Sunday, March 29, 2009

Brandon - 29/03/09

There are many stories about forgetting to put your clocks forward that I won't bore you with! I cleverly put my Iphone an hour ahead before going to bed last night, and set the alarm call for 5am! It wasn't until I'd got up and put the coffee on that I suddenly realised, the damn thing does it automatically at 2am anyway, you work it out!!!

Suffice to say, I was down the reserve before first light, which wasn't a bad thing as I already intended to make use of the darker mornings for an Owl search anyway. The disappointing thing was, I drew a complete blank. I knew I was in trouble when a Stock Dove emerged from the Sheepfield Owl-Box, and the resulting hour I spent on the ridge only yielded 3 Common Buzzard, now the search begins to locate where the 2 Barn Owls have gone.

The East Marsh Pool didn't have anything unusual to offer either, although Sand Martin were once again entering the artificial structure erected by the team. As it was a quiet morning five of the Sunday crew took the opportunity to make a detailed search for the roosting Long Eared Owl reported on Friday, this also drew a blank. As we have no other details on the original siting, it's difficult to establish whether this is a genuine report or not, none of the regulars have seen or heard it.
We took another walk across The Tip and Farm Field in the hope of Stonechat and Northern Wheatear but had to settle for Fieldfare, Kestrel and a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly out in the morning sun.

After the guys had departed I decided to have my lunch in Horsetail Glade, rather than Main Hide, as it had developed into a lovely spring day. After about 20 minutes of scanning and eating I picked up exactly what I was here for, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, funny enough in the same tree I'd had it a few weeks ago. With the sun at a bad angle for viewing I was unable to decipher whether it was male or female, nevertheless a LSW it was, thus giving me a trio on the day of Green, Great Spotted and the Lesser, and so I'm off for a nap now a happy and content bear.