Mike's Natural Musings: A Wonderful Early Morning on the Horsefield

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!