Local patch lockdown 2: more birds

The end of another week of coronavirus lockdown early morning exercise walks, and still seeing new birds very close to home.

The best sighting was this pair of partridges - red-listed birds. They look like they are nesting in the hedge on the edge of a pasture (that was part of an opencast coal mine 25 years ago)

This pair of magpies are always in a pasture on part of a small holding

Surprised to see this reed bunting in a roadside hedge. It was about a mile from a large pond and reed bed, created as mitigation for the coal mining, where it might be nesting.

There are small rookeries nearby, so they are always searching for small soil animals in the pastures

Carrion crow repairing an old nest in an ash tree

Greeted every morning by the song of chaffinches

Coal tits are always in the trees close to small larch and pine plantations, which were established after opencast coal mining ended here. 

Curlew in a sheep pasture. Listening to their call is a lovely way to begin the day.

Lapwing aerial courtship displays are over now. Most will have nests with eggs.

Soon after sunrise on sunny mornings the air is always full of the song of skylarks, but they also sing on the ground.

Pied wagtail on a farmyard muck heap - a profitable feeding site for a bird that hunts flies

The glorious sound of a song thrush

And the song of a wren - a lot of noise for such a small bird