Monday 27 July 2015

Soil Hill: Patch ticks number 70 and 71

First time back up the hill since coming back from the holiday and with the persistent rain I did not expect anything much, most birds presumably taking shelter. That being said, I was almost immediately proved wrong when I was walking up the road to the hill. I noticed a bird which resembled a Black-Headed Gull, but seemed to have a jizz more like a tern. I raised my bins and quickly saw that it was a tern, with a more pronounced bill making it a Common Tern. I grabbed the camera from my bag and grabbed a couple of record shots which are awful but still enough to confirm it, my 70th patch species.
-Common Tern
This was followed on the top by number 71 when an Oystercatcher flew over the hill very low and really quite close to me. It was moving quicker than the tern had been so my record shot is nothing more than its back end drifting away, but that left me buzzing.
-Oystercatcher
I got a reasonably good species haul today, with around 20 species recorded. Other highlights included a juvenile Wheatear and a Pheasant family. I flushed the adult female and had interest in getting a better look where it landed when I heard a soft cheep from my feet and looked down to see two stripy very young pheasant chicks. Needless to say, I very quickly moved on.
-Juvenile Wheatear

Species List: Linnet, Feral Pigeon, Common Tern, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Blackbird, Swift, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Black-Headed Gull, Lapwing, Mistle Thrush, Stock Dove, Carrion Crow,Wheatear, Woodpigeon, Swallow, Oystercatcher, Common Gull, Starling, Pheasant, Kestrel, Dunnock.

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