karen's country calendar

Ok so maybe not quite dawn but 630 still seemed early!   As promised, I met Paul at an agreed location on the edge of Swavesey and joined him for his regular early morning walk around the edge of the Fen Drayton Reserve, an area  that I hadnt been to before. The path led between hedgerows, alongside brooks and beside the lake.    Birds were singing at the tops of the voices but it needed an expert to identify them and point them out.  With Paul's help I was able to pick out whitethroats and lesser whitethroats,  a garden warbler, willow warbler and a sedge warbler. We also heard the cuckoo and were able to see it sitting in a distant tree across the lake. A common tern flew over taking my total of new sightings for this years list to 7 so I was pleased with that.  Garden warbler Distant cuckoo

A beautiful warm spring morning tempted me to make the 5 minute trip to Godmanchester Nature Reserve.  A few people were about taking their allowed exercise and I saw that most of the gates latches had been taped open to allow the gates to be opened simply by pushing. I immediately noticed the abundance of  birdsong from warblers but frustratingly only a male blackcap was willing to show itself and not long enough for a photo. I was able to identify the sound of a Cettis Warbler and my first cuckoo of the season. However it was a beautiful day and the lake looked stunning. There were some greylag geese with their goslings and a few brimstone and orange tip butterflies were fluttering about. I have been promised a dawn walk with my nephew at Fen Drayton so am hoping to be able to use his expertise and recognition of birdsong to identify a few more warblers in the not too distant future.      greylag and goslings

I received a telephone call from my brother in law this afternoon to say if I wanted to see some wheatears to come over straightaway. He told me he had seen them while planting potatoes, perching on the tree guards on the newly planted embankment of the A14. I jumped in the car and drove the 1 mile down the road to Oxholme Farm. Sure enough when I walked down to the embankment I spotted a bird perching but it flew off and landed in the adjacent field. I assumed it to be a wheatear but even though I managed to located it in my binoculars it wasnt very clear so I continued walking. I then saw a male wheatear at a distance which I managed to photograph but walking further I noticed a female quite a bit closer and I crossed the ditch so I could rest my camera on a fence post to photograph it.   It  perched there for quite some time enabling me to take several shots.  I decided to continue walking to the end of the field and was pleased to see my first swallow of th...

On a warm spring evening I thought I would go for a walk without my usual four legged companion as he really doesn't want to walk very far these days. This time of year is always the prettiest down the drift as the trees come out into their spring colours - I am always amazed that the apparently lifeless trees over the winter can change over a few short weeks into an avenue of blossom. Earlier today I saw a number of bright yellow brimstones flying past but this evening just one or two peacocks were still enjoying  the warm  sunshine.  No small tortoisehells, commas or orange tips visible today.

Just a quick post on this subject as weather very overcast and not suitable for photographs, I wasnt sure whether I would even see any birds! However I was pleasantly surprised and noted straightaway a woodpigeon and three greenfinches in an overhanging tree which later flew down into the garden and enjoyed their breakfast!   It wasnt long before I saw a robin hopping along beneath the feeders and a couple of bluetits feeding from the sunflower hearts.  Three great tits were seen on another feeder hanging from the tree and kept flitting to and from the nearby bushes to take sunflower hearts. A male chaffinch put in an appearance on the back fence and later was joined by another and a couple of females on the ground beneath the feeders.   Just before the hour was up a jackdaw was seen  and a male blackbird followed by a female also appeared. So although not a great total it was worth submitting - 8 species and 17 birds counted. No sign of any goldfinche...

With my sister planning to visit for a couple of days as is becoming a new year custom we decided to make visits to both Welney and Rutland to see how many birds we could start the year's list with. Although only the main hide was open at Welney we were able to see a number of species including tree sparrow and whooper swans which I dont often see elsewehere. The water level was the highest I had seen it which meant the warden had to wade along in front of the hide rather than walk on the shingle when he did his 1230 swan feed although this was rather more a duck feed with the dozen or so swans far outnumbered by large numbers of pochard and mallard together with a few tufted ducks. We took advantage of the free 'hare walk' around Lady Fen which produced sightings of half a dozen hares, some roe deer and the highlight for me - a couple of short eared owls.   We learnt quite a bit about the habits of hares to make 'forms' in the tussocks of grass with the grass ...

With the opportunity of two days for birdwatching, my sister and I thought we would attempt to increase our year's tally of waders so our first trip was to Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire. The weather was fine and dry with warm sunshine so we decided we would walk to the far end of the reserve and along the sea wall which it had always been too cold and windy to do on our previous visits. This gave great views of the saltmarsh and lagoons.  However we did have to share the bank with a herd of rather intimidating black bullocks although they were obviously used to people and didn't cause any problems as we walked rather trepidly past. Plenty of birds to be seen including many black tailed godwits, black headed gulls now in winter plumage and ruffs of various colours. We also saw ringed plovers, little egrets, curlew sandpipers (kindly pointed out by another birder),  dunlins, a couple of avocets and what we later confirmed were spotted redshanks and a gro...