Thursday 19 December 2013

Another short patch visit this morning was undertaken in some very mild conditions, helped by a bit of warm sunshine it felt like a fine April day!

The lakes had been heavily disturbed by the time I arrived there at 10:00hrs, the fine weather bringing out the groundsman and gardeners of the surrounding large gardens, all with there noisy machinery. Just 8 MALLARDS, 8 MOORHEN, 2 CANADA GEESE a GREY HERON and the KINGFISHER were divided up among the 3 water bodies.

Whilst looking around the Scrubby Woods I was surprised how springlike it sounded (once the garden machinery, barking dogs and low flying light aircraft were filtered out!!) Song was heard from MISTLETHRUSH, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, GOLDCREST, and COAL TIT,  while GREAT TIT, WOODPIGEON, and NUTHATCH gave calls more associated with late March rather mid December. BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, JAY,, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BLUE TIT, GREAT SPOTTED, and GREEN WOODPECKERS were all calling, all very pleasant in the sunshine  :-)

Making my way over to the Greenhouse Grounds I heard then saw 3 MEADOW PIPITS fly from the Ashes lane Field, where the old shack once again hosted the LITTLE OWL - try and find it in the image below  :-)
Spot the Little Owl at 30m or so ( see end of post for a clue!)
At the Greenhouse Grounds I again encountered the SISKIN flock in the Alders, also a passing LONG TAILED TIT flock filtered past, a SKYLARK flew over calling, and as i left for home 3 more Canada Geese flew over with the feral BARNACL GOOSE in tow  :-)

A few images of the Siskins that took yesterday  :-)
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Siskin, Male
One more short visit tomorrow, as the decorators are still occupying some of my day, then weather permitting i'll get a couple of weekend full patch walks in  :-)

Oh! The Little Owl can be found just above the roof line, about a quarter of the way in from the left, sitting in the trees behind, but of course you saw it anyway!

7 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Lovely roof shot Warren and lovely colours on those Siskins.

Warren Baker said...

I'm fond of a roof or two marc :-)

Lancs and Lakes Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Super siskins!

Cheers

DaveyMan
PS - course I spotted the little fella :-)

Pete Woodruff said...

Love the Siskin Warren.I'm waiting to see one arrive in our garden before the winter is over but no guarantee on that one.

Wilma said...

had to use my binoculars to spot the owl, not really. :-)

Fleetwood Bird Observatory said...

I wish it was April Warren! Cracking Siskin shots!

jade said...

all with there noisy machinery. Just 8 MALLARDS, 8 MOORHEN, 2 CANADA GEESE a GREY HERON and the KINGFISHER were divided up among the 3 water bodies. visit this site