Soup and a Sandwich, 28th October 2008

I had a day off today and went walking with her indoors. We did a walk around the Silverdale area, and nice though it was it wasn't exactly hard core birding! The bland title refers to the lunch we had at Leighton Moss and that was about as exciting as it got all day. Whilst having lunch with my Zeiss 10x40 Victory's and notebook at my side, I took a look at the other clientele in the tea room to try and see whether they were all birders or not and or not was the case to be! The tea room was full and other than myself I don't think there were any more than 4 or 5 birders in there; shocking!

I suppose to say that lunch was about as exciting as it got is a bit unfair because at this time of year the woodland around this area does look good with the leaves changing colour.


Walking through the woodland we did have a good number of woodland birds. Jays were fairly numerous giving their raucous vocalisations and this contrasted with the soft plaintive whistles of Bullfinch. The Bullfinch were particularly abundant in the coastal scrub around Heald Brow. Other 'callers' in the woodland included Coal Tits, Long-tailed Tits and Nuthatch.

The coastal scrub at Heald Brow was full of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes feeding on Hawthorn and Holly berries, and no doubt included some continental birds. But of course you know what it's like when you are walking, you don't stop long enough to check everything out. So all in all a pleasant walk, but it wasn't birding!

On our way home we called in at Moss House Farm to feed the Tree Sparrows. I counted 114, which is a slight increase on recent days. My mate Phil had been here earlier and he had Short-eared Owl which is a first for the site! A Yellowhammer was in the hedge next to the feeding station and 15 Whooper Swans flew low over my head honking away. And where was my camera? In the car!