I haven't put a blog post on for over a month, so I am going to put on what has been seen at Holmebrook Valley since the 4th of May.
On the 4th I was looking for
Swifts from a vantage point overlooking the lake but instead of seeing
Swifts I managed to find two
Hobbys which was a year tick for me and a first for the site. They drifted south before heading back north a few minutes later. Against the blue sky they were hard to photograph, but I managed a record shot of both birds together.
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| Hobbys |
Also on the 4th I managed to count 7 eggs in the Mute Swans nest.
On the 5th I managed to actually see the
Lesser Whitethroat as it sang in the shrubs on the east side of the lake. Unfortunately as it was only a glimpse, I didn't manage a photo. Also seen on this day were 2
Greylag Geese, some
Orange Tip and
Large White Butterflies, all 3
Mute Swans and the
Great Crested Grebes were building a nest.
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| Great Crested Grebe nest building |
On the 6th I got my first
Mallard ducklings and
Moorhen chicks for the site this year. There were 10
Mallard ducklings and 3
Moorhen chicks. The 2
Greylag Geese were still on the lake and 1 male
Tufted Duck was new. The
Mute Swan pair were still incubating.
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| Mallard ducklings |
On the 7th the only new birds were 7
Tufted Ducks and there were 3
Greylag Geese instead of 2.
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| Greylag Geese |
On the 12th I got my first damselflies of the year with about 4
Blue-Tailed Damselflies seen around the lake. The
Greylag Geese had disappeared but the
Mute Swans were still incubating and there were at least 20
Mallard ducklings.
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| Blue-Tailed Damselflies |
On the 13th I had my first site
Swifts of the year with around 3 birds flying around the lake. I had seen my first
Swift of the year on the 8th over my house. Again there were a couple of
Blue-Tailed Damselflies. The
Greylag Geese returned on the 14th, but there was nothing much about.
On the 19th there were lots of damselflies about in the sun and I managed to get four species including one that was new for me and the site. First off, the new one,
Red-Eyed Damselfly. This is a species I have wanted to see for some time so when I found four of them on the reeds next to the lake, I was very happy. The other three species were
Common Blue,
Large Red and
Blue-
Tailed Damselfly of which two were year ticks.
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Large Red Damselfly
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| Red-Eyed Damslefly |
Birdwise on the 19th there wasn't much except 2
Tufted Ducks and the normal birds.
From the 20th to the 24th nothing much changed apart from a couple more
Mallard ducklings appearing, a
Whitethroat on the 23rd and I managed to find two new
Coots nests including one containing one chick, which had hatched that day, and one plus egg.
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| Coot sat tightly on chick and egg |
I also found a
Blue Tits nest containing 5 or more chicks. Although they will breed every year around the site, this is my first confirmed nesting record for
Blue Tits.
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| Blue Tit sat tightly on her chicks |
Today when I went down I was met by three
Mute Swan cygnets which I presume hatched yesterday. I predicted that they would hatch in early June, so I wasn't to for off! Surprisingly the parents didn't care about last years cygnet who stayed with them whilst they looked after their cygnets.
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| Mute Swan cygnets |
The other four eggs were left in the nest so I presume they have been abandoned. Other things seen today were 25+
Mallard ducklings, plenty of Damselflies, 1
Coot chick and the
Great Crested Grebe pair were still round the nest.
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| Blue-Tailed Damselfly |
Throughout the whole month numbers of
House Martins and
Swallows have risen but there don't seem to be many
Swallows around this year. Since the 8th
Swift numbers have gone up but again there don't seem to be as many.
Other birds this month include
Red-Legged Partridge with one seen near Wadshelf and a
Redkite seen over The Hardwick Inn last weekend.
