WALK TO YEOVIL NINESPRINGS VIA BARWICK PARK
WEATHER: very foggy to start with, it cleared around 8:30am. Very hot and humid, top Temp 24C
Dawn went off to Salisbruy today to help her friend prepare a dress for her son’s wedding on Saturday. I was left at home and without a car, so I decided to walk up through Barwick Park to Yeovil Ninesprings and Summer House Hill. Once again I was on the lookout for migrant species.
saw this Common Hawker hanging onto a maize stem.
Local birder Oli had seen flycatchers and pipits, wheatears and whinchats in recent visits to Aldon House and grounds which lie adjacent to Ninesprings. I was hopeful of seeing something because of the foggy conditions.
A Green Woodpecker was one of my first sightings as I walked past the 'new' campsite on Rexes Hollow Lane. Then as I turned onto the track through Barwick Park I saw a couple of Pied Wagtails and I photographed two Cormorants sitting at the top of a dead tree next to the lake at Barwick House.
Times are hard when you have to include a photograph of Cormorants in your blog!!!
On the lake I saw the usual three species: Moorhen, Little Grebe and Mallard, it doesn’t get much better than this!!! Then a 'flock' of Mistle Thrushes flew up from the field behind the lake, I counted 11 birds.
About 200 Starlings sat on some distant power lines, I had to check them out just in case a Rosy was in with them, well, it would have been rude not to. Six Goldfinches decided to join them, but they kept their distance.
a Folly called - Jack the Treacle Runner - you can just about make out Hermes, the Greek God, sone of Zeus, who was the herald and messenger of the gods. Depicted here because Jack the Treacle Runner was also a messenger, a runner, who was paid in treacle sandwiches!! -
A closer picture of Hermes with his winged helmet and shoes, the local Jackdaws appreciate him being there
The sun was now beating down on me and it got quite warm, I was envious of the ducks swimming about in cool water. A few Barn Swallows flew over and I noticed a Buzzard circling high up.
In the fields at Aldon House I bumped into Oli, he had seen Spotted Flycatchers and Tree Pipits and not much else, I headed towards Summer House Hill because that’s where Oli had seen the birds. I stood on a ridge and looked down to Yeovil Ninesprings and the town beyond, I was at eye-level to the canopy of some oak trees. A bird flew up to the canopy of an oak, I got my bins on it, Tree Pipit in the bag. The bird quickly disappeared, camera shy I think. I stood my ground hoping for it to return and whilst waiting I clocked two or three Blackcaps feeding on elder berries and a single Common Whitethroat.
a view of Yeovil Ninesprings and Yeovil beyond from Summer House Hill from where I watched a few Blackcaps below me
It was now 11am and really quite hot, many butterflies were on the wing, I found my favourite, the Comma, but also saw Holly Blue and lots of Meadow Browns, Small Whites and the odd Red Admiral.
my favourite, the Comma
I ventured further along the top of Summer House Hill passing the Round House and the covered reservoir at Constitution Hill. I bumped into a small covey of Red-legged Partridges and a single Pheasant before finding a Spotted Flycatcher. This bird was also camera shy and hence no pictures.
Back at home I had lunch and then watched the feeders for a while, I can’t remember where the time went and soon Dawn was back, it was 6pm, she had dinner in bag, I could just make out Palmer’s Fi n ips on the crease line of the bag.
Elsewhere, there are plenty of Wryneck sightings, they are still turning up all over the country, a Bluethroat and a Glossy Ibis appeared at Slimbridge and someone reported a Red-breasted Flycatcher on Portland. Ospreys are turning up everywhere and a Fea’s Petrel is circumnavigating the British Isles.