Thursday 17 January 2013

After a hard frost the day turned out to be wall to wall sunshine, and by the time I got out this afternoon the warmth of the sun was quite noticeable, even though the temperature was only 3 degrees above freezing  :-)

Of course, all that frost would mean the lakes would be frozen over still, so I decided to head off around the Greenhouse Grounds and Migrant Alley, hoping for a fly over Skylark or Grey heron for the year list. At the Greenhouse Grounds there were about half a dozen SISKIN and a couple of LESSER REDPOLL in the Alders, below them in the bramble was a GOLDCREST, plus the regular WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, BLACKBIRD and SONGTHRUSH. The KESTREL pair were both sat on the Greenhouses, and I'm sure they attempted to mate  :-)

A scan across the fields and paddocks of Migrant Alley had me finding the usual 50-60 ROOKS, a few JACKDAWS and at least 100 WOODPIGEON, but with them were 60-80 FIELDFARE and a few REDWING, better still a couple of LAPWING were also seen. I moved on to the Greenhouse Copse, and found the LITTLE OWL at roost, but not much else.
Little Owl
I returned to my seat at Migrant Alley and sat down to watch the sky, and low and behold a GREY HERON (61) flew across within 5 minutes of me being there  ;-) Unfortunately, I didn't get the Skylark though. Another 9 LAPWING flew over, plus a few single SISKIN and Lesser Redpoll, but the sky was cold and clear for the rest of my 30 minute watch.

The Grey heron takes the year list on to 61, which isn't too bad considering the recent poor weather and failed patch visits, 61 species is the 6th best January out of twelve, and still two weeks to go, the mean average total species found for the last 5 January's is 65, so i should at least reach that  :-)

Bonus photo's today - more of the Green woodpecker  :-)
Green Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker

10 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Wall to wall sunshine??!! Wall to wall gloom here :-( I thought you would though after seeing the weather map last night with your area showing sun.

Lovely photos of the GW, it must be great to study it at such close quarters :-)

Warren Baker said...

Hi Songbird,
Poor old Woodpecker! He's eaten the last of my apples, and it's meant to snow tomorrow :-(

Lets hope my tesco delivery arrives on time :-)

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Tesco's - you ordered any burgers?
I went McD's and got one, girl says you want anything on that - yes says I a fiver each way ;-)

Cheers

DaveyMan

ShySongbird said...

It's already snowing here this evening Warren, started about an hour ago. I got some more Tesco apples for the birds yesterday ;-)

Kelly said...

...sweet photo of the Little Owl looking at you through the branches. Wonderful detail on the woodpecker.

Millhouse Photography said...

I'd love that GWP Warren! What a bird. lovely peeping owl too.

Warren Baker said...

Daveyman,
That cracked me up :-) :-)

Rohrerbot said...

Wonderful Warren:) And I like the peekaboo shot:) Woodpecker is perfect!

Anonymous said...

+3 degrees...positively tropical compared to us up here Warren.

Jason K said...

Love the light on the Green Woodpecker photos Warren...positively warm...unlike this weather!