MOULDEN HILL

After getting home from work, I headed straight out again to Moulden Hill country park, to look for warblers and butterflies. It was a beautiful late afternoon with birdsong all around. 

Butterflies seen were orange tip, brimstone, peacock, and comma.

Birds seen included jay,  reed warbler, sedge warbler, blackcap, lesser whitethroat (I think). 

A few photos below:

lesser whitethroat, I think, due to  having dark legs and a lack of white eye ring  (please correct me if you think otherwise!)

more pictures of the same   whitethroat

goldfinch

MORE BUTTERFLIES AND DUCKLINGS

Went out walking round Stratton Woods and Stanton Park this afternoon. At Stratton Woods, butterflies around included brimstones, orange tip, small tortoiseshell, peacock and comma. 
At Stanton park there were two broods of ducklings. One was a mallard, the other a mallard hybrid. 

comma butterfly

a field of cowslips at Stratton Wood

peacock

small tortoiseshell

mallard and ducklings

the hybrid mallard with look-alike duckling

two ducklings from the same brood

p.s if you thought taking one dog for a walk was enough, try taking seven!

DINTON PASTURES GEESE AND GOSLINGS

A visit to Dinton Pastures Country park produced a gaggle of goslings today!  Canada geese, Egyptian geese and also a coot family. 

Bluebells, butterflies and birds

Sunshine and showers today, this morning I drove over to  some local woods to see the bluebells , after lunch I called at Stanton Park and walked across the meadow, a Brimstone butterfly fluttered by but didn't settle, but an orange-tip was more obliging. A quick photo showing its wings open, but then it closed them completely, and wouldn't open them again, as by then it had clouded over and was about to rain. 

Stopped by the bird table for a couple of quick photos before it began to pour! 

Looking forward to warmer, sunny weather for some more butterflies. 

fl

A SHORT WALK

A short walk at Whelford Pools revealed nothing new, the usual wren popping up at the window of the hide, robin, blackcap,  reed bunting, chaffinch, great tit, blue tit and long tailed tit, dunnock, on the water were red crested pochard, mallards and tufted ducks, cormorant, canada goose, swan, coot, black headed gull.

reed bunting

red crested pochard

Back at home the garden is filling up with blossom, around the feeders were goldfinches, greenfinches,  blackbirds, robins, dunnock, wood pigeons, long tailed tits, blue tits and a surprise visit from a blackcap.

pear blossom

cherry blossom

long tailed tit

FARMOOR RESERVOIR WALK

A forty minute drive over to Farmoor Reservoir this morning for a walk in the spring sunshine on the hunt for a yellow wagtail! 
A northerly breeze made the trek across the causeway rather chilly, but it was quieter and warmer once I had dipped down onto the countryside walk route to circuit the northern section of the reservoir.  A good variety of birds seen but  no yellow wagtail. After arriving back at the car for a flask of coffee, I decided to return to the area where the yellow wagtails are known to linger, and after seeing nothing I was on the way back to the carpark when I saw a bird, brownish in colour fly across the path from the causeway and land within the neighbouring water treatment works. As it had the look of a wagtail in  flight I decided to go back and  investigate and  finally through my binoculars there it was.. a yellow wagtail!  Sadly too far away  to photograph but a tick on my year list!

Farmoor reservoir  northern section, looking north

.. and south

great crested grebe

common terns

sedge warbler

cowslips

Then route I took, which included a brief stop at a nature reserve hide produced the following birds:

robin, blackbird, dunnock, wren, song thrush, starling, magpie, wood pigeon, kestrel, blue tit, great tit, blackcap, chiffchaff, mallard, great crested grebe, black headed gull, common tern,  martins (probably sand martins), mute swan, canada goose, greylag goose, pheasant (heard) , house sparrow, coot, grey heron, sedge warbler, meadow pipit, pied wagtail, yellow wagtail. Also some waders that I couldn't identify from a distance. probably common sandpiper and dunlins ( I looked another blog entry for Farmoor reservoir this morning to check!) 

DUCKLINGS AT STANTON PARK

I've spent a lovely sunny afternoon strolling round Stanton Park and nearby Stratton Wood.

At Stratton Wood I noticed 2 Great spotted woodpeckers, chiffchaff,  blackcap  as well as Peacock, Brimstone, and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies. 

Then on to Stanton Park, where I saw Brimstones, Peacock and an Orange -tip butterfly. I sat by the lake under the trees for a while and was pleasantly surprised to see a female mallard and a brood of 4 duckings emerge from the edge of the reeds, from there I also had some nice views of blackcaps and chiffchaffs singing. 

blackcap singing

chiffchaff

peacock butterfly

mallard and one of her brood of 4 ducklings