Sunday 1 February 2009

A biting easterly wind blew this morning, and it was hard to find the birds, as they kept hidden and out of the cold. Only 42 species were noted and species like, long tailed Tit, Pied Wagtail, and treecreeper, normally easy finds, were not seen at all. The largest numbers of birds were centered on the maize stubbles, and sheep pasture at migrant alley. A minimum of 200 FIELDFARE, 50 each of REDWING and STARLING, 2 MISTLE THRUSH, and 3 LAPWING were feeding there. At least 150 BLACK HEADED GULLS went over, some alighting on the college sports pitch, and 150 min. ROOKS were swirling above in the stiff breeze. There weren't many highlights on today's walk, a GREY WAGTAIL was in the College grounds, as was a GREY HERON, always good to get these two species early on in the month and a few small SISKIN flocks were seen, mainly in the wet woods and the lake area. Another good species for the month was a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, that flew over the tree nursery, another flew over my house later on, whilst I was doing the ''Big february Bird Count''. This is just a bit of fun organised by http://mdupraw.blogspot.com/ it's competition to see how many species of bird are seen from/in the garden during Feb. my list will appear on the left under the 'Great Bird count Of February'' pic. as I see them.

Above is the sunrise this morning and below is another fox photo.


3 comments:

Kingsdowner said...

Already racking up the species I see!
House sparrows, starlings and greenfinches are missing from here.
There seemed to be more Lesser Black-Backs around today.

John Young said...

Hi Warren, crackin couple of photos. The expression on the face of the fox is excellent.

NW Nature Nut said...

Love the fox photo. Looks like you are in the lead!