Cot and kenidjack valley 26th May 2014

Hi,
I woke up at 5 in the morning and was raring to go, even though I was a bit tired!
As soon as I got out of the door the bird song was overwhelming, this made it easier to spot birds,so take note, it's better to get up early in the morning. The first few birds were common and bit boring however as soon as I got into the forested area it all changed, the first bird I saw was a female cuckoo as I was sure it had a rufous colour ( read my next post as It turns out that it wasn't and maybe even better). Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Chaffinches and linnets were everywhere fairly well distributed throughout the valley.

Now that I had got out of the wood different birds started to appear such as a common whitethroat, Blackcap and even a male cuckoo. Also the chatter of stonechats that were perched right on top of the brambles. Some fledglings had made there way out as well and were searching for the parents for even more food. I found that the juvenile robin was one of the prettiest with it's striking scaly sought of pattern.

Now I had moved on and was trekking down towards the kenidjack sewerage works. There were quite a few birds, however due to the tree practically growing on top of each other it proved rather difficult to keep track of them. I slowly got to the road then started searching in the wood next to the engine house because in the past special birds have been spotted. Recently a red-breasted flycatcher.
I wasn't expecting to find one but did find a smart looking spotted flycatcher wizzing through the trees. It was a lovely bird even though I was only able to see it for half a minute!

After seeing that I remembered that spotted flycatchers only come in spring and another great bird that comes in Spring is a hobby. So I started looking up at the heavens and noticed a bird if prey zooming across like a Swift or swallow, this meant only one thing it was a hobby, I later found a hat-trick of them, what a great feeling. yet another cuckoo turned up  and sat nicely in full view for me.
After that though nothing else caught my eye so grounded to holt in a way. This wasn't surprising as we all know early morning is the best...

Regards, Alex