It was overall a fairly quiet month on the patch. I don’t know if it is the mild weather but there doesn’t seem to have been a noticeable increase in birds at the feeders in the garden. I have heard that its been a good year for natural food all round and so perhaps the birds do not have to move to feeding stations yet as there is plenty still available. Most of our trees still have their leaves, although this seems to vary from area to area.
23 bird species were seen on the patch this month.The year’s total rose to 50 as the highlight of the month was the visit of a party of Barn Swallows on the 3rd staying around the garden for a matter of 5 minutes or so before moving on their way south for the winter. On checking my records this was my first patch record of this species for over ten years. There was also a brief late sighting of a Comma butterfly (a first for the patch this year) in the Garden during one sunny afternoon which brought the butterfly year total to 9 species. No Dragonflies were seen on the patch during the month so the years total remains at 4 species.
Common Pigeon [sp] (Columba livia)
Rose-ringed Parakeet [sp] (Psittacula krameri)
Common Starling [sp] (Sturnus vulgaris)
Common Blackbird [sp] (Turdus merula)
European Robin [sp] (Erithacus rubecula)
Common Wood Pigeon [sp] (Columba palumbus)
Eurasian Magpie [sp] (Pica pica)
Western Jackdaw [sp] (Coloeus monedula)
Carrion Crow [sp] (Corvus corone)
Barn Swallow [sp] (Hirundo rustica) 03/10/2013
Eurasian Sparrowhawk [sp] (Accipiter nisus)
Greylag Goose [sp] (Anser anser)
Canada Goose [sp] (Branta canadensis)
Mallard [sp] (Anas platyrhynchos)
Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)
Grey Heron [sp] (Ardea cinerea)
Common Moorhen [sp] (Gallinula chloropus)
Eurasian Coot [sp] (Fulica atra)
Great Tit [sp] (Parus major)
Eurasian Blue Tit [sp] (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Grey Wagtail [sp] (Motacilla cinerea)
Lesser Black-backed Gull [sp] (Larus fuscus)
European Green Woodpecker [sp] (Picus viridis)
Comma Butterfly (Polygonia c-album)
Pete's Favourite Things 