I haven’t forgotten the birds, it’s just that over the summer I’ve been concentrating on the bugs and flowers, as they will come and go. The birds, apart from the swifts and housemartins will probably stay over the winter and, in fact, should be easier to spot and photograph when the trees lose their leaves.
However, I’ve made a list of the birds I’ve seen in watermeadow and flying down the corridor of the valley in the last four years. It goes like this:
Seen in the watermeadow, trees or on surrounding fence or power line: blackbird, bullfinch, greenfinch, chiffchaff, coal tit, great tit, long-tailed tit, blue tit, sparrow, wren, robin, thrush, carrion crow, pheasant, moorhen, mallard, kingfisher, jacksnipe, green woodpecker, greater spotted woodpecker, sparrowhawk, kestrel, barn owl, goldfinch.
Seen flying over the watermeadow: magpie, jackdaw, rook, jay, pigeon, heron, egret, buzzard, swift, housemartin.