A very good day for birds of prey, if you include owls.
Marsh Harrier: a female flew north at 10.45am at a reasonable height, a shame that I didn’t have a chance to get to my camera.
Hobby: two birds were catching insects very high above the lake at 12.33pm, before tracking north at 12.45pm.
Peregrine Falcon: one flew west at 12.55pm.
Sparrowhawk: a male high north at 1.00pm.
Kestrel: male taking food into box in the Wetland Pen, after not being noticed for a couple of days.
Skylark: one was on the ground amongst the cricket tables at 8.30am, singing intermittently. This is not a typical date for this species.
Northern Wheatear(Greeland race): a female was briefly on the ground near the lark at 8.45am.
Swallows: two flew through.
Reed Warbler: a new male was singing from the long reed bed in area 26.
The light conditions made the birds look more like a silhouettes as they flew over. I have had to lighten the image to show some of the distinguishing features of this little falcon.
Green Woodpecker (male)
Green Woodpecker (female below)
Comments
The Green Woodpeckers are indeed very colourful, with the crimson on the head of the male quite striking.
They used to be very rare in the park, but at the moment are increasing and becoming more tolerant of members of the public.
The Eiders are part of the waterfowl collection. To see truly wild birds you would have to the coast of the UK from the North Norfolk coast up. You get some really large groups in some of the northern harbours.