12:15 - 2pm. Weather: bright, sunny & hot, windy (W).
After studying my rare birds site guide this location was close enough for me to target a missing tick & off I went on a lovely sunny day into a peaceful agricultural area.
Off A505:
Red Kite - floated over.
Skylark - first of several.
Quail - I parked up soon after turning off the A505 & almost immediately I heard the characteristic 'wet-my-lips' call. I listened & scanned the thick barley for a sighting but to no avail. The call seemed to be emanating from further down the hill so I moved down & parked next to a path that ran along the base of the hill & a field. No sooner had I got out walked along the path than it sounded as though the call was now coming from the top of the field, up the hill, a great example of the species' ventriloquism! I eventually headed off & heard a couple more calls later in the afternoon but again no sightings of this elusive species.
Corn Bunting - heard first then 3 or 4 perched on wires over another sub-road off the A505.
Woodpigeon, Rook, Jackdaw.
Bury Barn:
Swift, Swallow, House Martin.
Dunnock - heard from roadside hedgerows.
Kelshall:
Blackbird, Mallard, Goldfinch.
Stock Dove - 2.
House Sparrow - nice to see them in abundance, compared to London.
Crow - 2 on the road.
Collared Dove - 2 on the road,
Stoat - crossed the road in front of the car with a rabbit clamped in its jaws, it then struggled to get over the freshly cut roadside vegetation into the field, though it eventually succeeded & disappeared from view.
Corn Bunting - on the roadside wires.
Buzzard, Chaffinch.
Off A505:
Brown Hare.
21 species, 1 new species.
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