Sunday 9 December 2012

Bletchingley - 9 December 2012

It's some time since our last trip to see our friends Ralph and Pat whose home is built on the site of Anne of Cleaves palace. The house is surrounded by trees that are linked, via hedgerows to areas of long established woodland. When we last visited on March 25th 2012, we were hoping to find out whether the bird that had been photographed at the feeders, was a Willow Tit, as the photo seemed to show, or a Marsh Tit. We did more than 100 birds that day but no Willow or Marsh Tits.
As we arrived, there were 20+ Collared Doves and several Ring-necked Parakeets, Jays and Magpie. We could hear Redpoll and Goldfinch too, but of course, by the time the three nets were erected, many larger birds had left, and the small finches were visiting the feeders by working their way down, then up the tree on which the feeders were hung.
We got a lot of these........


and even more of these..........


in our total of 85 new birds. There were also 4 birds from the previous session.

Totals: - 85 (4)

Great Spotted Woodpecker - 2
Robin - 1
Dunnock - 2
Blue Tit - 50 (2)
Great Tit - 27 (2)
Nuthatch - 2
Greenfinch - 1