I had to stay near to home today due to an appointment at 3pm. I couldn't trust myself to go my Cranford Park patch in case I lost track of time, so I went to my 'second', the nearest, and the very neglected patch, Lake Farm (aka Botwell Common).
Birdy friends and regular readers of my blog will know that Lake Farm used to be my number one patch. Back in the days when Peter Naylor was alive, and before the school was built on a third of the land, it was a great area. Stonechats overwintered there, as did Reed Buntings (one remarkable cold February day saw me count 22 individual buntings), Skylarks, House Sparrows and Meadow Pipits were common sights, Common Redstarts, Wheatears and Spotted Flycatchers were regular migrant visitors, and we had a memorable long staying male Red-backed Shrike one summer. But when the school was built amongst much disruption and destruction, my passion for the patch dwindled and I turned my attention to Cranford Park instead.
I've only been to Lake Farm a handful of times over the last two years and was quite disappointed in the lack of birds so it was with great apprehension that I visited this today......
Well, I have to say I quite enjoyed my 4 hour stroll around the old site. I had only been there ten minutes when I could hear Chiffchaff, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Wren, Robin, Blackbird, 'Marmite' Parakeet, Goldfinch and Linnet. I also saw my first Brimstone butterfly of the year.
Unfortunately the one bird that I really wanted to see, the Northern Wheatear, wasn't there. I know there have been sightings of them around the country already this week, and several were spotted in the greater London area today, but they certainly weren't at Lake Farm !
But the Chiffchaffs are back and in full territorial song. There was a lot of action with these tiny little birds chasing each other around and then choosing a favoured perch to call their 'chiff chaff' song.
However, trying to get a photo of one of them (there must have been at least ten on site today) proved a little tricky.....
If it wasn't the sun glaring in my eyes, it was that the bird was distant, or right overhead......
But at least I got a shot to add to my 'Birds Bums' album......
Another bird that proved hard to photograph was the Linnet. Two came down to chew on gravel, but again the sun was against me and I only got one record shot.....
Even the Long-tailed Tits weren't being very obliging. They're all paired up now and no doubt constructing great domes of feather and moss nests glued together with spiders webs. I saw several pairs but only managed a couple of shots where both birds were looking everywhere else except at me.....
There were plenty of Wrens out singing and declaring boundary rights....
There are two old Willows near a natural flooded pond that have previously seen Great Spotted Woodpeckers nest in at least one of them. Today there were a pair of Green Woodpeckers checking out a few holes. There was a lot of 'waffling' calls coming from these two the whole time I was there today. I saw both on the same branch but couldn't get a photo, and I saw both feeding on the ground not far from the Willows.
Another regular is the Red Kite. I'm pretty certain that the three viewings I had today were all of the same bird.....
Along with the Brimstone butterfly I saw today, there were good numbers of Small Torts, Comma and Peacock. They all obliged for a few photo calls, except for the Brimstones, who despite following several around the site, just refused to settle for a photo !
The only downer today was finding eleven dead Buff-tailed bumbles along a very short 3 metre stretch of grass path.......
However after doing a bit of research via the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Facebook page it's fairly right to assume that these poor individuals have probably been picked off by a Great Tit whilst leaving or entering an established nest site. The head or thorax is normally pecked off and the abdomen sometimes hollowed out as the bird searches for the protein rich egg contents.
So as is the chain of life, a bee dies to ensure a bird survives....
There's not much in the way of wild flowers at Lake Farm. It's mainly grass, with brambles and other scrubby bushes, a small wooded area, some hollies, mahonias and the odd daisy or dandelion, so it was nice to find an established spread of Lesser Celandine. However due to my appointment at 3pm, I hadn't packed my heavy macro lens, so no photos of the many hovers that were visiting the spread.
and on my way to my appointment I found a wonderful spread of Sweet Violets in front of the church and some more Celandine.....
So......not a bad four hours on the old patch. Frustrated that I couldn't get the photos I wanted, but there you go.
Tomorrow I'm back at Cranford Park, but maybe I should start visiting Lake Farm more often again. Other birds seen today but not photographed included one male Reed Bunting and two singing Skylarks. Maybe the patch has got the potential after all.
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