A Bank holiday weekend is always presents a good excuse to
spend some extra time birding. The only problem I find with this time of year
is the ridiculous o clock start time if you want to catch the dawn chorus!
Thundry Meadow was my choice of venue. This site consists of
marshland, wet woodland with areas of mature oak and alder trees. The River Wey
runs along the southern edge of the site. The variety of plants attracts a
multitude of insects, dragonflies and damselflies. This provides a rich feeding
ground for birds.
I arrived just before 7am and was greeted by a multitude of
bird song which included a Cuckoo. I donned my wellies and long sleeve shirt
for the walk through the woodland area which can be alive with biting insects. Birding
in this area is a game of patience with many birds moving around in the canopy.
But by the time I had exited this area I had logged over twenty species.
(Spotted Flycatcher) |
The next phase of the walk was through the meadows and the
River Wey. I spied a Spotted Flycatcher hawking insects from a tree lining the
river. The bird was high up and was difficult to see whilst perched but it
returned to the same spot which allowed time to creep up and get a couple of
pictures of the bird.
(Northern Lapwing) |
Mandarin Duck are a regular sight on the river and being the
shy duck they are a female was briefly seen scurrying away upstream with its chicks.
A solitary Lapwing which seemed lost appeared and disappeared almost as
quickly. Small mixed groups of hirundines would appear from the low clouds hawking
insects but up until this point raptors were in short supply.
(Buzzard) |
As the cloud lifted and the sun popped its head out intermittently
the Buzzard started to appear followed by Red Kite, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk. A
pale phase buzzard caused a momentary surge of my heart rate but that was to be
the last action of the morning. Forty five species recorded with some expected species absent!