Weekend wanderings - Sally Douglas

Ivinghoe Sat 19 March 10.30-3.30 Very warm sun, cloudless blue sky, virtually no wind. Noticeably more birdsong than last visit on 12 March. Scoped sheep field from car park for possible wheatears but none seen. Glad Mike Hurst found one later, by then I was deep in Incombe Hole. However, the flock of 54 Common Gulls + 2 Black-headed were still in residence sitting in the warm sun near the sheep pens. In an adjacent crop field were four Brown Hares.

Scrub below car park and woodland beyond

Common Pheasant, Coal Tit, Jay, Chaffinch, Great and Blue Tits. From the woodland Stock Dove and Green Woodpecker heard, large numbers of noisy Jackdaws, Rooks, and Crows. Buzzard calling. Flocks of pigeons abundant. While sitting in the warm sun waiting for migrants to fly past a strange insect landed on my shoe which resembled both a fly and a bee. The nearest id I can reach is a Hover Fly. It has a grey striped thorax and yellow abdomible bands. (See pic). Scrub/Bushes between Road and Incombe Hole A pair of Nuthatch flying around was an usual sight but they ended up in the large beeches by the car park. Also in the area was Robin, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Yellow Brimstone and large Bumble Bee.

Incombe Hole

One of the reasons for my visit here was to see if the Fieldfares were still present at the far end. On the way were Blue and Great Tits, Kestrel, Magpie, Green Woodpecker, pair of Longtailed Tits, 20 Starlings over, Chaffinch, Buzzard (being mobbed by Crow which nests in nearby large tree each year) and pair of Jays. The far, southern end of Incombe Hole was eerily quiet with no sight or sound of the over-wintering flock of Fieldfare seen on every visit and I presumed they had finally departed in the warm, summer-like weather. However, as I turned right into the cattle field I heard them and the flock of 30 appeared overhead. On my last visit a week earlier there had also been 5 or 6 Redwing. Would this be my last sighting of them? Snapped a slightly bedraggled Comma butterfly sunbathing. Very little approachng the S bend but good to see and hear a Meadow Pipit singing on the slope to my right.

Sally Douglas