Cambridgeshire Bird Clubs second lockdown bird race prompted a day in the garden and it was pretty special. I woke just before the 5am start time and hung my head out of the window into the dawn chorus, once the Blackbirds and Song Thrushes had finished their overture the sounds from The Old Hall lake could be made out Coot, Reed Warbler and Cetti's Warbler making welcome additions to the opera, Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap and Garden Warbler adding rhythmn, melody and syncopation to the metronomic Chiffchaff and bass thrum of Woodpigeon, Oystercatcher breaking the mood with strident vocal yells. Coffee in the cool dew added finches of Green and Gold, Chaff and Bull. Greylag and Canada Goose honked over and randy Mallard still harassing females in chase, second brood syndrome taking over.
I hammered it on the bike across the fen to Oxlode and back.
After a hot soak to relieve the muscles I set up for the day in the garden.
Gadwall were full of testosterone and 2 drakes croaking around after a female careered over. Slowly the birds of the parish made their rounds and Jay, Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker made vocal appearances, a Heron and couple of Cormorants over, House Martins on territory and Sand Martin, Swallow and Swift moving through. Mid morning the local Buzzards started wheeling upwards and bickering on the periphery of their airspace with adjacent pairs. The sun was warm and a Marsh Harrier, the first of 4 for the day, appeared low and circled upwards.
It was shortly after this that something special started. To the East a dark and ominous bank of cloud had gathered and hung, the air had cooled and it felt like rain but to the West the banks of cotton wool cumulus and sunshine remained. From 10.50 to 11.30 there was an impressive movement of Buzzards with birds appearing as high dots in the South West sector of the sky and cruising Westwards in gliding flight, losing height westwards. In that 40 minute period 28 birds did this and numbers slowed as the clouds shifted. What these birds were doing is open to conjecture, I had a few thoughts - Buzzards are very common across the area, if a lot of local birds thermalled across the area and drifted west with the wind, hit the cloud bank and funneled along it's edge there could have been a flow of birds returning to territories into the wind. Alternatively wandering non breeders doing the same might be feasible or a mixture of both, or an arrival from the continent. In the end it'll all be guesswork but in addition to the 10 or so local birds I counted a staggering 58 Buzzards moving high West to East during the day. After the peak flow a Red Kite appeared over the village, only my 6th here and all but one since lockdown indicating that coverage rather than presence being the limiting factor, a further 3 birds seen during the day.
Our resident Kestrels were enjoying the breeze hanging effortlessly across The Gossamer, the common land adjacent to our garden. A Hobby, my first of the year scythed across the village and Peregrine also put in an appearance. A 7 raptor day - amazing. Odds and sods presented themselves across the skies, a Common Gull and vocal Whimbrel being the well earned highlights.
As the moon rose in a clear sky framed by bursting Elm leaves counting finished at 5pm. A little sunburnt, with eyepiece rings excentuating the already saggy birding bags under my eyes, I counted up and came to 63 species recorded from the garden today - I was pretty blown away with that.
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