March 2025
Amazingly we are into March and although it feels more spring like there seems to be little change on the bird front with a small increase in local Siskins after a very poor winter while the early Stonechat passage has aybe peaked with seven locally last week. Marsh Harriers are displaying and a pair of Peregrines are drifting around locally but I have managed to miss two local Red Kites so far but surely one to come soon.
A somewhat better Stock Dove shot than the February addition
Green Sandpiper makes it to number 87 although the images are far from good it is a species I have consistently struggled to get any good shots of
A wintering bird seen in November and December but then not again until this weekend.
Time to add a Mallard shot for 88
I am in the process of reading the Peregrine by J A Baker for the first time since I was at school! and it has been fascinating to be able to go out and watch this local pair putting into context the observations of Baker in the 60’s - a great read and a classic of natural history writing in spite of its seemingly sometimes flawed observations - this is the male or tiercel of the pair that have been wandering around the local patch this last week
Sincerely hope this is not the best Hawfinch shot I get this year but for now its 89
A nice 2cy Common Buzzard during a non productive Gos search yesterday
90 Pink-footed Goose - I have not got anything decent on teh local Pinks so far but today’s shots were a bit better
Drake Pochard 91 on the challenge - up to 52 locally in the last three weeks the highest counts of the winter but hardly comparable to the 2000+ that were regular in the mid 1980’s
92 drake Shelduck
93 Russian White-fronted Goose with Pink-feet in the Ancholme Valley this afternoon - just the one as far as I could see
94 Dipper from a Lake District visit - blog with many iamges of two grouse species and a few other oddments linked below
95 Marsh Tit singing male in the Lakes - not a great shot
96 Black Grouse again many images linked on the button above in a blog post
female Black Grouse having a preen
97 displaying male Red Grouse North York Moors
98 one of a big arrival of singing Chiffchaffs locally this weekend
A camo Snipe
99 Rooks
100 Purple Sandpiper and 101 Dunlin on the Humber
Kestrel first-winter male
Hen Harriers from this week adult male and two different 2cy males sparring this week - link to series of images by clicking above
102 Coal Tit in the forest this week
103 one of our garden Collared Doves in display flight
When I looked at this image on the camera I thought it was good but the background is too close and too colourful and messy
Our garden flock of up to 35 House Sparrows have deserted us this winter in favour of a neighbour’s food but this week a few birds have ventured back
Little Egret in head on pose at Wild Wren
Long-tailed Tit at Waters’ Edge
There have ben up to 52 Pochard, only six drakes, locally of late but a few less now though hopefully a few of the females will breed
And 104 on the photo challenge list the diminutive but very loud jenny Wren
Feel I have been guilty of over-cropping a lot of images of late - need to reset the balance
I also have a bucket load of harrier images to process / delete! - 2cy male Hen Harrier above
adult male on vole patrol
Amazingly I did not see a Scaup in Lincolnshire let alone locally in 2024 so the six on the patch this week has been a bonus and 105 on the challenge list
We had an injured drake locally for about 10 years and although it could not fly it clearly attracted other Scaup to the pits in spring but since it died visits have been much more sporadic
The days of seeing 250 Scaup on the Humber are long gone
Stretching the photo challenge idea somewhat with this Long-tailed Duck but it was on the local pits which allows for some slight variation in interpretation - 106
Goldeneye and Pochard at sunset while searching for the Long-tailed Duck on its first day
Hopefully get some better Little Gull images in the spring but for now this March winter adult will have to do as 107
108 Grey Heron with a frog
109 Short-eared Owl - its been a long wait for a decent image of this species and this week’s were still not great
But this memorable encounter with a male Hen harrier will be expanded upon in a new post linked above
110 on the challenge male Blackcap - a few arrived locally in late March and I spent a long time trying to get a decent image of a male but they have been surprisingly tricky and I have a lot of rejects
With the run of sunny days many males have been singing and feeding high in the trees - this one was leaping up for a morsel
Record numbers of Chiffchaffs have been singing locally this spring with a count of 86 around the pits and additional birds in town, one regularly audible from my garden taking the total to well over 100
Sitting in the hide waiting for Marsh Harriers when this cracking Treecreeper ran up a couple of hawthorns behind the hide - the 200-800 lens filled the frame and I forgot to zoom out!