Nethergong Birding

After going through Thursday night's recording, it was pleasing to hear a Cuckoo (103) calling early morning. This morning I was out and about early arriving at 05:15am where in lovely sunshine and a light wind, I spent about 5 hours walking around the site. This was the first visit that the campsite has been open so there were plenty of campers on site. Despite this, I hardly encountered many people at all. I also returned back to Nethergong late morning where time was spent looking for birds of prey in the warming sunshine. I managed to see or hear an excellent 65 species which is one of the best totals I have ever seen in one day. not bad for a small site. birds seen today included 2 Cetti's Warbler, c25 Cormorant, 5 Chiffchaff, 5 Sand Martin, 1 Ring necked Parakeet, 1 Lesser Whitethroat (104) sang at the east end of the site, 4 Swallow,  1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Kestrel, 1 Cuckoo heard calling, 1 Barn Owl appeared around 08:30am and spent 30 minutes hunting in good light enabling me to take a few shots. He managed to catch 8 mice/voles in this time. There were 4 Skylark, 1 Raven, 1 Lapwing, 5 Canada Geese (105) flew west. A really good species to see and my first for the patch. Also seen were 1 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Grey Heron, 1 Green Woodpecker, 4 Blackcap, 2 Bullfinch, 5 Whitethroat, 3 Stock Dove, 2 Greylag Geese, 5 Reed Warbler, 3 Sedge Warbler, 2 Yellowhammer, 2 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Jay and 1 Lesser Black backed Gull. Birds noted on my return late morning included 1 Red Kite (106) over Hersden Industrial estate and loafing around for a while, 2 Hobby (107) 6 Common Buzzard, 1 Peregrine, 2 Kestrel, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Sparrowhawk and 1 Little Egret flew south. A very pleasant session and a good variety of species noted. 

Barn Owl