19th On a trip to a friends I see my first flock of swallows of the year and a fox trotting along by the river on the way home.
20th 5 fledgling starlings in the garden. The male robin is feeding the female, part of a mating ritual. A chaffinch feeds on the ground, a rare visitor to the garden so this is a special treat.
26th The swallows were right the summer seems to have arrived the last few days have been beautiful.
The hedgehog has been coming to visit around 6pm going into the undergrowth and reappearing about 9pm.
28th A visit up to Bedford and a beautiful silvery, white and black pheasants tail disappears into a hedgerow. We stop the car and the female shows up. It is new to me a Lady Amherst's Pheasant
Lady Amherst's Pheasant ( chrysolophus amherstiae)
Native to South Western China and Myanmar but have been introduced elsewhere. They have established a self-supporting but now declining feral population in Bedford England. The male is 100-12 cm in length, his tail 80cm in length is unmistakable with its black and silver pattern that matches the cape around his head. It has red, blue,white and yellow body plumage. The cape can be raised in display. They feed on grain, le3aves and invertebrate's. At night they roost in trees.
Later the same day we see a Green Woodpecker feeding on the ground by the side of the road. Another first its been quite a day.
Laugh, woodpecker, down in the wood.
A. C. Brown
Green Woodpecker ( picus viridis) Mainly found in open deciduous woodland, parkland, orchards, farmlands, healths and conifer woods. Often feeds on grassy pasture where it finds ants nests. Feeds on insects with its sticky tongue. Also eats eggs, larvae, beetles, flies and caterpillars. Its used to be called "Yaffle" due to its laugh. Also known as "Rainbird" due to his song being heard in April the rain month.
