Pretty quiet out today with very little activity going on.
2 Blackcap out at Lollingdon (per AD & PC), and a scattering of Winter Thrush but no sizable flocks.
Some early signs of spring with some Hares chasing around and the Rooks showing more interest at the Rookery in Church road. Tony Rayner recorded his first Slow-Worm of the year on 1st Feb and a Daffodil in flower along with Snowdrops.
Incidentally the Church road Rookery had some of the earliest breeders (if not the first) in the country last year.
“The fledged rook from 15th March 2019 might be the earliest ever recorded in Britain. Back calculating a minimum 49 days for laying, incubating & nestling periods, the lay date would have been around 25th Feb. The earliest lay date in the BTO database, downloadable from BTO Bird Trends pages, is 18th March. Rooks are hard to monitor, so the BTO data might not completely rigorous, but those are the dates, and a 3 week difference is pretty massive, so whatever the exact dates, the Cholsey Rooks are exceptionally early this year, and likely some of the earliest ever in Britain.” Per RB.
Alan managed to track down the Whooper Swans that are wintering in the Benson/Dorchester area over the week end and a few of his pics are featured below.
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