Tuesday 10 April 2018

Honeysuckle Farm revisited

A foggy, cold day. If not for the singing chiffchaff, the mating toads or the grown Moorhen chick one would say it was still February. Everything feels late this year after the spell of snow and cold weather in March. The only invertebrate was a bumblebee nest searching.
 I'm always surprised by the diversity of birds in the farm and I put together a decent list every time I go. I added Song Thrush to the site list today. With a pair feeding on the cows field and a male singing.
Starlings were hard to see in the distant fields through the fog.
This Toad mating ball in one of the ponds had me a bit puzzled until I realised that the browner mass is actually a pair in amplexus, with the greyish individual trying to get in.
A Chiffchaff was singing, and two were chasing at some point, this was one of them.
Tree Sparrows seem to be doing well, with nests in two areas of the farm, with a good provision of next boxes in trees as shown in the next photo.

Rooks were looking for food in the cows field, and Jackdaws were also about.
By the sheep field a Woodpigeon (I take the male) approached its partner with a conciliatory posture, the opposite of the aggressive high stance.
The other woodpigeon, probably the female kept approaching the other to groom and demand being fed.
In the ponds the sudden 'ket,ket,ket!' of squabbling moorhens. Two individuals displayed in parallel, tails fanned...
Then they showed their rears to one another and parted their own ways.
One of the pairs actually had a grown chick. Quite surprising given the recent weather. The chick was probably born during the beast from the east event!
Song Thrush and blackbird feeding on the grass.
The nicest surprise was to find three yellowhammers feeding on the chickens and turkey pens. They were a bit flighty, and I only managed this shot. I hadn't seen Yellowhammers in the farm for a couple of years.

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