March Review
Well it’s April fools day, and the weather forecast last night was the biggest trick of all, it’s grey and miserable today not warm and sunny like the predicted and so I shall get my March round up completed really early this month. I’ll have to wait for tomorrow to chase the Blackcap shot I wanted to try for.
March Review
Firstly let me apologise for not adding as many daily reports as I would have liked, I started well but then got caught up with working extra, illness and a sore back so just didn’t get out in the tail end of the month as much as I would have liked, I tried to keep things ticking over on the blog with reviews and the likes so I hope I still kept you entertained. Anyway on with the review of March
March Review The Species roundup
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| Long-tailed tits nest building |
As you would expect March is a bit of an odd month for birds, you have outgoing winter stuff still hanging Fieldfare, Redwing, etc.) and incoming migrants (My first Chiffchaff and Blackcap etc.) so it can be a productive month, and March on the patch was just that I also added my first Redpoll of the year and a patch tick in the form of a coughing Phesant. A total of 57 bird species were seen, a few butterflies – Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone. There were some Slugs and a whole lot more. Any way the full list of birds for the month is below.
The Bird List
| Great Crested grebe |
| Little Grebe |
| Grey Heron |
| Little Egret |
| Cormorant |
| Mute Swan |
| Canada Goose |
| Mallard |
| Kestrel |
| Sparrowhawk |
| Common Buzzard |
| Pheasant |
| Water Rail |
| Coot |
| Moorhen |
| Black Headed Gull |
| Common Gull |
| Herring Gull |
| Lesser Black-Backed Gull |
| Greater Black-backed gull |
| Wood Pigeon |
| Collard Dove |
| Stock Dove |
| Feral Pigeon |
| Kingfisher |
| Green Woodpecker |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
| Pied Wagtail |
| Grey Wagtail |
| Wren |
| Dunnock |
| European Robin |
| Redwing |
| Song Thrush |
| Mistle Thrush |
| Fieldfare |
| Blackbird |
| Blackcap |
| Chiffchaff |
| Goldcrest |
| Great Tit |
| Blue Tit |
| Long-tailed tit |
| Treecreeper |
| Magpie |
| Jay |
| Jackdaw |
| Carrion Crow |
| Starling |
| House Sparrow |
| Chaffinch |
| Linnet |
| Common Redpoll |
| Goldfinch |
| Greenfinch |
| Bullfinch |
| Reed Bunting |
March Review Photographic Round up
I finally achieved a goal I have had in my mind for several months and that was to photograph a Great-crested Grebe emerging from the mist. I also added a few more birds in the mist photos, and had some other cracking photos to add to my portfolio.
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| Great-crested Grebe in the mist, Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes March 2014 |
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| Mallard in the mist, Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes March 2014 |
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| Coot in the mist, Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes March 2014 |
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| Long-tailed tit – March 2014 Milton Keynes |
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| Little Egret, Bradwell Village, Milton Keynes March 2014 |
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| Hawthorn Shieldbug, Bradwell Village, Milton Keynes March 2014 |
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| Snake Head Fritillary, Bradwell Village, Milton Keynes March 2014 |
April Targets
April I am hoping to see some more migrants, I’d love Sand and House Martin, swallows should be passing through and the warbler activity will pick up so I can’t wait. The butterfly season will really step up a gear so hopefully there will be some nice pretty pics coming up. And Dragonflies may start appearing towards the end of the month.
I’ve decided against setting photographic goals as I very rarly achieve them but I will continue to set out on a daily basis with some goals in mind.
I do have a week away from the patch coming up so while I’m gone there will be a few reviews popping up and I hope to stun you with some wildlife from Kent (ok I hope to show you some).
Anyway March is behind us so on wards to April.
Please feel free to leave me a comment. I really appreciate the interaction and will reply as soon as I can.
