1 May 2021

 Lots of birds around the course today.  I had a long walk around the Blue and Red.  

There are still Crossbills around the Blue in particular.  I quite often see them in the mornings preening on the large willow tree to the left of the 5th.  Today there were 15 or so perched in the sunlight and dropping down to the stream to drink.

Crossbills [5th Blue]

The last two days are the first time that I've seen Whitethroats this year and there are suddenly lots of them.  I've seen or heard them on the 3rd Blue, 7th Blue, 15th Red and this one of a pair to the left of the 4th Red.

Whitethroat [4th Red]

They are scrub warblers that favour small bushes.  They can be difficult to separate from Lesser Whitethroats, but the brown wings are characteristic.   Lesser Whitethroats  have uniform slate grey upper-parts as you can see from the photo that I took by the 2nd Blue last weekend.  Whitethroats are also a bit larger with a proportionally larger head and light coloured legs.  Whitethroats tend to sing from a perch out in the open whereas Lesser Whitethroats are shyer.

Lesser Whitethroat [2nd Blue]

Bluebells are in full bloom around the course at the moment.  If you look closely there are actually two species, the native Bluebell and the introduced Spanish Bluebell.  Spanish Bluebells have shorter broader flowers that are slightly lighter and appear two-tone.  Native Bluebells have narrow flowers and the tips of the petals curve right back.  The two grow side by side at the back of the 18th green on the Green. They also hybridise readily and come in whites and pinks as well as blue.

Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta [18th Green]

Spanish Bluebell Hyacinthoides hispanica [6th Red]

There were a lot of other birds around.  I had good views of a Peregrine on the 5th Blue and Kingfisher on 3rd Blue, but was not quick enough to get a photo.  I had some more success with the following:

Jay [1st Green]

Stock Doves [16th Blue]

Pheasant [6th Blue]

Lots more butterflies about.  This Orange tip landed on the fairway on the 13th Blue - only the males have orange tips to their wings.

Orange Tip [13th Blue]