Tuesday July 5

I am currently in the process of creating pages for this blog.

My main area of interest has always been birds so I have created a photo-list of 20 species photographed in or from our garden over the last couple of years, and will be adding to it. Any birds seen away from the garden will be labelled with the location.

Of course I have seen a lot more than 20 species from the garden over the last 12 years, and the garden list currently stands at 73 species. Unfortunately I have only had a camera since 2012 so many of these are recorded only in my memory and on paper.

A further distinction can be made between birds seen actually in, as opposed to from the garden. The best birds seen in the garden were a Waxwing one March a few years ago, and a Whitethroat in May 2013.

Birds seen or heard flying over or perching in nearby trees include Hawfinch in Jan 2006, Tree Pipit in Aug 2004, and singles of Peregrine, Hobby, Snipe, Golden Plover, Crossbill, Lesser Whitethroat, and Common Tern.

Moving out of the garden I have recorded Garden Warbler in a hedge between us and the paper shop, and most impressively a singing Wood Warbler in a patch of woodland on the Winyates Green side of the main road.

The only notable bird I can recall from Isley Alders was a singing Grasshopper Warbler one spring, and I twitched that.

Arrow Valley Lake should have brought me more than a single Kittiwake and a few commonish ducks, aside from the Eider mentioned in the last post. Perhaps I should start going there more often.

I think there is still plenty of potential for more discoveries.