Saturday 14 April 2012

Weetslade - Friday evening

Another wander around Weetslade produced quite a mixed bag of sightings. I was particularly pleased with my first Barn Swallow sightings of the year. Three of them flying over the reed bed.



On the pond were two pairs of Gadwall


Walking around the reed bed perimeter produced Snipe, Reed Bunting, Coot, Mute Swan, Canada Geese,  with a flock of ten flying over.
In the adjacent bushes there were Chiffchaff and Long-tailed Tit.
Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard were all hunting.
Three pairs of Lapwing were dotted around the area as well as a pair of Redshank feeding in one of the ponds. There were many Skylark and pipits on the wing and a Grey Heron in a small ponded area.
Came across a small patch of what I first thought were Bluebells but the flower looks a bit different  so I'm not so sure and will do a bit of research


and a bit research into this one also



I have visited Weetslade a few times recently on the hunt for Short-eared Owls, and although I have drawn a blank I bumped into a local who saw one on the north side of the hill, a couple of weeks ago.



3 comments:

Brian R said...

nice to see someone else visiting this site.

kirstallcreatures said...

Hello, I wonder whether the bluebell is a Spanish bluebell, the introduced non-native version of the English blubell. Its more chunky looking than the delicate native plant.

I'd guess that the second plant is a Horsetail (Equisetum)although I don't know which one, Linda

Citybirding said...

Brian, I'm planning more regular visits.
Linda, thanks for the ident help.