Counting common

It was a quiet week around Thorncombe Street and most of the weekend was spent doing non-birding stuff. The highlight was the continued presence of the Woodlark pair at Brookwell, with the birds seemingly settled, often preening and resting on wires and only occasionally singing. Hopefully they stick. The weather during the last few days has largely been wet and windy so I spent a bit of quality time with some of the more drab and neglected species found on patch.

Dunnock, Winkworth Arboretum, 2/3/2019.

House Sparrow is somewhat localised here, concentrated around the various colonies and never found away from them. Perhaps the most thriving is at Tilsey Farm (a farm that gives the feel little has changed in decades) and I counted a minimum of 45 birds on Saturday. Doubtless many more were around the buildings I can’t get to – I’ll try and do a more thorough count soon. Also on Saturday, some 20 Wrens were singing at Winkworth (a count that impressed me) and a good number of Dunnocks were in voice too.

House Sparrow, Tilsey Farm, 2/3/2019.

Woodlark, Brookwell, 2/3/2019.

On Thursday I had a bit of time to work the north section of the patch, an area that gets very poor coverage. Here I enjoyed watching the Daneshill rookery for a while; 26 nests in total, with 10 seemingly occupied. On the subject of corvids, during the warm weather last week I observed the Loseley Park Jackdaw roost a couple of times after a tip off from Sam. I tallied c.7,000 on 26^th – quite a spectacle, though I suspect a bigger haul could be managed with more eyes and at a better time of year. My final crow action of the week was connecting with the Church Norton Hooded Crow on Thursday, while down in Sussex visiting my parents.

Whimbrel, Church Norton, 28/2/2019.

The first pre-work session of the year yesterday was brief but a lovely taster of the longer days. It turned out to be fairly decent with a Brambling over Allden’s Hill and two Pochard and a Kingfisher at Mill Pond. March normally has a good bird up its sleeve and I’d be grateful for one – bar the flyover Waxwings there’s been nothing out the ordinary here for a few months.