Thursday 16 May 2013

Cuckolded

Today saw a return visit to last Wednesday's location.  We enjoyed much better weather today, and most of the wildlife gave better views than last week.  This included multi-Cuckoo sightings, plus Linnets, a Blackcap, plenty of Whitethroats, a Willow Warbler, a Marsh Harrier, assorted hirundines, a new bird for the venue: a Whimbrel, but rather surprisingly after last week's haul of at least 3, not a single Turtle Dove.  Was this because they had only just returned last week, and they were checking out their old haunts, and they found that the hawthorn thickets had been thinned out just that bit too much?  Only repeat visits will ascertain if these beautiful doves are still present at this venue.  I nearly forgot, Gordon spotted the Kingfisher on South lake in the afternoon, which was a great start to the afternoon session.

Previous visits to this location in 2013 can be viewed here & here

Last year's visit can be seen here
Male Cuckoo
 Ditto
 Ditto
 Ditto
 Cuckoo (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Whitethroat [after a bath] (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Whimbrel (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Willow Warbler
 Blackcap (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Linnet (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Linnet (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Blue Tit (nest building) (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Immature Heron (c) 2013 Richard Whateley
 Speckled Wood
 Rudd (c) 2013 Richard Whateley

2 comments:

Jan said...

lucky that Richard took a decent piture of the whimbrel as we all thought it was a curlew!

Michael Flowers said...

I was erring in the name of caution. In the afternoon it definitely looked more like a Whimbrel & the photo confirmed it