Nethergong Birding

With some early sun forecast I was out of the house at 4.45am where a few minutes later I pulled up at Nethergong. I spent five hours walking around the circuit 3 times where I managed a creditable 55 species, not bad for July. There was plenty on offer this morning with the following making the notebook: 2 Little Owl including 1 juvenile, 3 Blackcap, 2 Skylark, 2 Yellowhammer, 5 Whitethroat, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Pheasant, 5 Swift, 3 Mute Swan, 1 Grey Heron, 3 Reed Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Jay, 3 Cetti's Warbler, 4 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 'reeling' male and good views of at least 1 juvenile and I suspect the others were also juveniles, great news that they have bred on the site. There were 2 Barn Owl with one hunting early morning until at least 8am where I watched at least 7 visits with prey to a nest site nearby. As photos of little brown jobs are still quite tricky with lots of foliage still on the trees, it was down to the Barn Owls again which gave me a few photo opportunities with the camera this morning, just a shame I forgot to put on the converter!

Barn Owl

Other birds seen included my first Hobby (102) of the year which I saw on four occasions as it flew through at speed eyeing up the local Swallows. There were 2 Great spotted Woodpecker, 1 Green Woodpecker, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Treecreeper, 2 Linnet, 8 Long tailed Tit, 1 Kestrel, 2 Turtle Dove still 'purring', 1 Ring necked Parakeet, 1 Common Buzzard, 2 Yellow Wagtail and 3 Marsh Harrier soared overhead together ending a very pleasant session indeed. Nice at last to get a Hobby on the year list and now its down to hopefully a good autumn where I hope to maybe add a wader or two and even a Wheatear or Whinchat. 

Barn Owl