Saturday, November 05, 2005

Reed Bunting and Green Woodpecker

A great day for birding from the house. New to the garden was a pair of Reed Buntings flying south along the river: 96th species and long overdue. I count anything I see from the house in that list so many have not landed in the garden as such. Green Woodpecker was one of those until today as this splendid male chose to feed on the small lawn under the birch trees right in front of the house.

I could hardly tear myself away from the upstairs window today as bird streamed past south along the Nene Valley. There was also a good display of Red Kites and a couple of Common Buzzards, up to 3 Snipe flew over the Water Meadows and a Sparrowhawk lingered in the village. Most of the birds listed here were on the Northants side of the river and passed during about 2 hours in the morning. There were also more passerines involved but most were too distant for confident ID (a lot were Chaffinches).
Skylark, 64
Woodpigeon, 3,150
Stock Dove, 127
Redwing, 70
Reed Bunting, 2
Jay, 1, high south over long distance
Fieldfare, 80
Lapwing, 35
Golden Plover, 16

Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis)

Nikon CP995 (too close for digiscoping!)

No comments: