Friday 30 May 2014

2014 Serbia Spring Tour in pictures Pt 1

 Red-backed Shrike
 Tree Sparrow
 Young Kestrels
 Young Long-eared Owl
 Spotted Flycatcher
 Golden Oriole
 Red-footed Falcon
 Tree Sparrow
Common Starling 
Red-footed Falcon

Sunday 4 May 2014

A stroll around The Scrubs

A few of the birds that stood still long enough for me to take a snap whilst I was taking a stroll around my patch this morning.
 Female Blackbird
 Male Linnet
Song Thrush

Saturday 3 May 2014

Nesting Common Whitethroat at The Scrubs

 A male singing away
House building
These images were snatched a week or so ago a few days after our first Common Whitethroats arrived. They have clearly got down to business immediately with much singing in evidence. Our record count of territories was around six years ago when 22 were counted. I estimate around six singing males currently but a full audit will be carried out within the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned.

Friday 2 May 2014

Ring Ouzels and Evening Grosbeaks

 The Scrubs
Although my world birding is at an all time high domestically things are pretty slow. April is usually the month that sets the hearts of me and my fellow Scrubbers racing but many of the expected birds have either been no-shows or have appeared in tiny trickles.

Wheatears, Swallows, Common Redstarts and Whinchats have thus far given us meagre flutters. The other day I thought I found a male Evening Grosbeak - a first for the Western Palearctic probably. That shock lasted less than a couple seconds until I realised that I had discovered an oddly plumed Greenfinch. It had white patches on its wings a yellowish mantle and greyish head. It confimed its identity when it started singing a typically Greenfinch wheeze from the ground. Interestingly, I've never seen a Greenfinch singing from the ground before.
 An aberrant male Greenfinch
A distant male Whinchat
The bird of the month was a glorious male Ring Ouzel seen all too briefly the morning after I arrived home from my Israel trip earlier in April. It is the 11th year in a row that this migrant has appeared at The Scrubs. I wonder how many more years are left before the area undergoes its massive re-development?