A Walk In The Sun

At long last I had an opportunity to get a good walk in today, to see what was about in the southern half of the island. Having parked up in the small car park (1) at the top of Sweethill Road here, I then headed west towards Reap Lane Barns (2) here.

En route there were a few Swallows heading over the horse fields and a lone Common Whitethroat from the hedgerow, west of the barns.

Having not found anything else here, apart from dozens of House Sparrows bathing in a puddle from last night's rain, I headed towards the South West Coast Path (3) here and then headed south towards the Top Fields (4) here.

En route I came across more Swallows heading up the island, 2 male Stonechats, a further 3 Common Whitethroats and a pair of Ravens being rather raucous.

From the Top Fields down to Culverwell (5) here I came across more migrants with a lone Sand Martin, 20+ Swallows, 2 Stonechat, 2 Whinchat, 2 Wheatear and 5 more Common Whitethroat.

Sadly there wasn't anything to be found at Culverwell so I headed back up the main road to the footpath (6) here, and made my way along the hedgerow (7) here. Along this stretch I came across a Chiffchaff and another 2 Common Whitethroats.

Instead of following the path towards Sweethill, I doubled back on the otherside of the hedge (8) here and made my way to Sweethill Farm along the track (9) here. There was another Chiffchaff along this route and 3 more Common Whitethroats. A few Swallows were seen flying back and forth along the track, where I tried to get a few photos of them head on.

The walk took exactly 3 hours with 32 bird species recorded, including my first Pheasant this year.

My walk today

Birds recorded:

3 Buzzard

1 Kestrel

3 Pheasant

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

20+ Stock Dove

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Skylark

1 Sand Martin

50+ Swallow

Meadow Pipit

Dunnock

Robin

6 Stonechat

2 Whinchat

2 Wheatear

Blackbird

10+ Common Whitethroat

2 Chiffchaff

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Wren

Magpie

Carrion Crow

Jackdaw

Raven

Starling

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Linnet

Goldfinch

A Swallow feeding along the track at Sweethill Farm

At Reap Lane Barns a Meadow Pipit with a caterpillar..................

................. for one of its chicks.

Also by the barns was this male Stonechat with a grub.

And just north of Culverwell a male Stonechat singing.

In the Top Fields one of the two Whinchat passing through.

A male Wheatear in the Top Fields.

With so many Common Whitethroat about, it was only a question of time before I could get a half decent photo of one.

One of those raucous Ravens over the West Cliffs

A male Linnet

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Also seen along my walk was this beetle and moth

An Emerald Soft-winged Flower Beetle Psilothrix viridicoerulea and a.............. 

.................Cocksfoot Moth Glyphipterix simpliciella sharing..........

...............this Meadow Buttercup Ranunculus arvensis flower.

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Ted taking his time. It was quite warm, so there was plenty of water on hand for him.