Hopeless!! Thats what this afternoon was! A gale was blowing, and some hefty, but short lived showers sped by, not good for birding or much else really. I decided not to waste the afternoon, and took a new nest box over to the Greenhouse Grounds, putting it onto a tree trunk, where a Blue Tit family will no doubt get raised this spring :-)
I was all the while looking and listening for a Fieldfare, but it was pretty pointless in the conditions, I cant believe i've not recorded one this year yet! Once the box was up, I thought a quick visit to the lakes would be a good idea, this proved to be not the case though, bits of branches and twigs were coming down everywhere, and the wind through the trees sounded like an express train, it was a bit hair raising ( if I had any!) I got to the lakes to see two CORMORANTS leave, these lakes can normally be described as 'still as a mill pond' however today you could have sailed a dingy out there :-) Nothing else was seen on the water, apart from the MALLARDS, which I counted at 16, and as I did so, a troop of around 8 LONG TAILED TITS and a lone GOLDCREST filtered through the vegetation around me.
I soon left for home again, not noting anything much except BLACK HEADED GULLS flashing past on the wind. It's not quite the start to the year I had hoped for!
6 comments:
No Fieldfares still, I am getting the odd flock of 5 or 6 and did have about 20 on the 2nd, I think I'm being spoilt!! Like you say it is tough in this wind just at the minute.
Looks like the windy conditions will die away for the weekend Alan, might even get a bit of sun :-)
I remember one day walking in a gale up a valley in the Lakes, one of the most scary experiences ever, if the wind had been coloured I would have seen it comes over the mountain tops and rocketing down the valley towards me like an express train then dying down until the next mega gust....frightening.
You never fail with an account of your birds though Warren.
This weather is doing me in as well, totally soaked cycling to work, dark at the end of the day and no time for birding, roll on the warm summer nights or atleast some sun, maybe the weekend.
Bummer. Windy conditions seem to keep the birds away for me as well....especially the cold wind. Better luck tomorrow.
Certainly was a wild day, Warren. We had a shocking morning, up here.
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