Today it was a wet miserable walk around Radipole in the hope of seeing my first Sand Martin of the year. I blanked and in the process got absolutely soaked in the intense drizzle.
However it wasn't all gloom and doom as I at least noted 5 Chiffchaffs singing, and 6 calling when the rain intensified. No singing in the rain for these birds!!
Other birds of note were a pair of Great Crested Grebes courting and a Little Grebe calling from the reedbeds.
Birds Recorded:
2 Great Crested Grebe
1 Little Grebe
5 Cormorant
4 Grey Heron
5 Mute Swan
1 Canada Goose
Mallard
8 pairs Tufted Duck
1 Pochard
1 Water Rail (heard)
Moorhen
Coot
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Wood Pigeon
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
11 Chiffchaff
Long-tailed Tit
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Wren
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Reed Bunting
However it wasn't all gloom and doom as I at least noted 5 Chiffchaffs singing, and 6 calling when the rain intensified. No singing in the rain for these birds!!
Other birds of note were a pair of Great Crested Grebes courting and a Little Grebe calling from the reedbeds.
Birds Recorded:
2 Great Crested Grebe
1 Little Grebe
5 Cormorant
4 Grey Heron
5 Mute Swan
1 Canada Goose
Mallard
8 pairs Tufted Duck
1 Pochard
1 Water Rail (heard)
Moorhen
Coot
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Wood Pigeon
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
11 Chiffchaff
Long-tailed Tit
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Wren
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Reed Bunting
A pair of Great Crested Grebes
A Grey Heron in the flooded reedbeds
A smart looking drake Tufted Duck
A Moorhen
And a Goldfinch
Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
Flies, Craneflies, Gnats and Midges Recorded:
Cranefly sp.
Alder Beetle (Agelastica alni)
Whirligig beetle sp.
An Alder Beetle on the leaf of an Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)
A whirligig beetle sp.
Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
My first Bluebells in...............
...................flower this year.
The Sand Martin breeding chambers are ready and waiting for the first arrivals. Not today though.
And the RSPB volunteers have been hedge-laying.