March 6th 2011

With signs of spring migration starting to take off in the last few days Dave and I gave the patch a bashing starting in the Grandborough Valley. While we walked up beck hill I spotted a male Merlin dashing through and Dave found a female Brambling otherwise it was quiet with 2 Green Woodpecker, Sparrowhawk, 100 Fieldfare, 20 Linnet, 30 Yellowhammer noted.
Napton Reservoir had 11 Shoveler, 5 Teal, 3 Raven, 3 Snipe, 5 Bullfinch 100 Common Gull on the reservoir plus 60 Redwing and 50 Fieldfare opposite the entrance and it was good to see fellow blogger The Hornets Nest back in the field and managed a brief chat.
Next stop was the Long Itchington Diner which was busy with the funny car and motorcycle brigade all descending at once. Breakfast was great though the colour of this heap was enough to bring it back up.

Deciding that Napton on the Hill would be too cold and windy we went on to Farnborough Hall which we have not visited for sometime. Wandered around the small lake and wood for an hour but it was disappointing with only a Nuthatch and Goldcrest for our efforts.
Wormleighton was our final destination and as we approached the Tree Sparrows with care finding 11 the owners came out to walk there dogs and over 60 Tree Sparrows left there garden. A magical number even for this location though majority were out of sight from the lane.
Bob was further down the track than me yesterday and suffered from slow moving freight trains blocking his view but managed to grab a shot before the next container passed. At least he got one – set my camera on the tripod – train comes – press the photo burst and watched the train only to find out I had it on the wrong setting and took a nice shot of a rail. Twit.

Duke approaching Cathiron - Bob Hazel

Richard