wildlifeaylmerton: A touch of the Med

Despite a forecast of constant rain today the morning started off bright and sunny. I was on the track by 0700 and my sole intention was to see or hear Turtle Dove. The pale Common Buzzard had roosted in its usual place and was showing well. Three Whitethroats are now singing along with two Willow Warblers. No luck with any Turtle Doves ( the Cypriates and Maltese have probably shot all ours by now!...(don't get me started!) but a parish year tick in the form of a skulking Grey Partridge was most welcome. After being visited by a couple of curious Grey lag Geese and a Northern Wheatear dropping onto one of the hedgerows a raptor rising to the south (obviously just off roost) materialised into (presumably) our local Black Kite (a mediterranean species) It was reported yesterday morning around 1030 and is almost certainly the bird seen last weekend having not wandered to far I would wager. Counted a healthy 12 Hares throughout the fields west of the village, good to see them in numbers once again.

Common Buzzard

Grey-lag Goose

Brown Hare

Shortly after nine I was on my way down to Sheringham Bird Observatory where a mystery mimicking warbler was reported to be singing (later turned out to be a Sedge Warbler!) when I got a call from Ian Prentice " I've got a Red-rumped Swallow at West Runton, now!" A quick detour around the back of Sheringham and I was in Runton - the bird had drifted off east! After a few minutes I picked up the distinctive shape of a 'wire'-tailed swallow with an off white rump, sure enough it was a fabulous RED -RUMPED SWALLOW ( from the Med!) We watched it unfortunately against the sun before once again it drifted off. It was at this point I made a wrong decision, with an Alpine Swift (from...the Med) had just been reported in Cromer. We saw a few Alpine Swifts in Spain a couple of weekends ago but a potential Marsh Warbler (which is what we thought was at SBO) appealed a little more...DOH! After lunch I decided to shoot through to Cromer but missed the swift by half an hour, with two Wheatears around some terrace chimneys and a couple of Hobbies being the only birds of note. Back home and a pair of Stock Dove have plucked up enough courage to come and feed on my neighbours lawn affording some good veiws of these fine looking birds. It eventually started raining at 1430!

Stock Dove