Birding 24th May 2009

Birding 24th May 2009

Location: Kromslootpark, Almere

Time: 08.00-09.00h

And the Lord said let there be a host of Startlings decend on the park, and let them eat all that goeth before them, and let there be such a din that all other pleasant birdsong be drowneth out, and let them infest every tree and bush, and cover the plains and paths as locust, young and old alike, and it was so.

What a difference a week can make. A deluge of common or garden startlings, yet they were all in the park on this morning. Have they no homes to go to, like that working class housing estate they were born in?

Aided by my assistant (Vivienne) we noted the plague that decended upon the normally hetrogenously populated mixed vegetation that is the KSP, and if a stranger should have dared to take his constitution for the first time that morning, I am sure he would have left with a most skewed opinion of the fair place.

Nevertheless unperturbed (well we were) we strove on hearing
1. Bearded tits X 4 - sighting of the day I would say, looked like a family, all staying very close together.
2. Blackbirds X 8
3, Blackcap X 7
4. Blue tit X 1
5. Buzzard X 1
6. Carrion Crow X 4
7. Chaffinch X 2
8. Chiff Chaff X 6
9. Common whitethroat X 6
10. Cuckoo X 4
11. Cormorant X 4
12 Coot X 10
13. Garden warbler X 4
14. Goldfinch X 2 (pair)
15. Greenfinch X 1 (particularly quiet)
16. Mallard ( the tame sort who did not bother to interupt their sunning) X 2
17. Mute swan X 3 (flying)
18. Reed bunting X 2
19. Reed warblers X 18
20. Song thrush X 1
21. Tree creepers X 3
22. Willow warblers X 4
23. Wigeon X 1 (drake)
24. Woodpigeon X 3
25. Wren X 6

No woodpecker, Hobby, purple heron, grey or common heron, great egrets, great tits, long tailed tits, lapwing, tufted duck, gadwell, great crested grebe, meadow pipits, hedge sparrow (Dunnock) black and white wagtails, moorhen, magpie, jay, bluethroat, harrier, goshawk, sparrowhawk, nuthatch, .... of course I may have missed them but still ........ What I simply cannot understand is the absence of the swifts, house martins, and barn swallows, which were in abundance last week. This birding remains a mystery indeed.


Neil J Bourke 25th May 2009