Recent Times Locally

There is no point doing a full blog post for every visit to soil hill as it would no doubt end up extremely repetitive and pointless, so unless there is a significant record or patch tick I see little point in individual posts.

Explanation over, how we stand at the moment. I have been up to the hill a few times over the last week but with nothing overly unusual to show for it. I have, however, tracked down a few Whitethroats which I have not seen on the hill very often previously, but it was in an area where I often do not look. Since then I know pay the area a lot more attention. It would seem that my half an hour scout round the hill days are in the past, as visits now seem to be lasting up to two hours and more.

-Whitethroat

Other notable sightings include a pair of Stock Doves in the fields on the western side of the hill. In the same area as the Whitethroat I accidentally booted out a Grey Partridge, which probably startled me more than I startled it. Last but not least, I spotted a Robin on the wall near the forest, as I now like to call the clump of trees at the base of the track. This could be my first patch record but I will need to check.

Species List:

Soil Hill: Whitethroat, Grey Partridge, Reed Bunting, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Swift, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Swallow, Magpie, Stock Dove, Feral Pigeon, Linnet, Mistle Thrush, Kestrel, Robin.

Since I have been spending a reasonable amount of time at home either revising for my driving theory test or watching Wimbledon I have been able to catch up with the garden birds. The Sparrowhawk has paid us a visit on one occasion, a male, which sat on the fence post in plain sight, hopped around a bit and rummaged through the bushes in pursuit of some dinner. By the time I had my camera the view was badly obscured but take nothing away from just how awesome it is.

-Sparrowhawk

Other garden birds include an impressive number of Sparrows, mainly composed of fledglings. We also have good numbers of Greenfinch around, which is pretty incredible considering that a few years ago we had none due to a virus that wiped them out. Since I have been away this time the numbers have greatly increased which is very positive. Also, one evening whilst watching the tennis I spotted 3 Long-tailed Tits flying around from the tree across the road. They are pretty scarce around here and this is only the third occurrence of them in the garden, so that's pretty exciting.

Species List:

Garden: Sparrowhawk, Mistle Thrush, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Blue Tit,