I was actually enjoying having some time off work, even if I couldn't make the most of it, and at least the garden was looking a bit tidier for a change. Despite putting a few hours in I still hadn't seen anything bigger and better than the local Red Kites above the house, unlike half of the folks in the south of England who were seeing Eagles and Ospreys all the time. The garden Mouse was reliable though and I spent a few hours during the sunny afternoons watching it help me keep the area under the bird feeder clean and tidy. Unfortunately under another feeder in another part of the garden, we had spotted several much smaller mice active and, because they were visible from the kitchen, I was coerced into removing some plants to reduce the cover that the mice were using to stealthily access the dropped seeds. We haven't seen them since so they've either moved on or one of the local moggies has been busy emptying its own mini-bar.
In my last blog I related how I'd found a decent walk from the house that we could take whenever we felt the urge to get out, and away from, almost, everybody else. On Tuesday morning we started out early and followed the track towards the farm by the railway for the second time. The whole walk potentially offered us some good birds and would help to alleviate some of the anxiety, stress and boredom that has become the worst part of life recently. As usual the first part of our walk through the housing estate offered up little in the way of birds but the eerie quiet was still enjoyable. I wonder how many times I'll say to Mrs Caley, "It's like Christmas Day Morning!". No cars, no aeroplanes in the sky, very few people out and about, I could get used to it. On the downside the tranquility reminded me why I've always wanted to go and live in a remote part of Scotland away from the hustle and bustle, and the fact that I've not yet achieved that dream disheartened me once again.
The hedgerows along the wide track leading to the farm were as full with singing Robins, Wrens, Dunnocks and Goldfinches as they were a couple of days before. Mrs Caley spotted an adorable tiny Long-tailed Tit going in and out of the hedge. It was busy and we realised that it was constructing a nest, the first foundations of which could be seen clinging to twigs in the hawthorns. The nest would be close to the track side of the hedge and close to the top of the bushes and seemed very exposed. But of course, the birds knew that by the time the nest was complete and ready for occupation, the leaves would have all unfurled, so cover would be assured, and the thorns would offer protection from would be predators.
We paused to watch a group of Rooks feeding on the short grass of the horse paddock. I like Rooks, they are both ugly and beautiful (oxymoron there, see that) at the same time. If seen in good light their seemingly drab black plumage explodes into a shimmer of bottle blues and purples. My over the road neighbour must be one of those old school folks that discard their meal waste into their back garden. Every evening a couple of Rooks wait patiently on the roof of his house and wait to be fed. I've seen them many times with a bone, a leftover potato os some other titbit which they take up into a nearby tree to eat. The Rooks in the paddock though were probably searching out worms and other invertebrates rather than fine dining scraps.
We pushed on through the various fields towards Trow Pool seeing the same species as on our previous walk. Skylarks and Yellowhammers proliferate in the more open countryside and I tried fruitlessly to gain a decent photo of one of the Skylarks on its song flight. It is very difficult to approach any birds in the open closely enough to get images when they are grounded too. They always fly away just before you get into range.
The trees around Trow Pool held nothing new but we familiarised ourselves a bit more with the layout and speculated what could turn up over the next few weeks. We would expect to find some Warblers soon, Willow Warbler and Blackcap are usually the first of the spring migrants to return. The trees and scrubby understory look good for something scarcer too, maybe we'd find a Firecrest or a Pied Flycatcher although that may be very wishful thinking on my part since I don't have a great track record of finding good birds locally. One corner of the wood looks as if it may appeal to my most sought after of returning summer birds, namely the Nightingale. Fingers crossed!
Our return walk was again pretty uneventful but we were just enjoying being out, perfectly distanced from anybody else, and basking in the warm spring sunshine. A Common Buzzard flying low overhead made for a nice change from all of the Red Kites, it even mewed at us as it passed.
One of the nest building Long-tailed Tits had secured a feather from the scattered remains of presumably a Sparrowhawk kill just along the track. Feathers are prized amongst smaller birds for the inner lining for their nests and the Long-tailed Tit looked extremely pleased with its find. We gave the bird some room and watched it try to add the feather to its own construction but after a bit of prodding and probing for a spot to put it, appeared to realise that the nest wasn't quite built up enough for it and let it flutter down to the ground.
The Rooks were still in the paddock but as always took flight as soon as we got near them. Still, I like flight shots. I had less success with the Magpies even thought they flew directly overhead, no time to alter the camera setting to capture them against the bright sky.
The biggest surprise of the walk was again just as we gained our own driveway when I spotted a Raven soaring high above the house. Why did we bother walking four miles first? I never expected to see a Raven from my own garden, so maybe there still is a chance of that flyover Eagle or Osprey!
The first of the month was spent at home, hiding from any stupid April fools gags and hoax bird sightings (there's enough of those emanating from certain parts of the county as it is), and my couple of hours of sky gazing yielded nothing except more Red Kites. A friend of mine, Patricia, who keeps watch on the eastern and opposite side of town from my house, found a Black-tailed Godwit on the Graven Hill flood in the afternoon. Later that day it relocated to Bicester Wetlands and was still present there on the Tuesday morning. I took time out from doing some essential bookwork to drive Mrs Caley down in the van to see it. Having a transit van can be very useful sometimes since it can be used as a superior mobile hide. It has the advantage of being higher off the ground than our car thus affording better viewing capabilities and also, at BWR, allows us to get closer to the main scrape than watching from the Tower Hide does. Hence when we arrived mid morning, I was able to get some close up shots of the Godwit even though the sun shining directly at us worked against my minimal photography skills.
The Black-tailed Godwit was probably one of the pair of birds that had stopped off at BWR in the previous two springs, also returning later in the summer post-breeding. This bird would be the male and he had already gained most of his orange-red breeding plumage. A few days later he would be joined by his mate and they'd stay for a couple of weeks more. There was another unusual bird on the scrape in the shape of a Common Gull which was slouched rather forlornly on the grassy bund that stretched out into the shallow water. I couldn't remember ever seeing a Common Gull at the reserve before.
A Green Sandpiper tootled past heading south towards the Cattle Bridge Pool at the other end of the reserve and constituted the only year tick of the past few days. Our total stood at 133 species for the year, a long way short of the number that we'd achieved by the same time last year, but at least the next month or so would herald the return of many of our breeding birds plus some passage migrants and we'd get the chance to bolster that list somewhat. The difficulty would lay in getting to see some of them because of the travel restrictions and the constant appeal to "Stay At Home".
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