Redstart Country

For the past few days I have been working in Cumbria and the majority of that time has been towards the north of the county. I've been lucky with the weather as it has been glorious most of the time, although most mornings have started off with a ground frost.

 Some of the views I have enjoyed this week (above & below)

Living on the Fylde plain of Lancashire Redstarts are a species that I only connect with during migration periods, so it has been nice to see several singing males on my travels. I haven't seen anything particularly outstanding during my surveys but lumping all the sites together some of the highlights have been 13 Willow Warblers, six Siskins, two Tree Sparrows, 21 House Sparrows, four Blackcaps, two Song Thrushes, two Chiffchaffs, three Stock Doves, twelve Lesser Redpolls, nine Redstarts (all males), two Green Woodpeckers, a Yellowhammer, 22 Linnets, four Buzzards, a Grey Partridge, 78 Sand Martins, a Sparrowhawk, a Wheatear, five Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a Goldcrest.

Pied Wagtail

I'm back on the patch again tomorrow but I'm going to treat myself to a 5:30 a.m. lie in so I can have a couple of beers!