Hare-ing around!

Andy M watched three Hare, chasing each other around the lovely flower meadow on Granta Park early one morning recently.

Young Goldfinch being feed

A family of Goldfinch have recently fledged in Andy M's garden, and the young have been hanging around the adults, and begging - hoping for a meal!

Young, recently fledged birds around the village

A number of fledged young birds have been seen around the village over the last week or two, and Andy M has taken a few pictures of some of them.

Young House Sparrow -

very like the adult female, but keeps the yellow gape

 Young Starling - 

drab brown colour with some streaks, and a yellow gape

Young Goldfinch 

Young Goldfinch - 

Black, white and yellow pattern on wings similar to adults, but

lacking the adult's red, black and white colour on the face and head.

Young Dunnock
Very like the adult, but with less grey on the head

 Young Blue Tit - peeping out. This family fledged the next day.

Similar pattern to adult, but colours more yellowy and muted, as if 'washed-out'

Young Great Tit - 

Similar pattern to adult, including white cheek patch and black breast strip,

but colours more yellowy and muted.

 Young Rook - 

Very similar to adult, but lacking the white bill - making it seem similar to a Carrion Crow.  

Young Rooks still have the characteristic 'dagger-shaped' bill though.

 Young Blackbird

 Young Blackbird - 

Similar to female, but often with a shorter tail.  More speckled, particularly on the breast.

 Young Blackbird - sunbathing!

  Young Canada Goose goslings with adult - 

Goslings remain 'fluffy' for some time 

before turning pale grey-brown like the adult, but with a brown neck for the first year.

Various Geese on Granta Park

There have been three species of geese on Granta Park recently, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, and Barnacle Goose, and Andy M took a few photos to show the differences.

 Greylag Goose 

Large (length ~80cm), mostly grey-brown,   

brown neck with obvious striations, large orange bill, pink/orange legs.

The only 'grey goose' seen in large numbers in UK in summer.

Greylag Goose

 Canada Goose 

Largest UK goose (length ~90cm), body mostly grey-brown,

long black neck, black head with white 'chin-strap', black bill, dark legs.

Introduced from N America, now breeds widely in UK.

Barnacle Goose

Medium-sized (length ~65cm), body mostly grey with darker bars on back,

shorter black neck, head mostly white with black cap, small black bill, dark legs.

Mostly a winter visitor to UK (breeds in Arctic), but a few birds remain and breed in the UK.

Abington Bird Survey May 2020 - Summary

Friday 22^nd to Monday 25^th May 2020

There were 17 reports and a total of 63 species

Species	Maximum Count	Number of Reports
Barnacle Goose	2	1
Blackbird	7	17
Black-headed Gull	1	1
Blackcap	3	8
Blue Tit	10	15
Bullfinch	2	2
Buzzard	3	7
Canada Goose	10	3
Carrion Crow	6	8
Chaffinch	2	5
Chiffchaff	2	6
Coal Tit	10	3
Collared Dove	4	12
Corn Bunting	2	2
Cuckoo	1	5
Dunnock	8	10
Feral Pigeon	1	1
Goldcrest	2	3
Goldfinch	10	11
Great Spotted Woodpecker	2	6
Great Tit	6	10
Green Woodpecker	2	5
Greenfinch	3	10
Grey Heron	1	2
Greylag Goose	8	2
Herring Gull	3	1
House Martin	8	6
House Sparrow	14	12
Jackdaw	16	15
Jay	1	4
Kestrel	1	3
Lesser Whitethroat	2	2
Linnet	10	2
Little Owl	2	1
Long-tailed Tit	4	3
Magpie	2	11
Mallard	14	3
Mistle Thrush	10	1
Moorhen	2	3
Nuthatch	1	1
Pheasant	2	3
Pied Wagtail	3	5
Red Kite	1	2
Red-legged Partridge	3	2
Reed Bunting	2	2
Reed Warbler	1 (h)	1
Robin	4	14
Rook	12	14
Skylark	8	5
Song Thrush	4	11
Sparrowhawk	1	3
Starling	12	6
Stock Dove	4	3
Stonechat	1 (h)	1 (p)
Swallow	6	7
Swift	14	6
Tawny Owl	1 (h)	2
Tufted Duck	1	1
Whitethroat	4	2
Willow Warbler	1	1
Woodpigeon	c50	17
Wren	4	7
Yellowhammer	5	2

T (h) = heard  (p) = possible

It is pleasing to see an increase in the number of reports this year up from 11 last year for example.

Also pleasing is the number of species found within our boundaries – again up from recent years which have hovered around 50.

It is probably not surprising that the species most frequently noted were Blackbird and Woodpigeon closely followed by Blue Tit, Jackdaw, Robin and Rook.

I am grateful to everyone who was able to take part. Many have said they enjoyed it. Perhaps this is one positive thing to come out of the coronavirus restrictions.

DLT

28.5.2020