June's fine, warm weather seemed to be the best of the summer as it
made way to cooler temperatures and plenty of rain throughout the school
holidays. Apart from the odd day, the feeders in our new 'nature area'
outside the shop have remained busy throughout the season. The bulk of
the birds using the feeders have been Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits,
Collared Doves, House Sparrows, Robins, Dunnocks, Chaffinches and
Goldfinches. We do see Greenfinches occasionally, although of course
their numbers have declined dramatically over the past 12 years thanks
to Tricho. The Great Spotted Woodpecker family have mostly disappeared,
going back to natural food which is most abundant for them at this time
of year, as is also the case for Blackbirds and Starlings. Nuthatches
visit fairly regularly but are always in and out in a flash.
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| Blue Tit |
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| Coal Tit |
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| Great Tit |
Non-feeder visitors include daily Goldcrests &
Chiffchaffs, with Swallows and House Martins overhead. The Swifts
departed some time in August without so much as a goodbye. Our first
Spotted Flycatcher sighting of the year came on the last day of August
down by the cow sheds where the Chiffchaffs have been so active.
Unfortunately the bird didn't stay long!
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| Spotted Flycatcher, 31/08/17 |
A week later on the 9th September, in the very same
spot, came our
95th addition to our species list. Once again the
Chiffchaffs were actively searching for insects when another warbler
arrived, sat and had a quick preen before flying off. The visit lasted
no more than 10 seconds but fortunately I managed to get a few
photographs to confirm its ID as a Reed Warbler.
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| Reed Warbler, 09/09/17 |
Last week saw our first sighting of a
Treecreeper in a while. I recognised the call immediately and managed to
find the bird on the Oak Tree in the car park. My photos aren't
particularly good but it was nice to see none-the-less!
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| Treecreeper, 15/09/17 |
Most likely the same pair of Grey Wagtails which
successfully raised a brood here in May/June have been back recently
too, joining the Pied Wagtails.
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Grey Wagtail |
Finally, this afternoon I have seen a pair of Marsh Tits back for the first time since February. I had gone out after hearing the Treecreeper again, and while looking for it in the oak tree I spotted the Marsh Tit at the feeder. They were going for Black Sunflowers, presumably caching them for the winter.
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| Marsh Tit, 19/09/17 |
Shop News:
At the start of September we became a
Premier Dealer for Zeiss binoculars. This addition to our range furthers our reputation as the best place in the county for trying out optics, and gives customers an opportunity to compare two alpha brands in Swarovski and Zeiss. We now have around 60 pairs of binoculars in stock so the cabinets are looking pretty grand!
