Pitsford again
It's good to be back birding again. We had limited time and wanted to do something close to home, so fifteen minutes later we were at the Fishing Lodge, at Pitsford Reservoir (http://www.wildlifebcnp.org/reserves/reserve.php?reserveid=81). It turns out you can get a 12 month family pass to the reserve for just £17 so we invested as it so close to where we now live. Halfway around we were updating our bird list when we noticed the date of our last walk was mid-April, which shows how much time moving house consumes!
Pitsford is transformed from our last visit in early Spring, to a place buzzing with insects, alive with birdsong but just as devoid of humans! The walk itself, a little over 7 miles, took 3 and a half hours in glorious sunshine, but insect repellent is a must if like me you wear shorts, I'm still scratching one of the bites...
We know we missed a number of birds, because we were both short of time and the foliage is very deep in places, but we heard some very distinctive bird song that we'd never heard before, which can be very frustrating when you know the bird is less than 3 metres away but you have no chance of seeing it! Next time we plan to give ourselves a day to get round, which should prove more fruitful.
We did however see our first (and second!) Treecreepers. The way they hop about, upside down, without appearing to experience gravity is quite remarkable. I did manage a snap, but the tree was very gloomy versus the bright light outside so this is the best I could get:
On the home stretch and mindful of the closing gates at the Lodge we heard singing in the rape field to our right, and spotted this male Reed Bunting singing with his head and neck extended as he called:
It was great to get out again so fingers crossed we can spend some time birding this summer, having missed the Spring migration.
Pitsford is transformed from our last visit in early Spring, to a place buzzing with insects, alive with birdsong but just as devoid of humans! The walk itself, a little over 7 miles, took 3 and a half hours in glorious sunshine, but insect repellent is a must if like me you wear shorts, I'm still scratching one of the bites...
We know we missed a number of birds, because we were both short of time and the foliage is very deep in places, but we heard some very distinctive bird song that we'd never heard before, which can be very frustrating when you know the bird is less than 3 metres away but you have no chance of seeing it! Next time we plan to give ourselves a day to get round, which should prove more fruitful.
We did however see our first (and second!) Treecreepers. The way they hop about, upside down, without appearing to experience gravity is quite remarkable. I did manage a snap, but the tree was very gloomy versus the bright light outside so this is the best I could get:
On the home stretch and mindful of the closing gates at the Lodge we heard singing in the rape field to our right, and spotted this male Reed Bunting singing with his head and neck extended as he called:
It was great to get out again so fingers crossed we can spend some time birding this summer, having missed the Spring migration.
posted by Michael at 8:17 am
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