Friday 21 January 2011

Jan. 21st - A little brighter

Back down to the lake this morning which remains almost free of waterbirds apart from 2 Moorhens, in actual fact everything was a bit thin on the ground today, the usual departing thrushes were fairly non-existent, I did hear several Redpolls going over and a handful of Siskins. I waited by the lake for about 20 minutes before moving on to look over the fields. It was nice to hear a Great Spot. drumming and then 2 were seen in the car park, at least 2 Green Woodpeckers were also making themselves heard, with one making a quick sortie around the vegetable garden. There were about 20 House Sparrows whizzing around this morning the most for a while, again mainly around the hedges near the veg garden, I ended with 27 species in around 50 minutes which was surprising as it felt as though it was fairly quiet!! Stephen was also out and about this morning and was fairing slightly better with 2 flyover Brambling, a Little Egret, 6 Mandarin and the discovery of a large flock of Linnets on the edge of the estate, maybe as many as 150 birds, I'll look forward to checking through them at the weekend!!

Starlings starting to gather... they really are Starlings!!

4 comments:

Warren Baker said...

How do you fare for Coots Alan, are they a real treat for you there as they are for me hear :-)

I get one or two visits a year.

Alan Pavey said...

Hi Warren,

Last year a pair bred for the first time, normally one or two arrive in Feb then then hang around for a month or two then disappear. The best count was 4 birds and the two pairs started nest building but failed to breed.

Cheers

Al

Warren Baker said...

Looks like a possible breeder for the future then Alan.

Alan Pavey said...

Could be,(in the words of Hong Kong Fuey!)I think the amount of disturbance from dogs jumping in the lake and all the general visitors, make breeding tricky, I don't think the six chicks last year survived for very long, the only time Canada Goose bred was the foot and mouth year but I will keep my fingers crossed.