Thursday 7 October 2010

September II

On coming back from Bristol, i decided to go to Attenborough on my bike on the friday. It was pretty uneventful although the wildfowl numbers had risen again, with good numbers of teal (c60), Shoveler (30), Gadwall and a small number of Gadwall and Pochard. Also saw a Yellow-legged Gull and a Shelduck, and over 200 Lapwing were present. On the way down by the trent there was a few birds about including a Kestrel and a Kingfisher at Beeston weir, along with several swallows, Whitethroat and even 2 Jays.

What followed after the weekend was a very 'cliftony' week. I had a busy weekend at work so on sunday evening after work, i had a ride down to clifton. There had been reports of various 'good' birds around the area, so i wanted to pick up on some of these, notably whinchat, redstart and hobby. The nights however are drawing nearer, so i didnt get much time to have a proper look around, although i did connect with several hobbies over the meadow between the rough wood and branshill, as well as a chiffchaff and a flock of over 4o House martins around the same location.
A hobby at Dusk

I was volunteering at clifton woods on wednesday so i decided to go and look for the Whinchats again, covering all the relevant habitats, but once again they remained elusive to me!!! It was quiet in the area, without much flying about, although in the stubble field opposite branshill i did flush 2 Red-legged Partridge and a flock of around 30 Skylark. There were plenty of raptors about too, including four of the resident Buzzard, as well as a couple of Kestrel and 3 Hobbies in various locations.
Buzzard

Somehow it ended up being thursday and once again i was on my way to clifton, this time with a couple of friends who had decided they wanted to go for a walk down there. We had a good day out, seeing loads of buzzards (must have been over 6 birds, many were spotted in several locations but could have been 'repeats'). We also saw 2 kestrel, one hunting low over a field, the other sitting on a telephone wire, being dwarfed by the woodpigeon it sat alongside. The Skylark were feeding in the stubble field again, this time in slightly greater numbers - around 50 birds. A huge flock of geese were seen to rise from the trent and presumably fly towards attenborough or Long eaton gravels, but there were an estimated 800 birds in the flock, awesome to see and hear!
One of Thursday's many Buzzards


Woodpigeon dwarfing a Kestrel.

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