Early Spring Garden records

Lesser Redpoll - April 9th

Heading towards mid-April and we think the same 3 Lesser Redpolls are still visiting the garden feeders as they have been for the last month - (one bird has a silver leg ring). Occasionally, Siskins are present too and in Birchett Wood this evening, male Siskins were singing away.

Today, I saw the first garden Holly Blue Butterfly of the spring and with the sunny weather being been fairly reliable at the moment, we've had plenty of Butterfly activity including Brimstones, Speckled wood, Holly Blue and ocsasional Orange Tip.

Peacock Butterfly sunbathing on Blackthorn

Female Orange tip on Cuckoo flower, April 2nd

For the records, the last Raven was heard March 21st - the third record of the year. The last Little Egret was flushed by a dog walker from the field behind the garden on March 22nd. Surprisingly we haven't seen the Egrets for at least a month and presumed they had long gone to a breeding colony.

On a sunny day it's possible to see at least two pairs of Common Buzzard above their territories at different corners of the Shadoxhurst parish. Kestrels, too, are fairly easy to see at the moment, and as on one March day we saw four birds soaring together, it's not unreasonable to expect that we have two territories in the village. Little and Tawney Owl are ever present at night. Mallard and Pheasant sit around the garden waiting to be fed on seed spilled for our regular little flock of Yellowhammers.

House Sparrows are nesting in at least three boxes at the front of the house and there are regularly about 12 birds feeding with the Yellowhammers and Chaffinches, assorted fringe farmland birds including this Stock Dove below. All are kept alert by Sparrowhawks that frequent the garden.

Stock Dove

Marsh Marigolds and Blackthorn presently in blossom at the back of the garden.

We're rather proud of our new Cleft Chestnut fence which spans the back of the garden

First Swallow of the year

Just viewed over the horse paddock at the back of the garden and there he is, beaten back by a paltry House Martin our first returned Swallow of the year. The weather is warm and sunny, so there is plenty of insect life for the early migrants to feed on. At the same, our local Buzzards are displaying overhead and also plenty of Bee flies hovering around in the sun.

Early House Martin

A first spring House Martin hawked insects over the garden this evening. Its beaten our Swallows back from Africa - quite a surprise!

Present but elusive Crossbills

Across Orlestone forest migrant Blackcaps have boldly arrived in numbers to join Chiffchaffs to build on a dawn chorus sound as yet chiefly the sound of our resident birds.

In Soapers Wood, still the most reliable wood for Crossbills, I saw very briefly 3 parties of Crossbills totaling 25-35 birds. One party left the and flew to neighbouring Faggs Wood an area I rarely get time to cover. The forest Crossbills remain mostly elusive, only portraying their presence when calling in flight and frustratingly vanishing into the canopy when they land.

Orlestone Crossbills for all to see

A beautiful sunny morning walk around Birchett Wood, with the sounds of early spring including Siskin, Bullfinch, Redpoll and Chiffchaff, was made all the more enjoyable by three differing parties of Crossbills. The Crossbills were all fly-over birds and travelling in different directions across the forest. With lingering rarer Parrot and Two-barred Crossbills still in the country, it would be nice for local birders to clinch either of these birds for the forest. Frustratingly my searches are on hold for now as I had to hobble out the forest after an hour with sciatica.

Common Crossbills in Orlestone forest

Above and below, male Common Crossbill, Birchett wood.

In the late summer of 2013, the UK had a cyclic arrival of nomadic Crossbills from Europe in search of their exclusive Pine seed food source. At last, I thought, something new to add some interest to our often birdless Pine plantations in Orlestone forest. However, despite the abundance of Pines throughout, a lot of luck was needed in the first half of winter to find any Crossbills. A 2 hour walk might just provide an occasional flyover of birds passing by - just about better than nothing! However, since the new year, I'm finding and hearing Crossbills on nearly every visit I make to Packing Wood, Soapers Wood and Birchett Wood, and importantly I've seen some evidence of nest building too.

So its reasonable to assume Crossbills are present in small numbers across the forest. The largest flock I've seen so far (on Monday) was a respectable 32 birds, and on this sighting the birds gave very good views, frequently flying down to a stream to drink and on several occasions the males sang from high in the pine canopy

All the woods continue to have little flocks of Siskins and Redpolls present, and in Birchett today there were also 6 Bullfinches present. The woods seem to have a very healthy population of Great Spotted woodpeckers and Nuthatches. The Nuthatches can be heard and seem as easily in the conifer palantations as in the Decidious woods and are noisily proclaiming from their territories at present.

Common Crossbill at Soapers wood, Orlestone forest.

Female Common Crossbill, Soapers wood, Orlestone forest.

A Dutch Cormorant

We've just had a 4-day break in Holland. Time was split between Amsterdam, Museums, Traffic jams, and a swimming pool in a wintery 'Centre-parcs` camp. Not a true bird watching hour was spent.. ..but just once, there was a bold Cormorant on one of the parc's small duck ponds just as the sun came out - and here it is. It's more than I deserved!