Friday 24 April 2020

A Wonderful Early Morning on the Horsefield

A bit of a false start this morning.  I got up at 6.00 am all ready for an early start and was somewhat disconcerted to find it misty; no good at all for photographing birds.  As it happened though, by the time I was ready to leave at 7.45, the sun had put in an appearance.  Grabbing the fuji with birding lens attached and my bins, I set off for the Horsefield.  There was much more activity going on than I had seen so far this spring.  I immediately found Nigel's whitethroat from yesterday and it sang and performed well in the first hedge.  Not only that but I found a second singing male in the middle hedge - great news.  Yellowhammers presented well as always and I was amazed at the large numbers of linnets busying about noisily, making their grumpy sounding calls.  Many are paired up now and I watched one pair courtship feeding while another two pairs were busily collecting nesting material.  Although I didn't manage any photographs there were two or three willow warblers holding territory in the woodland burial ground and singing lustily along with a similar number of chiffchaffs.  I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of skylarks in evidence singing both hanging suspended in mid-air and also from the ground.  There must be 3 or 4 singing males holding territory in the first meadow.

By 9.45, I was getting ready for a coffee and began to turn for home.  On the banks of Gooseman's drain though I came across a male orange tip on the wing which was very pleasing and, even better, a pair of blackcaps.  Although I only secured a record shot of the male bird, I am sure that with patience I shall find them here again.

All in all an excellent morning!


  • Blackbird
  • Crow
  • Willow Warbler
  • Chiffchaff
  • Whitethroat x2
  • Linnet
  • Skylark
  • Robin
  • Magpie
  • Wren
  • Reed Bunting
  • Blackcap
  • Dunnock
  • Bullfinch
  • Orange tip
  • Peacock
To view large, please click on an image.
Male balckcap

Bullfinch female

Bullfinch female

Female linnet collecting nesting material

Female linnet collecting nesting material

Male linnet

Male linnet

Male Linnet

Skylark

Skylark

Whitethroat

Whitethroat

Yellowhammer

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