Friday 26 November 2010

A stroll over to the lakes this afternoon, in very pleasant sunny, but chilly conditions, revealed that the water had a thin layer of ice across it, and not a thing was seen. The MOORHENS had moved to the nearby garden, and were picking up spilt food from the feeders, while the feeders themselves seemed very busy with CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, COAL TIT and NUTHATCH all whizzing around. A group of Alder trees had at least 12 SISKIN feeding in it, and across from them, in a tall silver birch, at least 5 LESSER REDPOLL were seen - much better than yesterday.

I didn't stay long, as the sun was already diving westwards, I went over to the Maize stubbles in the pub field, where 9 BLACK HEADED GULLS were feeding, and the only FIELDFARE of the afternoon was seen, which posed briefly for a Photo, the only other notable bird here was a flyover KESTREL.

The briefest of visits to the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley and its boundary hedgerow with the Greenhouse complex, was of interest, 2 MEADOW PIPITS, and a SKYLARK rose from the pasture, and the hedgerow not only had the usual DUNNOCK, WREN, ROBIN, and BLACKBIRD, but also a SONGTHRUSH, a REDWING and the overwintering CHIFFCHAFF, which gave me good views, and looked to be in very good health despite the frosty weather :-)

The light was good enough for a few photographs today. Below is one of the Black Headed Gulls
Below is the only Fieldfare of the afternoon

Below is a view into the sun, whilst standing in the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley. The sun lit up all the strands of spider webs, showing that there must be plenty of spidery food there.




7 comments:

Wilma said...

What a picture that last one is!

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Truly amazing those webs are, considering the temperatures recently too.
Something for the weekend sir?...

Cheers

Davo

ShySongbird said...

I'm glad the birds weren't hiding from you today Warren. Lovely photo of the Fieldfare.

The water in the birdbath was frozen solid here but at least we did have a bit of sunshine. Hope you get something new for the list tomorrow.

Kingsdowner said...

"Not a thing was seen" - sets me up nicely for the weekend, that does.

Jann said...

Nice photos Warren..I haven't been out w/ the camera for over a week and am going into withdrawl! ;o)We've got full winter here, UGG. Snow and cold, but today the sun's out which is nice.

Anonymous said...

Great photos, Warren. I`m struggling to get any species of bird onto the camera :-(

Phil said...

Nice to get a decent Fieldfare pic Warren. Not seeing many at New Hythe at the moment.