Tuesday 17 November 2015

The dark and dreary, overcast weather continued today, only brightening up shortly later in the morning, before rain and gales moved in for the afternoon - nice  :-(

After a bird filled day yesterday, today was in complete contrast, with little to note apart from the mixed feeding flock of SISKIN, LESSER REDPOLL, GOLDFINCH, GREENFINCH, CHAFFINCH, LINNET and YELLOWHAMMER at the Greenhouse Grounds.

A flock of 100 or so BLACK HEADED GULLS were again feeding out on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, where a few ROOKS, CARRION CROWS, JACKDAWS, WOODPIGEONS and STARLINGS were also to be found.

Just 2 MEADOW PIPITS were seen at the Ashes Lane Fields as I headed for the lakes, which were, as they have been for the most of this Autumn, devoid of anything more interesting than the MALLARDS and MOORHENS. The Adjacent Scrubby Woods were checked, fruitlessly, for a possible Woodcock, but it was good to hear both SONGTHRUSH and MISTLETHRUSH singing, a GOLDCREST also gave a short burst of its high pitched, cheerful notes. I watched a couple of BULLFINCH feeding on Ash keys, but soon after, a big female SPARROWHAWK came crashing through the canopy, it left 'empty taloned' but everything was quiet after!

So again there were no additions to the months list, which at 60 species remains the 8th best November tally out of 14 and will need another 4 species to move up to 7th! On the list of possibles are; flyovers from Mute swan, Peregrine or Lapwing, plus maybe a Mandarin Duck or Coot on the lakes, we shall see!

Ive still a few 'blog brighteners' left, here's a couple from my garden.........................


Ive got lots of NUTHATCH images, but I particularly like this one, with the soft, green background


Not quite as coulourful, but I do like to see the DUNNOCKS in my garden  :-)

3 comments:

Marc Heath said...

I do love a background as you well know. Nuthatch is a beauty and the backround works well here.

Warren Baker said...

Marc,
An image is made by a nice background I reckon :-)

Pete Woodruff said...

Dark and dreary with little of note, sounds familiar, but good for you, at least you got out....I didn't.