Anyway, I carried on regardless over to the wet woods, and after a short search, to find where the birds were feeding, I was rewarded with a small feeding party of 4 GOLDREST, 2 TREECREEPER, a MARSH TIT and a COAL TIT, a little higher up, in the alders, around 15 SISKIN were seen. After taking a few pics. I moved on to see how the lake was defrosting, very slowly was the answer! There were some open areas under the overhanging trees, and the ice was thinning, but it wasn't anygood for ducks and geese, although 6 MALLARD were seen. A MEADOW PIPIT flew over, calling as it went, and in the top of a nearby ash tree 5 BULLFINCH'S were feeding on the keys.
I went back towards the wet woods, to get into the tree nursery, and along the footpath I came across another 2 GOLDCRESTS that posed well for photo's. Once in the tree nursery, nothing of interest was added, mainly due to the work crew resuming the digging up of young tree's now the frost is out of the ground. It was here that the rain started to come down, and as I sheltered, pointlessley under a large oak, I saw a flock of 75 LAPWING flying low to the south of my patch.
Over at Migrant Alley, a flock of mixed winter thrushes were feeding on the now softened ground in the sheep pasture, I counted 74 in all, split roughly 50/50 REDWING and FIELDFARE, also with them were 2 MISTLE THRUSHES. Another 3 LAPWING were out on the Maize stubbles, (some of the field has been spread with manure now, that could bring in something interesting.) and a flock of 15 LINNETS were seen out there as well, it's been a few months since they have fed on the stubbles. A few YELLOWHAMMERS were seen, as well as two more Meadow Pipits, but no new species were added to the year list.
Below are some pics of the birds I saw in the wet woods, before the rain came down!
The first 3 are of the Goldcrests on the footpath from the lake to the woods
Below is the Marsh Tit
Next is a couple of pics of one of the 5 Bullfinch in the ash tree, this male is eating one of the keys
Below are a couple of Trecreeper shots
7 comments:
Another decent day, Warren. Envious of your Treecreeper. This species has yet to appear on my patch.
Hi Warren, your teasing me with the Bullfinch pics now! When the Waxwings finally take flight to Pittswood I might have to get back over Ditton Quarry to try and get some decent shots!
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Cracking Goldcrest shots Warren something I would love to photograph if they would stay still long enough.
Some great pictures warren...you do well to get close enough to the bullfinch to photograph them
HI Warren,
Another of your great birding day. And you got some nice pictures of really hard bird to get, the tree creeper and the goldcrest are moving so much that it is very often hard to get a decent picture!!!! The bullfinch is very nice
Warren: Neat bird capture today, thanks for sharing.
I really do like those Goldcrests. They certainly do seem closely related to our Golden Crowned Kinglets.
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