Monday 30 January 2012

I had a relaxing couple of hours out on my patch this afternoon, it was a bit cooler than of late, and the sunless sky made it feel colder. I made my daily visit over to the lakes, but today I took a slightly longer route, along Ashes Lane in order to check out a field that has been sewn with a wildbird crop. Recent visits here on my full patch walks haven't turned up much out of the ordinary, but today there was a real change, as I scanned the crop, at least 30-40 YELLOWHAMMER flew up and scattered into the surrounding cover, one or two stayed in a nearby hedgerow, and looking down that hedgerow I spied my first two REED BUNTING (62) of the year. I was looking from quite a way off so there could have been more hiding up, I will have to investigate further tomorrow. When this field was last sewn, two years ago, a flock of 60+ Yellowhammer and 40+ Reed Bunting were recorded over the winter, to see one Reed Bunting on my patch is normally a rare occurrence, just goes to show how positive a bit of wildlife friendly management of the land can be  :-)

Anyway, the rest of the walk was not quite so exciting, the Small Holding had the local CHAFFINCH and GREENFINCH population in it, along with at least 3 GREEN WOODPECKERS, as well as an unseen but heard TREECREEPER.The lakes were not as productive as recent visits, just two MALLARDS, and singles of COOT and MOORHEN, the latter were heard but not seen :-) The surrounding Scrubby Woods were mostly silent, but a pair of BULLFINCH showed briefly.

Some effort was made to look around the Tree Nursery and view the Pub Field, however, in the growing colder conditions, little was to be found apart from a few BLACK HEADED GULLS, plus the odd WREN, DUNNOCK, BLACKBIRD and Tit species. The only bird of note seen over at the Greenhouse Grounds shortly after, was the local KESTREL, with a HERRING GULL and Yellowhammer flying over. A good start petered out a bit today, but it was some good exercise for me at least  :-)

7 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Well done with the Reed Buntings, Warren.

There are a couple of places here where the farmers manage their land sympathetically and it does make such a difference to wildlife. Both places are good for Yellowhammers whereas a place that a few years ago used to hold many doesn't have any now due I'm sure to the way the land is managed.

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

One day left Warren and hopefully another newy for the January list

Cheers

Davo

Warren Baker said...

Hi Songbird,
There are still a few farm managers that make the effort out there, sadly too few though.

Davo,
I'm all out for an Owl!! Nothing so far from the upstairs window, bloody cold though :-)

Bob Bushell said...

No pictures today, you're right. Damnweather!! I would like to catch a Yelloehammer, but I don't think I will.

Marc Heath said...

A nice year tick for you. you should get the coat and gloves on and on a still night go out listening for Owls. Maybe that Long eared Owl will call for you.

Anonymous said...

Well done with the Reed Bunts, Warren. With any luck you`ll get them on your Feb list as well.

Alan Pavey said...

I was going to say still chance for maybe one more surprise this month, good to get the Reed Buntings on the list.