Out to Stansted for a fry-up - all nice and hot and, being early, mostly freshly cooked. And mostly old and quiet clientele!!
A birdtrack list for the morning was a meagre 31 species with many heard-only - Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest, Firecrest and Tree Creeper. Six or more Buzzards, three Red Kites and a pair of Kestrels were enjoying the fine soaring conditions. Curiously, not a peep out of any Song Thrushes.
Once it warmed up Brimstones and a single Peacock were on the wing and above, one of a few Andrena flavipes and plenty of similarly sized Nursery Web Spiders.
On the way back a side-trip to Warblington produced twenty or so Cattle Egrets amongst the cows. Passing through the gate and heading down to the exit gate on the south-west corner there was a lot of gull cacophony - I assumed the usual Buzzard would be the cause but, lo and behold, an eagle. I wonder if this was a recent release or one of last year's home-grown youngsters??
Plenty of Lesser Celandines around the gravestones.
