Wednesday 7 December 2016

Blip....

A few days of shivering yer wotsits off and the British weather does what the British weather does...with the media promoting yet another 'arctic conditions' on the way....its turned out nice again....

The Goldfinches that turned up on my feeders yesterday have now disappeared.....

In the meantime.....off to the pits for a look...

0915 - 1130 cloudy, sunny, cool to warm SW f2-4

Still a majority of the birds are on the western pit...but it seems they are now moving east with a few more on the pits to the east....its virtually standing room only on the western pit....!!

So...here we go....

113 Black-headed Gull, 1 Herring Gull, 2 Common Gull, 8 Mallard, 22 Tufted Duck, 229 Coot, 1 Pochard, 7 Teal, 2 Grey Heron, 7 Mute Swan, 20 Shoveler, 123 Gadwall, 2 Great Crested Grebe, 4 Little Grebe, 8 Cormorant, 4 Moorhen, 2 Canada Geese, 24 Wigeon, 2 Snipe, 1 Water Ral, 54 Lapwing, 1 Kingfisher.

Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Song Thrush, Kestrel, Jay, Blue Tit, Robin, Chaffinch, Feral Pigeon, 3 Buzzard, Crow, Green Woodpecker Jackdaw, Skylark, Goldcrest, Wren, Fieldfare, Stock Dove, Reed Bunting, 2 Merlin, Starling, Bullfinch, Magpie, Treecreeper Goldfinch, Meadow Pipit.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. James King7 December 2016 at 08:49

    Hi Graham,

    Nice to hear from you again. Just out of interest, where around the pits did you find the merlin and especially the water rail. Thanks again for your wonderful set of directions for our trip before,

    James

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simian7 December 2016 at 15:20

    James
    The Water Rails are always at the western end...if you look at the map...go thru the five bar gate at the west end, instead of turning left and walking round to the big western pit, turn right, almost immediately you will find a wooden bridge on your right, cross this. If you are lucky you might get a rail on this path, but they hang out on the left, there's a hidden very small shallow pit, more like a natural pond, hard to see anything, usually hear the rails. This is also a good area for reed/sedge warbler and also where the Hobby bred last two years.
    Merlins, one by the pit with the small island in, headed east..the other by the west pit which headed west. Plenty of thrushes for them to chase and on my return I found feathers, so reckon the first had made a kill.
    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  3. James King8 December 2016 at 08:41

    Hi Graham,

    As ever, thanks for the guidance. Will hopefully get down there soon !!

    Regards,

    James

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)