterday.
No. 31 this afternoon with a raven circling higher and higher before heading off north. A first nuthatch visit for 2 weeks though it didn't go to the feeders.
I've noticed the applause and other sounds at 8 on a Thursday evening has disturbed quite a few birds and last night 3 mallards flying around made my lockdown list up to 30 at last. No sign of hirundines round here and now no nuthatches in the garden for an unprecedented 2 weeks.
First addition to the lockdown list for a week - a male blackcap in a tree at the back (no. 29).
I've also seen some strange behaviour from one of the pair of long tailed tits that visit regularly. It has been flying towards the kitchen window I'm standing at and several times colliding with it. I've seen this on at least 3 occasions.
The lovely weather over the weekend seems to have reduced the number of birds visiting the garden. I normally see robins and nuthatches every day but neither have appeared for 3 days now. Blackbirds have been furiously collecting moss and dunnocks are nesting in the leylandii.
no. 28 - a buzzard - flew over at lunchtime yesterday. 2 sparrowhawks were visible from the bedroom late afternoon. Are there more about or am I just spending more time looking?
LBB Gull, BH Gull and Feral Pigeons flying over took me to a modest 20 species so far. Several regular garden visitors seem to have gone into isolation!
My small back garden borders a car park for the Middlewood Way with farmland beyond. I am on the jackdaw flight path from Hazel Grove to Marple. I have 10 daily visitors - blue, great and coal tits, robins, dunnocks, house sparrows, wood pigeons, collared doves, blackbirds and nuthatches with quite frequent visits from long tailed tits and magpies. Yesterday a rare visit from a starling occurred thought they are frequent at the top of the birches behind my fence. Today greenfinches and a chaffinch have passed through in the lower trees. Black headed gulls are common at the front though this good weather has kept them away.
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Friday 27th of March 2020 02:26:53 PM