National Trust - Croome Court

 We booked a slot for Croome Court for Monday just gone, just fancied paying a visit there as we hadn't been for a while. Even with the one way restrictions around the grounds it was still a good walk, especially in the heat we are having at the moment.

Birding wise it was very very quiet, the highlight being a Peregrine over the tea room picnic area at the end of the day. It made an attempt at taking a Swallow but that didn't come to anything, so it decided to climb and disappear into the haze. The lake just produced Mute Swan, Mallard and Moorhen, but was abundant with Damselflies and Dragonflies, I've even done some looking up and hopefully identified them correctly! Apologies if I haven't.

Vagrant Darter

Southern Migrant Hawker

and Blue-tailed Damselfly

So just a few more images from the day.................

Worcestershire Nightingale (Croome Park)

A day out yesterday saw us at the National Trust Croome Park with then intention of going for a longish walk, it was a lovely day and much warmer than we though it would be.
As you would expect at this time of the year the Swallows and House Martins were very busy. These were our first House Martins of the year and it was great to see them swooping around and going up into their nests on Croome Court.

I didn't mange to get a pic of the House Martins, but a Swallow did oblige,

As we walked along the 'River' (I've put this in inverted commas, as it's not a real river)

we saw our first Goslings of the Spring, both Greylag and Canadas,

We did see some Reed Buntings as we progressed on our walk, along with Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Coot, Jackdaw, Crow, Buzzard and Kestrel.

We stopped for as usual a late lunch at the end of the river, where not much else was seen but plenty heard, apart from a flyover by a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

We continued our walk through a wooded path, when in a clearer area we heard Nightingales, there were at least two and were really close, but we just couldn't see them, we spent a while there listening, it was awesome. It would have been nice to see them but in this case hearing is just as good.
This was our first encounter with Nightingales in the UK, the only other place being Lesvos (So far!)

Croome Park NT

Last Sunday we had a an afternoon out at Croome. It's a great walk with the backdrop of the Malvern Hills and even better it was a lovely sunny but cold day. There were plenty of birds about in the trees and on the lakes and river.

Our first encounter were Pied Wagtails in the car park, followed by a perched but distant Kestrel at our first coffee stop. We walked around the lake where of course the usual suspects were on the water; Mallard, Coot, Moorhen and Mute Swan, I was surprised though to see some Gadwall and Tufted Duck:

The surrounding trees revealed some Thrushes and Long Tailed Tit:

The Mute Swan had a couple of young, can't really call them Cygnets any more:

We left the formal parkland and headed across farmland towards the river, after a while we spotted a Kestel in its characteristic hover and then saw it plunge down and disappear behind a hedgerow. A few moment later it popped back up and headed for a dead tree where it settled. We approached carefully, never going directly towards it and of course not getting too close. We then saw it was having afternoon tea!

That was a real treat, I don't know who enjoyed it the most the Kestrel or us. We left the Kestrel to his lunch and walked on to the river, to find this Grey Heron in a tree:

So onto our next coffee stop a nice bench by a pool at the end of the river, before crossing and heading back. There we were treated to our first Grey Wagtail of the year, sadly no photo as it was chased off by two very aggressive Robins. We did see a mixed flock of Redwing and Fieldfare streaming by a few of which stopped for a breather in a tree the other side of the pond:

Not much to report on the way back, some more Heron, Redwing, Fieldfare and Corvids, but we did get a Buzzard in the fading light, again our first of the year!

The sun did make a final appearance as we were near the end of the walk:

Another great day out!

Croome Park NT

Well Saturday was scheduled for a nice walk whilst the weather was decent. We elected to head for Croome Park as it has a large estate with river and small lakes, so who knows what you might see along the way!  We arrived about 1ish, we knew that there was a lot going on there this weekend as part of the grounds encompasses the old RAF Defford site, that was used for the testing of that new fangled Radio Detection and Ranging system developed prior to our altercation with our European neighbours, I believe the youth of today call it Radar! Anyway lots of vintage vehicles, people dressed up in uniforms etc. There were a couple of flypasts scheduled for the morning we knew we'd miss them as we wanted a lie in!

So we set off for a nice walk, plenty of House Martins (watched them on our first coffee stop) about fattening themselves up over the fields, Mute Swans and Mallards were about on the ponds, but not much else:

We left the formal grounds and immeadiatley had a Kestrel fly past our noses landing some way away on an electricity pole:

We continued our walk through the fields and along the river, lots of crows and woodpigeons were in evidence. The after a while we came to another pool with a pond at the end and a bench. So coffee stop number two. We were rewarded here with 2 Peregrines circling over us quite high, plus it had clouded over, so apologies for the poor shots:

The whilst drinking thye well earned coffee a Kingfisher flashed past, sadly Tina didn't really see it.

So onwards and heading back along the river towards the house adding a Pied Wagtail.

Then came the star of the show: