Monday 4 May 2015

Wheatears & Swifts around the North Denes

In the garden today at around 2pm a Holly Blue flew along the right hand hedgerow of the garden and a fine male Orange Tip butterfly flew diagonally across the garden south west to north east at 2.25pm but sadly it didn't settle. A look around the net posts in the early evening revealed very little save for a flying calling Pied wagtail and I heard familiar screaming ahead and I looked up and 3 Swifts, my first of the year, were flying over the Nest/ Arnold's Walk area. Nothing on the Oval, save for 60 odd Wood Pigeon and Magpies. The dismantled wall in the north east section and a section of wall now fallen down on the south east section would inevitably flush the birds if anybody walked by. Along the diagonal path dissecting the middle of the North Denes, 4 Wheatear were seen including 3 males and a female. I often find Wheatears can be quite confiding especially if the=y perch on a wall & by judicious stalking (crawling on one's knees and using tall weeds as cover), I managed to get close to one of the males on the path and even closer to 2 perched on the stone water tap wall and got within 20 feet of one there to take a few pictures before I left him there in the fading light.

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