MORNING WALK INTO YEO VALLEY AND THEN WITH DAWN ACROSS TO CLIFTON WOODS
WEATHER: cloudy and dull to start with no wind. After 10am the sky cleared and we had glorious sunshine for the rest of the day with a chilly east wind.
A game of two halves as they say, the first half I spent in Yeo Valley with a heavy blanket of cloud over me, it was quite chilly at first. The second half was spent with Dawn walking to Clifton Woods in bright sunshine.
I was quite excited and very hopeful that the misty morning with low cloud would have dropped in view migrant species.
This is the start of the walk into Yeo Valley, you can see a clump of bramble on the right about 100 meters along the track. This is where my ever faithful little Wren sings to me every day, I was praising him up on yesterday's blog and guess what? He wasn't there this morning!!
The Nuthatch nest is still safe and today I found out why. I often hear the Woodpeckers calling near the Nuthatches' home and here is why..........
a new hole made by the Green Woodpeckers just 50 meters from the old nest hole that the Nuthatches stole!!
I saw the Kingfisher just once today and it was nowhere near the hest hole on the sand bank. Yesterday I mentioned that I had seen a Jay for only the first time during my 'isolation' walks, today I saw another two of them, can you believe it.
All the usual suspects were seen today, I had fly-overs of Grey Heron, Little Egret and lots of Herring gulls. Singing were:- Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Chaffinches, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and I heard two drumming Woodpeckers.
I got round the circuit fairly quickly and met up with Dawn at the gate entrance. We then walked southward along the stream and headed for Clifton Woods. Our route took us through a farm and then two very large sheep paddocks, again I was hoping for a Whitethroat or any other migrant in the fields, but I got nothing.
This is the track up to the farm, you can see the Clifton Woodland in the distance
We had a lovely time walking along the perimeter of the woodland, it was sheltered there and all the usual butterflies were out amongst the bright array of wild flowers. It was lovely and warm, we watched Common Buzzards and Ravens up in the sky and in the trees we saw Green Woodpecker, Blackcap and a very nice find was that of two Marsh Tits.
I also found this single stem of White Bluebells, they are quite rare. They are white because they lack pigment.
the west facing woodland edge, you can see a certain person, on the phone as usual.
the Wild Garlic is now flowering well
Common Buzzard
Walking back through the farm we saw a Barn Swallow on the telephone wires, it was a male and alone. He was waiting for his partner to arrive back from South Africa, I hope she makes it.
back at home I noticed that the Red-legged Partridges were a little nearer in the meadow, this is the best photo I have to date. One day they are going to be nearer than 200 meters!!