Dawn chorus walk 16.05.10

9 of us met at the village hall at 5.00am, a bright but frosty morning . A route round to the school, around Hadham Hall to Hadham Lodge, under the A120 to Cradle End for coffee (most welcome) and then via Green Street and Millfield Lane back to The Ford.
In all 39 species were observed and/or heard. Good birds included several whitethroats, lesser whitethroats, 2 sparrowhawks, 2 sand martins at the church, 1 garden warbler and numerous blackcaps.

The coots still have the 6 young at Hadham Hall, shown here, but the hoped for 100th bird species eluded us. No butterflies at this time of the morning, but a super wander with good company. Next walk will be an lunchtime stroll for birds and butterflies over to Standon for tea and cakes at the superb tearooms as well as the opportunity for a pint at The Star. Further details soon.

Photos show a couple of sunrise views, a greenfinch, 2 yellowhammers, a blue tit, a trotting fox at Millfield Lane, a field full of dandelion heads at Green Street and the young coot. Compare to the photo taken on 28th April. To find this just scroll down or use the archive feature at the bottom of the page.

Swift arrival 11.05.10

2 swift over the back garden this evening (6.30pm) were the first sightings within the parish this year. Too high for a worthwhile photograph

River Stort: 10.05.10

As a precursor to giving a talk to the local RSPB group on the Natural History of the River Stort, I spent a few hours along the river updating photos of the views, with a few bird efforts as well.

A super 2 hours with 36 species recorded. A hobby over Wallbury was a highlight along with my first local swift, a high sparrowhawk and 2 soaring buzzards.
Warblers were in good numbers with chiffchaff, willow warbler, white throat, sedge warbler and reed warbler all present but the highlight being a cetti's warbler; my first for this patch.

Photos included today show several river views, a grey heron, long tailed tit (looking worn out from clearly feeding young) a female whitethroat, a greenfinch and a large carp.

Amwell visit 5.10.10

A quick trip to Amwell in rainy conditions didn't give any sightings of planned for dragonflies, but good views of great crested grebe, lapwing, sand martin, swallow and house martins were had, along with my first common terns of the year.

Photos show a great crested grebe and lapwing, both taken from the White Hide

North of the A120/Albury 1st May

I wandered out at 10.30 to cover an area from Chapel Lane to Albury End as part of the BTO breeding bird survey. In all, this venture involves walking for 1 hour recording all singing and territorial birds, before returning for 1 hour and re recording all that is about.
The outward hour realised 29 species, with 1 swallow, 4 skylarks, 2 grey partridge, 3 blackcaps, 1 whitethroat, 1 chiffchaff (only!) and 1 common buzzard of note. 6 tufted ducks (3 pairs) remain on the lake at Albury End along with 1 visible little grebe and a pair of coot.

Returning, obviously the lake residents were recorded again with much the same being seen. 28 species for the return, giving a total species count of 35 in all. New birds on the 2nd leg included a moorhen, dunnock and 2 goldfinches.

Photo depicts a yellowhammer.

The main butterfly species were orange tips, counted in excess of 25 with a few peacocks and 1 small tortioseshell also observed. There seems to be plenty of Jack by the hedge around: a larval food plant for the orange tip, hence, I suspect, the high count.