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10 Apr 2012

Wet and miserable.

A wet and miserable Easter weekend with the highlight being a fly over Osprey being mobbed by gulls as it moved N W over the garden on Saturday. With the winds being predominantly in the north and little prospect of any migrants I decided to forgo Hilbre until Monday and help finish the decorating and other projects at home.

The wet weather certainly saw a flurry of activity  in the garden  - probably due to invertebrates becoming more accessible. A pair of Blackbirds appear to be nest building nearby as do the Robins and spent a lot of time feeding on the lawn. Two male Blackbirds have been sparring over territory in the back garden whist the resident Dunnocks are chasing each other around with much wing flicking.




Absolute highlights for the weekend as far as the garden was concerned though were a pair of Bullfinches visiting the feeders and two male Song Thrushes having a sing off as dusk fell on Sunday evening. The first time we've had two Song Thrushes on territory since we've lived here. The Bullfinches have been absent all winter so its nice to see them back.

Monday was even wetter than forecast and it was a soggy morning on Hilbre. One solitary Willow Warbler had braved the elements and migrated north and ended up on the Island whilst the 'resident' Merlin continues to terrorise the Turnstone flock.  Hopefully the wind will shift to a more easterly bias and we'll see more migrants over the next couple of weeks.

Interestingly I caught our neighbours cat with a mole. It dropped it when asked politely to do so but the mole unfortunately died. It gave a good opportunity for a close up of this rarely seen mammal and it as sad to see. The same moggie was also caught with a Goldfinch in its mouth. Sadly this turned out to be one of the ones I'd ringed in the garden back in February.

1 comment :

Pete Kinsella said...

Sounds like that cat needs to go Phil!