At around 11:00 am, I decided I would wrap up warm, and walk over to the lake, its only 20 mins away, I got there ok, but soon felt bad again, and the walk back seemed to take forever. :-(
I didn't see much, just the MALLARDS and MOORHENS dabbling around, and a large feeding party of Tits high up in an Oak, but i didn't feel like looking through them all.
After my failed foray out into the world of the well, I carried on with my garden watching, earlier in the morning I had had a pleasant surprise, when I found a new species for my garden list - a MOORHEN strutting around my mini -pond, the pond is only 1 meter sq. so it was pleasing to think that a Moorhen had chosen to visit my little wildlife habitat, over the large stripey lawned gardens that lie between the wet woods (where it had probably wandered from) and my house.
This species is the 32nd to come into my garden this year and the 52nd since I moved here 10 years ago.
It was a good day for garden birds, mainly because there wasn't any sparrowhawk attacks, 21 species came to use the feeders and garden, the best being a couple of female SISKIN, as well as three COAL TITS and the two NUTHATCH'S again. JACKDAWS, MAGPIES and STARLINGS busied themselves with the peanuts that I had emptied out of the feeders, I always empty out any that are left after a month.
As well as the 21 garden visitors, another 9 species were seen flying over, or out in the surrounding vacinity, best of which was a KESTREL, but a GREEN WOODPECKER, JAY and two MISTLE THRUSHES were all nice to see.
Above and below is the Moorhen in the garden.
14 comments:
'Tis clear what happened.
You walked to the lake, had a blackout, abducted a moorhen, walked home and put it on your pond.
Result? Species #52.
heh,heh,he.
Nice one steve......now to get a Grey heron up my coat!!
have hot milk with a pinch of turmeric powder before sleeping
Hi Warren.
I hope you soon feel a lot better and get back out there onto your patch.
Hi Again Warren
You have to go one better with your garden list. What a species to get on it. God knows what your list would be like if you had a huge pond. LOL. well done
Hi Warren - do any of your many readers know of blogs from Florida - I'm off to Homosassa Springs next year and could do with some research. Monika's blog pal Vicky has given me some great websites but could do with a fellow blogger as well to get the low-down on what to look for and when.
Thanks all
Cheers
D
Morrhen in the garden - with photos I AM SO JEALOUS
Hi Warren,
Gosh man, you should stay home and focus on garden birding!! Flues are getting bad and you should really take care....
I can see that I got the same idea as Steve :-)
I hope you will get better soon to enjoy your passion in a better way.. Take care Warren!
...how cool to have a moorhen in your backyard. Congrats on your new garden bird. I had to laugh when I read Kingsdowner's comment (between you shooing off Sprawks and sneaking around with moorhens you must keep your neighbors amused!). Now you're only one away from my backyard count! Take it easy. I'm still getting over fatigue from The Swine.
Top garden bird that one. Well in a proper garden anyway, I dont mean these people with stately home sized gardens. I would love to see one in my garden, get some food out for it...mealworms?
Yeh, it`s always good to get an out of habitat species. Nice one, Warren.
Warren,
I'd go for hot whisky and honey, always makes me sleep! I was also confined to window watching (different reason) but I think you got more species, no Siskins in the garden so far this "autumn".
Tony
Keep sinking the 'hot toddies' and there may be some more garden firsts. Seriously, hope you get back to normal soon. FAB
Seems like the flu is everywhere right now....take care and enjoy the garden birding in the meantime! How cool about the moorhen - great photos too.
I'm laughing at Kingsdowner's post...nice that you saw an interesting bird in your yard. Hope you're feeling much better each day.
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