Wednesday 2 December 2009

The weather closed in this afternoon, heavy rain showers and gloomy, dark conditions prevented me going out for a patch visit, how long can this regime of dire, almost uninterrupted run of South Westerly depressions last ?

The only bit of of patch birding done was on the walk home from work, 25 mins of semi lightness enabled me to add KESTREL, which was hunting over the Greenhouses area, and GOLDCREST, one was optimistically singing in the College grounds, to the monthly list.

A 90 minute garden birdwatch, was some consolation for not getting out, 17 species came into the garden in that time, and COAL TIT was the only species seen that has not yet been recorded for December. An increase in BLACKBIRD numbers was very evident, there were 7 in the garden, foraging around the leaf litter and shrubs, there has been just one for the past 6 weeks. Other notable garden species, were a couple of female GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, a NUTHATCH and a WREN. GOLDFINCH numbers continue to increase, with a maximum of 13 at the sunflower hearts.

The weather looks just as unsettled for the rest of the week, but i'll have to just wait and see if I can get out. Only 19 days more and the days start to lengthen again, i'll leave you with that optimistic outlook!!

5 comments:

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

spooky - I almost mentioned the 19 days on my missive today but decided to refrain unti lit was down to two weeks...this bad weather must be getting to us!

Cheers

D

Greenie said...

Warren ,
You did better than me , I just got wet , several times , whilst hedgelaying .

Anonymous said...

It is also cold and wet here in Ohio today. And some light snow is forecast for tonight.

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
Well done on the new species of the month. So what is the record in December...
Here it is snowing today again, and it will probably again this night and tomorrow... The worse is the temperature, very very cold in the morning... Very few birds are reported around, so better to stay home for the moment ;-)

Anonymous said...

We all have a bit of optimism in us, Warren. It`s that what keeps us going.